Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has picked up a key tenement that joins its northwestern landholdings at its Pinjin gold project near Kalgoorlie with its southeastern tenements, creating one contiguous holding. It will pay fellow ASX-listed company Solstice Minerals 2.8 million of its shares, with a deemed value of $70,000 for the tenement and Solstice will also pick up a 1 per cent royalty.
The new tenement, that sits directly between two of KalGold’s existing landholdings, is the missing link in the company’s quest to unearth a substantive gold deposit about 140km northeast of Kalgoorlie.
The move links its southeastern grounds - containing the Wessex, Kirgella Gift and Providence prospects - to the company’s Jungle Dam lease to the northwest.
The new tenement, spanning 70 square kilometres, also includes highly prospective ground immediately to the west of Hawthorn Resources’ 200,000-ounce Anglo Saxon gold mine.
Management says the acquisition offers an exciting opportunity to explore ground which WA mines department data indicates has been poorly explored with only minor air core (AC) and RAB drilling recorded in the past.
The western part of the lease is mainly covered by transported material and small outcropping rocks and appears to contain a contact environment between the margins of a monzogranite and a greenstone sequence, typically a strong setting for mineralisation.
Adding to the exploration appeal of the lease, the tenement also lies across parts of the Laverton and Celia Tectonic Zones, which are big gold-bearing structures hosting mines such as Ashanti Anglo Gold’s huge Sunrise Dam and Gold Fields Ltd’s Granny Smith and Wallaby projects.
KalGold says it is keen to explore newer scientific geological findings that have linked early-stage gold deposits to granite “uplift” – where granitic rocks, originally formed deep underground, are pushed to the surface as the volcanic mountains above them wear away.
Similar mineralisation has been documented at the Gwalia, Tower Hill and Harbour Lights deposits at Leonora and the Waroonga deposit at Agnew.
Kalgoorlie Gold Mining managing director Matt Painter said: “The acquisition of E 31/1262 further illustrates KalGold’s commitment to gold discovery at Pinjin. The tenement is immediately adjacent to Hawthorn Resources’ Anglo Saxon mining leases and covers a broad area of sheared stratigraphy that has seen very little historic exploration focus. KalGold’s initial high-level assessment has highlighted several prospective gold targets under cover that will, following additional in-depth analysis, be systematically followed up.“
The company recently wrapped up its fourth AC drilling program at Pinjin, focusing on the Kirgella East area, 1.2km east of the Kirgella Gift and Providence deposits at the southern ends of its tenements.
A total of 60 holes for 1966 metres in a 380m by 80m grid pattern have been drilled in an effort to expand the existing combined Providence/Kirgella Gift resource of 2.34 million tonnes grading 1 gram per tonne (g/t) for 76,400 ounces of gold.
Five additional holes were also plunged into Kirgella West, 1.2km to the west of Providence and Kirgella Gift, to follow up on previous drilling and to help pinpoint future targets.
Assays from the program are expected early next year.
Taking the new ground into account, the Pinjin project now spans 360 square kilometres across 16 tenements.
KalGold owns nine of those tenements outright while the remaining seven, covering just 39 square kilometres are subject to a 2023 farm-in agreement with local prospectors.
Under the agreement, the company can acquire 75 per cent of the shared tenements in exchange for exploration expenditure of $1.4 million within two years and a final option payment of $1.65m.
The company’s broader portfolio includes the Bulong Taurus gold project 35km east of Kalgoorlie, which hosts a 3.63mt outcropping deposit known as La Mascotte grading 1.19g/t for 138,000 ounces of gold and containing a high-grade component of 1.35mt grading 1.92g/t for 83,000 ounces.
Now the company has contiguous leases covering a massive 360 square kilometres of the Laverton Tectonic Zone - itself the host to more than 30m discovered gold ounces - KalGold appears well positioned for resource growth by uncovering additional shallow, open-pittable gold deposits on its new grounds.
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By James Pearson
