ASX-listed explorer Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has completed a significant reverse circulation (RC) drilling program at its Lighthorse prospect, part of the company’s Pinjin gold project located 140 kilometres north-east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia.
The news comes as the gold price continues to trade higher at A$6300 per ounce, supporting exploration activity in proven gold belts such as the Laverton tectonic zone, home to the company's Pinjin play.
The recently completed program comprised 19 holes for a total of 3194 metres, with an average hole depth of 168m. Management says geological observations from the drilling have been encouraging, with alteration, veining and sulphide mineralisation consistent with gold mineralisation seen in many of the drill holes.
All samples have now been delivered to the laboratory for analysis, with assay results expected over the coming weeks.
KalGold managing director and chief executive officer Dr Matt Painter said: "Since discovery, KalGold has completed several drill programs at Lighthorse to define the extent of gold mineralisation. Geological observations from this latest program are again encouraging."
The latest drilling blitz was designed to achieve several objectives. It included tighter-spaced infill and extensional drilling across key parts of the Lighthorse prospect, with the aim of shoring up the existing mineralisation model. The campaign also involved initial, widely spaced RC testing further north to assess the strike potential of a geophysical anomaly.
Lighthorse sits within a significant mineralised system. Near-surface gold anomalism, previously defined by aircore drilling, extends over a continuous strike of 1450m, with lower-level anomalism continuing for another 500m to the north. The program followed up on 2025 drilling that delivered a headline-grabbing drill hit of 17m assaying 4.81 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 48m depth, including a stellar 8m going 9.21g/t gold from 52m depth. Notably, that hole ended in mineralisation, suggesting additional potential lurking below.
When combined with historical drilling, Lighthorse forms part of a 6km-long corridor of gold mineralisation and anomalism that runs from the company's T12 prospect in the north to the T15 prospect in the south.
The Pinjin project lies in the southern part of the Laverton Tectonic Zone, a 250-kilometre-long major geological structure that hosts some of the Eastern Goldfields’ biggest gold mines. This geological superhighway has delivered more than 30 million ounces of gold throughout its exploration and development history. Pinjin is also just 25km north along strike from Ramelius Resources’ 1.4 million-ounce Rebecca gold project, where a recent pre-feasibility study has outlined a path to gold production by 2027.
KalGold has already defined a total gold resource of 214,000 ounces across its portfolio, built at an impressively low discovery cost of less than A$4.60 per ounce. This includes a 76,400-ounce inventory at its Kirgella Gift and Providence deposits at Pinjin and a 138,000-ounce resource at its La Mascotte deposit, part of the company's Bulong Taurus project 35km east of Kalgoorlie.
While the rods have stopped spinning at Lighthorse for now, KalGold is not sitting still. The company is planning further aircore drilling for late September or early October, with the final design to be guided by results from its recently completed 7212m, 225-hole flexure drilling program, 3.5km southeast of Kirgella Gift.
With encouraging visual cues from its latest drilling, a pipeline of follow-up work planned and a swag of assays due back from the lab, KalGold has set the scene for a busy period of newsflow. In a gold-rich neighbourhood and with the precious metal’s price holding strong, those lab results could prove to be very interesting indeed.
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By Murray Ward
