Kairos Minerals has vowed to expand its lithium, gold and base metal targets after confirming a “compelling” 2.8km-long lithium anomaly and a nearby 2.3km gold anomaly at its Roe Hills project, 100km east of Kalgoorlie.
The company is now planning an immediate RC drilling program to test its newly-found anomalies at its Black Cat prospect, which it sees as a high-priority target for spodumene lithium-bearing pegmatites near the Cardunia Syenogranite. It believes the project presents in a similar manner to Global Lithium’s nearby Manna deposit containing 32.7 million tonnes at 1.0 per cent lithium oxide.
Kairos’ Roe Hills project covers 354 square kilometres of the Yilgarn Craton in an emerging lithium province shown to host spodumene-bearing pegmatites, as well as more traditional greenstone-hosted gold and nickel mineralisation. The company’s tenements lie between Breaker Resources’ 1.7-million-ounce Bombora gold deposit 20km to the north and Silver Lake Resources’ half-million-ounce Aldiss project to the south, all within the same north-south trending greenstone belt.
Results from 1241 additional samples from Kairos’ deep-soil sampling program at Roe Hills north confirm the presence of multiple lithium and pathfinder element anomalies. All samples were collected from about 1m depth using a motorised post hole auger.
At Black Cat, management reported a 2.8km long coherent and coincident lithium-caesium-bismuth-beryllium-rubidium-tin anomaly near the Cardunia Syenogranite. The Cardunia Syenogranite has multiple spodumene-bearing pegmatite occurrences around it, including the large Manna deposit, and it is interpreted to be the main source for the district’s spodumene-bearing pegmatites.
The Black Cat lithium anomaly extends more than 2.3km in a north-east orientation analogous to the Manna deposit and similar to mapped pegmatite occurrences located 2km off-lease to the north-east at Alchemy Resources’ Pecan prospect. Kairos believes the lithium anomaly is related to an underlying geological feature interpreted to be a lithium-bearing pegmatite.
Management says soil sampling has also revealed an adjacent coherent gold anomaly stretching 2.3km and with values of up to 187 parts per billion gold. The anomaly was defined initially by previous soil sampling and was partially tested by RC drilling in 2021. Results include 16m at 0.48 grams per tonne gold from 46m including 4m grading 1.63g/t from 48m.
The company believes transported cover has masked the geochemical anomaly in the central portion of an otherwise mostly-continuous gold anomaly.
Kairos managing director Dr Peter Turner said: “These outstanding results show that Black Cat is an extremely large and highly compelling lithium anomaly. Roe Hills continues to be an area of significant merger and acquisition activity after Global Lithium’s acquisition of the Manna lithium-tantalum deposit and the takeover offer for Breaker Resources by Ramelius Resources for the Bombora Gold Project 20km north of Black Cat. We continue our strategy to look for additional lithium, gold and base metal targets over the Roe Hills tenement package by extending the deep soil geochemical surveys to the south with immediate effect.”
Kairos has now taken 1813 infill deep-soil samples from the Roe Hills North area and an additional 1400 samples are planned to be collected this month from the southerly portions of the Roe Hills tenements. The program is designed to target lithium around several granitic intrusions as well as the greenstone-hosted gold and base metal occurrences for which the Roe Hills area is renowned.
Planning is underway for an initial 3000m RC drilling program covering the Black Cat and Crystal Palace lithium prospects, while the gold anomaly will be targeted with a 1500m RC drilling program. The drilling is subject to heritage clearance.
Kairos is completing aeromagnetic interpretation and geological modelling of the Roe Hills project area and a mineralisation review of all known gold, copper, zinc, nickel and cobalt occurrences. With the careful delineation of the lithium and gold in soil anomalies, Kairos is primed to confirm its mineralisation through the planned RC drilling.
Things could get interesting pretty quickly once the drills start churning and assays are received.
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By Terry Bates
