ASX-listed gold explorer, Kairos Minerals, is firing on several fronts at its Pilbara gold project in WA, with recent field exploration at the emerging Croydon project near Port Hedland delineating a 4km long gold-in-soil anomaly over units of the prospective Hardey Formation rock sequence.
The gold anomaly is between 150m and 200m wide and incorporates a higher-grade, 1.1km long “core” with results over 100 parts per billion, or “ppb”, gold and peaking at 648 ppm gold – or 0.64 grams per tonne.
According to the company, the tenor, scale and coherent nature of the anomaly represent an important new exploration target, given there is typically only minimal dispersion of gold associated with defined soil anomalies in the Pilbara region.
Importantly, the anomaly may represent a conventional, new subsurface bedrock gold target at Croydon, in addition to the well-defined, conglomerate-hosted gold potential of the district.
Kairos has also unearthed high-grade gold and copper mineralisation from geological mapping and rock chip sampling of outcropping basement rocks located just to the southwest of the recently defined golden soil anomaly.
The assay results peaked at 4.27g/t gold and 16.8% copper in a single sample and the mineralisation was discovered adjacent to an existing nugget patch at Croydon.
Three lines of soil sampling were then completed across the mineralised geological units and contacts, returning results up to 1.03g/t gold.
The rock chip samples and gold anomalism will now be investigated further with detailed field exploration programs currently underway.
Recent mapping and metal detecting in the central part of the Croydon project uncovered significant additional gold in the company’s “Nugget Patch #7”, which has now generated 416 nuggets weighing more than a kilogram, for a recovered 33.1 ounces, including its silver content.
The nuggets were sourced from the basal section of a conglomerate horizon within sedimentary rocks near the geological contact with granite and are the first examples of intact gold nuggets identified by Kairos at Croydon.
Further mapping, supported by detailed drone photography, is being conducted to define the full extent and shape of the conglomerate unit, which already stretches over several kilometres with numerous associated nugget patches identified nearby.
Management believes these nugget discoveries are analogous to the basal gold-bearing conglomerate horizons discovered by Canadian explorer Novo Resources at the Purdy’s Reward project more than 100km to the west-northwest.
Kairos Executive Chairman Terry Topping said: “Our systematic approach to exploration at the Croydon project is continuing to pay dividends, with recent exploration programs resulting in a number of significant developments which have substantially enhanced the prospectivity …”
“Firstly, a systematic program of soil sampling immediately to the north of one of the nugget patches … has resulted in the definition of a large, coherent and high-tenor gold-in-soil anomaly (which) extends for over 4km and is up to 150m wide, with a central core that extends over 1km ...”
“We have also continued to recover significant quantities of gold nuggets at a new area located some 2km south of some of the original nugget patches (that) together with some outstanding high-grade results from rock chip sampling, highlights the significant gold endowment of the area.”
“We already have approvals in place to undertake stratigraphic drilling within a portion of the (new gold) anomaly as part of our EIS co-funded exploration program this year, and we will progress these approvals to explore the rest of the anomaly over the coming weeks.”
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