Kingwest Resources’ drilling campaign at Menzies in WA has continued to return a stream of spectacular drill intercepts including 1m at 107.00 g/t gold from 88m and an impressive 5m at 13.8 g/t gold that boasts a 2m long, higher-grade section going an ounce to the tonne gold from 122m. The company has now expanded the program over the resurgent goldfield from 10,000m to 14,000m of drilling aimed at rapidly expanding its 319,900-ounce resource.
The company’s Menzies gold project is located 130km north of Kalgoorlie in the revered Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Kingwest management has stitched together a strategic holding across the high-grade historical goldfield having put its foot on more than 15km of strike of this fertile and underexplored greenstone terrane.
Kingwest’s success at Menzies has attracted a wave of gold explorers into the terrane recently with the likes of Emu Ltd, Dampier Gold and Resources and Energy Group launching into their own successful programs across region.
The company’s ground holding predominantly consists of granted mining leases which host a plethora of artisanal mine workings in addition to larger scale abandoned mining operations which date back to the 1980s including the Selkirk, First Hit, Lady Shenton, Lady Harriet and Yunndaga mines. Mine records show the Menzies field has already produced more than 787,000 ounces of gold at a remarkable average grade of 18.9 g/t gold – over 80 per cent of this production was from historical underground mining operations.
Kingwest is targeting both the near surface, potentially open pitable gold mineralisation and high-grade ores below the historical workings in the region. The company’s current drilling program extends across 8km of strike with the 73 reverse circulation drill holes completed at Menzies to-date chalking up more than 6,880m across the field.
Whilst the first phase of drilling that has already been reported was centred around the First Hit and Lady Shenton mines, infill drilling continues to return a bevy of outstanding results.
A total of 24 RC holes have now been drilled into the hanging wall lodes that extend along strike from the Lady Shenton deposit. The Pericles Lodes, to the north of Lady Shenton, already host a near surface resource of 1.4 million tonnes at 1.8 g/t gold, however deeper drilling indicates an increase in the grade of the ores with depth.
Recent drilling at Pericles has returned a number of high-grade intercepts from outside the current resource envelope including the 5m intercept and another 2m hit at 18.07 g/t gold from only 44m below surface. Further results from Pericles include 19m at 1.25 g/t from 129m, 2m at 11.04 g/t gold from 36m and 4m at 5.43 g/t gold from 17m.
Twelve RC holes have now also been completed on the Stirling lodes south of Lady Shenton – these holes have yet to be reported by Kingwest.
A program of infill drilling has also been completed over the Selkirk deposit below the First Hit pit, returning some solid grade, narrow intercepts including 1m at 22.42 g/t gold from 82m and 2m at 10.12 g/t gold from 95m down-hole – importantly, these intercepts sit outside the current Selkirk resource which is expected to grow as drilling continues.
Kingwest’s ongoing program at Menzies includes drilling to extend the Pericles resource and its maiden drilling program at the Lady Irene deposit around 10km northwest of town. It has been awhile since the deposit has seen a drill bit, however the company has found some interesting numbers from previous exploration including 39.3m at 4.27 g/t gold from 159m down-hole, indicating this graceful dame may have a few surprises left in her yet.
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By Matt Birney
