King River bumps up cash balance for NT copper-gold push

King River Resources has pocketed a timely research-and-development (R&D) tax rebate of more than $361,000 as it ramps up spending on a 10,800m reverse-circulation (RC) drill program at its prospective Tennant Creek East copper-gold project in the Northern Territory.

The program, which is set to kick off this week, was delayed for several months due to flooding rains, but has been designed to test 13 prospects within three of the company’s Top End projects.

Management says the R&D rebate will replenish its working capital funds, as it will use its existing strong financial position of $4 million in the bank to fully fund the drill program. It says it may spend up to $2 million and drill 13,500m if results warrant an expansion to the program.

King River says the refund was the result of expenditure incurred on its research into processing methods and geochemical techniques deemed deductible under the Research and Development Scheme.

The company’s cash holdings now sit at an impressive $4.298 million, leaving it in an enviable position for a junior mining company, even after it funds the expansive drill program that is expected to run for four months.

King River Resources chairman Tony Barton said: “Our Tennant Creek program is a process of targeting interesting anomalies along strike, or close nearby, previously mined or identified high-grade gold and copper mineralisation. This is a classic wildcat type of drill program over this highly-prospective area, where the more holes we drill, the higher the chances must be to hit something of importance.”

The company plans to drill at three projects – Tennant Creek East, Kurundi and Rover East. Tennant Creek East’s top three priority prospects – Langrenus, Commitment and Providence – are all in proximity to several “eye-popping” copper-gold drill intersections recorded in recent years in the highly-regarded Tennant Creek region.

King River says the program will kick off at its Langrenus prospect, with seven holes planned for 2000m. It will be followed by the Commitment prospect with four holes for 850m and then Providence’s four holes for 500m.

The program has been designed to follow up on drilling at the Tennant Creek East project last year, where the company found low-grade gold mineralisation associated with several geophysical anomalies.

Management says many targets were generated from its extensive geophysics program last year, including at its Tennant Creek East, Rover East, Kurundi and Barkly projects. The targets sit along strike from several geophysical and geological trends.

Known high-grade copper-gold deposits in the region include Rover, Bluebird and Mauretania.

After the company’s drill program at the three prospects within Tennant Creek East is complete, it plans to drill about 2450m at the Kurundi project. It has also planned further drilling at Tennant Creek East, with 400m at its Kuiper 1 target and 1200m at Kuiper 2 and that is expected to be followed by 3400m worth of drilling at its three Rover East prospects.

King River is well-funded after this latest boost to its coffers and is in the enviable position of being able to fund further drilling from its own resources once it has completed and assessed the results from the program that begins this week.

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