Kalgoorlie Gold Mining (KalGold) has wrapped up a deal to secure a valuable 22km-long swathe of the prospective Laverton tectonic zone (LTZ).
The company has entered into a farm-in agreement to acquire a 75 per cent interest in a 49-square-kilometre tenure parcel at Kirgell and Pinjin South, midway between Hawthorn Resources’ Anglo Saxon gold mine and Ramelius Resources’ 1.1-million-ounce Rebecca gold project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields.
The LTZ houses a stellar cast of world-class gold deposits, including Gold Fields’ 8.3-million-ounce Granny Smith gold mine and Anglogold Ashanti’s 3.6-million-ounce Sunrise Dam. It has been estimated the entire zone contains a whopping 30 million ounces of the precious yellow metal.
Importantly, KalGold’s new ground and its granted tenure cover a distinct flexure in the LTZ which controls and hosts mineralisation at Sunrise Dam.
Under the agreement, KalGold can secure its 75 per cent portion by spending at least $1.4 million in drilling and related activities in the first two years. After a year, the company then has the option to mop up the entire deal for $1.65 million, with 50 per cent paid in cash and handing over the remaining 50 per cent in shares.
Not wasting any time, KalGold has pulled the rods on a three-hole reverse-circulation (RC) program at its Kirgella Gift prospect, chasing up historical intercepts of 33m running at 3.1 grams per tonne gold from 51m, which included 12m averaging 4.66 g/t, 2m grading 7.01 g/t and another 1m coming in at 14.25 g/t. Management says shallow high-grade gold mineralisation at Kirgella remains open along strike.
The company appears to have hit early paydirt, stumping up visible gold in its second hole at 50m. With encouraging early signs, KalGold has fast-tracked the samples to a laboratory in Kalgoorlie for gold-only analysis, with results expected in the coming weeks. Multi-element analysis will also be undertaken to characterise the mineralisation, highlight mineralisation vectors and help with rock identification.
Kalgoorlie Gold Mining managing director Matthew Painter says: “We are extremely excited by this acquisition which could ultimately be a company-maker for KalGold. The potential of this new tenement package, in particular the Kirgella Gift prospect where historic drilling has been very promising, cannot be overstated. It offers an opportunity for a significant discovery in one of the most prolific mineralised structures in the entire Eastern Goldfields.”
With the terms of its farm-in agreement firmly squared away, KalGold is putting the finishing touches to a systematic drill-out of the Kirgella Gift and nearby Providence prospects, 700m to the south where limited drilling has pulled up a 10m run averaging 2.11 g/t gold from 71m.
Concurrently, the company says it has identified several high-priority targets throughout its new tenure area from a recently-completed reinterpretation of publicly-available geophysical datasets that have been reprocessed. It is now looking to refine and rank its targets in the lead-up to further drilling.
Topping off the transaction, KalGold has purchased a further two tenements in a separate transaction for $100,000 to the west of Ramelius’ Rebecca gold project.
The company’s combined Pinjin project now spans more than 60km of the LTZ, from the southern end of the Edjudina goldfield through to the west of the Rebecca project. Interestingly, in the relatively under-explored southern regions of the LTZ, sits two of the biggest and most recent gold discoveries, – Rebecca and Breaker Resources’ Lake Roe gold project.
With a sinuous stream of smoke wafting from the Pinjin project, time will tell if KalGold can spark a fire.
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By Helen Barling
