Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has struck up to 9 metres grading 3.52 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold from 58m in fresh rock at its Lighthorse project near Pinjin, 140 kilometres northeast of Kalgoorlie.
The company says the first-pass reverse circulation drilling program appears to have cracked the code by confirming high-grade primary mineralisation exists below a shallow supergene blanket that was discovered two months ago.
A total of 16 reverse circulation drill holes were punched out for 2446m down to an average depth of 153m at Lighthorse across three sections on a 100m by 80m grid. The samples were only tested for gold to fast-track the exploration program.
Standout intercepts included 9m at 3.52g/t gold from 58m with a sizzling 2m going 13.65g/t and a 3m hit running at 5.52g/t gold from 133m, including 2m at 7.92g/t. Another section stretched up to 5m at 2.64g/t gold from 147m.
Notably, management says the latest hits appear to be surrounded by much broader gold halos with zones such as 32m at 1.14g/t gold and 12m at 1.29g/t gold, hinting at a significantly mineralised hydrothermal system.
Lighthorse is a shear hosted deposit that runs along a northwest to southeast trending strike. It dips steeply to the west and remains open in all directions including at depth, with the deepest mineralisation being intersected at 190m.
Kalgoorlie Gold Mining managing director Matthew Painter said: “First-pass RC drilling was designed to confirm whether primary gold mineralisation at Lighthorse extends to depth, which it has done resoundingly. We now move to the next phase of drilling to resolve the extent and orientation of gold mineralisation.”
Having established the supergene zone is not a blow-in from elsewhere, KalGold has pulled the trigger on a new air core drilling program - its largest campaign to date – to test whether its Lighthorse prospect is part of something bigger.
High-resolution geophysics are also being run across the ground.
Straight after Easter, the company will sink the bit into its 2.4km Lighthorse corridor, which is untouched to the north and barely scratched to the south. It is also home to Newmont Mining’s historic T15 prospect, which is looming as a high priority target.
While the latest campaign may have tightened the drill grid at Lighthorse, the spacing still leaves plenty of room for discovery.
KalGold is also teeing up a further reverse circulation drill program to chase the direction of the gold-bearing structure and sniff out any potential extensions. The prospect’s southern end is looking especially juicy, with deep hits and strong gold anomalies lighting up the ground.
The company made the remarkable discovery at Lighthorse in February after an air core program hit an 8m section grading 9.21g/t gold from 52m within a broader 17m zone of 4.81g/t gold from 48m that ended in mineralisation.
The prospect is just 25km north of Ramelius Resources’ one-million-ounce Rebecca gold project, which is being developed with first production due in 2027.
Little work has previously been done in the area, which sits at the southerly end of WA’s fabled 40M-ounce Laverton Tectonic Zone.
As there is a distinct lack of outcropping, the region has been largely overlooked, even as recently as 20 years ago, and was hardly touched by the old timers before the end of the 19th century gold rush.
Since less exploration has been conducted on the grounds, KalGold has been gifted with plenty of potential targets - 15 at last count – which it can follow up with the aid of modern technology.
KalGold’s discovery of primary gold at depth has unlocked a new phase of exploration at Lighthorse, with fresh drilling programs poised to chase the mineralisation along its 2.4km corridor. With assays stacking up and targets multiplying, the hunt for a maiden resource is well and truly on.
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By James Pearson
