Kairos Minerals’ exploration program in the Pilbara looks to be delivering in spades with recent sampling across the Kangan project defining two extensive gold anomalies a mere 20km south of De Grey’s headline-grabbing Hemi gold discovery. The soil sampling at Kangan forms part of the company’s larger exploration program in the region which includes a bevy of surface sampling, drilling and geophysical surveys.
Kairos’ Pilbara gold projects cover more than 1,300 square kilometres of the sizzling exploration address, with its key tenure extending over a massive 200km of strike just 70km south of Port Headland in Western Australia.
The company’s project areas extend from Lalla Rookh in the north-east through to Skywell in the south-west. Kairos’ primary focus in the coming months will be the Kangan and Croydon projects with work also continuing over the 697,700-ounce Mt York gold deposit.
The Kangan project is located pretty much adjacent to De Grey’s tenure at Hemi. Kairos’ first-pass work program has been directed at the identification of potential Hemi look-alike targets and included an evaluation of the available geophysical data over the project area. This interpretation hints at underlying geology including potential mineralised structures and the presence of Hemi-style intrusive bodies according to the company.
A comprehensive sampling program, utilising the CSIRO-developed Ultrafine+ soil sampling technology, has confirmed two extensive gold anomalies at Kangan - two smaller additional targets were also highlighted by the survey.
Kairos Minerals Executive Chairman, Terry Topping said:
Results have been received from the recent Ultrafine soil geochemistry program at Kangan and together with newly interpreted aeromagnetic data, have generated four gold targets.”
“The largest of these is a coincident geochemical and geophysical feature that sits on the margin of an intrusion in a geologically favourable position just 20km from De Grey Mining’s exciting Hemi discovery. We plan to commence heritage surveys with a view to testing these new targets as soon as possible, clearing the way for initial aircore drilling in October/November this year.”
The largest of these anomalies is Target One, which is located in the north of the tenement area and comprises a 3km long gold-in-soil anomaly. The anomaly is interpreted by the company to overlie a very similar structural environment to the Hemi discovery and near identical architecture to De Grey’s recently discovered Falcon intrusion. Pathfinder elements from the survey, including lead, copper and silver, point to a larger mineralised footprint with the overall Target One trend covering a massive 15km of strike which is over 1km in wide.
Target Three is located in the south of the tenure and comprises a 3.5km long geochemical anomaly with associated sediments along an intrusive contact, whilst Targets Two and Four are smaller gold-in-soil anomalies associated with discrete magnetic features.
Kairos’ has now scheduled a heritage survey over the Kangan tenure to clear the way for 5,000m of follow aircore drilling over the newly defined targets, which is scheduled to kick off in November 2020.
Kairos’ exploration is also continuing outside Kangan, with sub-audio magnetics having been completed over the Fuego, Iron Stirrup and Old Faithful prospects and a further magnetic survey is now underway at the Tierra prospect.
In addition, eight reverse circulation, or ‘RC’ drill holes have been completed over the Fuego target on the Croydon project. The company has now drilled more than 1,400m of RC at that prospect and 365 samples are in the Perth lab now awaiting assay.
Whilst it is only early days at Fuego, Kairos says the logging indicates that drilling has intersected a sulphidic sequence of sediments that includes black shales, sandstones and conglomerates – all rock types known to host gold mineralisation in the Pilbara.
RC drilling is continuing over the Fuego prospect area, with the rig scheduled to finish up there in the coming weeks before moving on to Mt York.
Kairos’ dance card looks to be bursting at the seams following the Kangan discovery, with a bumper exploration program now planned for the months ahead. With ongoing geophysics and drilling at both Croydon and Mt York, the company is now looking to wedge in additional soil sampling at Kangan and follow up with aircore drilling prior to the close of 2020.
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By Matt Birney
