Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has tabled a maiden resource of 2.34 million tonnes running at 1 gram per tonne gold for 76,400 ounces from its Kirgella Gift and Providence deposits at its new flagship Pinjin project, 140km north-east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
The company wrapped up the initial resource at Pinjin in little more than 12 months after securing the 22km of strike along the prospective Laverton Tectonic Zone (LTZ) in May last year.
The newly-defined shallow gold resource begins just 3m below surface and remains open in several directions. It was also established at a low cost to KalGold of about $4.20 per gold ounce.
Management says Kirgella Gift and Providence are comparable to other deposits within the LTZ.
A review of the prospects last year revealed similarities to Ramelius Resources’ 1.4 million-ounce Rebecca project that sits 21km to the south. It suggests that while the gold is lower-grade, it is in enclosed envelopes with shallow high-grade zones and would be amenable to a potential shallow, open pit mining scenario.
Kalgoorlie Gold Mining managing director and chief executive officer Matt Painter said: “KalGold now has defined a total resource base of 214,300 ounces of gold. The increased resource base enables KalGold to commence high-level mining optimisation studies to assess pathways to production.”
Painter says the company is aiming to “significantly grow” its initial JORC resource, in addition to defining a suite of additional shallow resources.
Rather distinctively for the Goldfields region, KalGold’s gold inventory is either outcropping or located within metres of the surface. Many such deposits in the region were among the original and first mines to be established at the turn of the 20th century.
At both Pinjin and its Bulong Taurus project, overall gold grades run slightly higher than 1g/t gold. However, both projects contain zones of higher-grade, near-surface gold mineralisation that could be highly profitable in today’s more than $3640 per ounce price environment.
The company’s Pinjin project also features the recently-drilled Wessex prospect that sits about 10km north on the eastern flanks of the prospective LTZ. The prospect returned thick gold intercepts in initial air-core (AC) drilling, including a notable hit of 28m at 1.27g/t gold from 36m and another 12m intersection going 1.7g/t including 4m running 3.07g/t.
KalGold believes the Wessex results indicate that the target remains open both north and south of the drilling limits and down-dip to the east – towards Hawthorn Resources’ recently-mined Anglo-Saxon deposit.
Follow-up reverse-circulation (RC) drilling will be required to further test the company’s regional theory at Wessex, Kirgella Gift and Providence.
The most significant aspect of the strike continuity at Pinjin is the massive crustal-scale LTZ, a regionally-significant structural corridor that hosts multiple gold camps, including the world-class Granny Smith, Wallaby and Sunrise Dam mines. A raft of mines lie along the LTZ and there is a train of thought that similar prospectivity lies along the adjacent and underexplored Celia Tectonic Zone (CTZ) to the west.
KalGold is likely to look to replicate its LTZ success at the adjacent CTZ within its 35km-long land package that features little gold drilling for a greenstone belt so close to the globally-significant Kalgoorlie-Boulder mining hub.
The company has swiftly wrapped up two shallow gold resources at low costs in an area dominated by gold mines. And its resources could feed a planned mill at a potentially profitable clip due to their shallow open pit mining nature.
That is likely to be KalGold’s immediate plan as it now moves to improve its beliefs through metallurgical and geotechnical studies.
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By Andrew Todd
