ASX-listed junior explorer Kingwest Resources has chalked up a cluster of encouraging gold intersections from a recent round of follow-up reverse circulation drilling at its promising Goongarrie gold project about 90km north of Kalgoorlie in WA. The pick of the composite assays the Perth-based company has received so far were 20m grading a respectable 2.55 grams per tonne gold from 72m including 8m at 4.94 g/t from 72m, 4m going at 2.18 g/t from 64m and 8m at 1.43 g/t from 44m.
Kingwest’s RC program for a total drilling coverage of 1,196m comes after its earlier aircore drilling program that produced a cracking intercept of 38m at an average grade of 3.1 g/t from 62m depth at the “target A9” discovery including a higher-grade core of 6m at 17.2 g/t from 94m.
The 20m at 2.55 g/t RC drill hit was returned from a hole put down immediately east and up dip from the target A9 discovery aircore hole within a supergene blanket.
Kingwest says although much of the higher-grade mineralisation is supergene enriched, mineralised quartz veins have also been logged in the key holes within or immediately beneath these supergene zones.
More gold mineralisation was encountered in most of the RC holes including one about 200m along strike to the south of the headline hole, the company says.
Further RC results from Goongarrie are pending.
Target A9 sits towards the southern end of the Goongarrie project area immediately along an interpreted strike and north-north-west of Ardea Resources’ Aphrodite North prospect and about 10km north-north-west of Bardoc Gold’s 1.7 million-ounce Aphrodite deposit.
Kingwest Resources Chief Executive Officer Ed Turner said: “At Goongarrie, composite RC assays have intersected high-grade thick supergene mineralisation following on from the initial aircore discovery.”
“Significant mineralisation was also intersected … in previous aircore drilling over approximately 1km to the south. We have not drilled to the north yet, so this indicates a potentially large mineralised system.”
Management says the company has made significant progress on the exploration front at the previously inaccessible major portion of the Goongarrie project area that lies beneath the Lake Goongarrie salt lake.
Some of the work has included a high-resolution aeromagnetic study over the western half of the lake and deep geochemical pitting, resulting in litho-structural targets and geochemical gold anomalies being identified.
Plans are now afoot for a track mounted aircore rig to kick off testing of the high-priority A1, A2, A3 and A10 targets beneath the lake in the northern sector of the Goongarrie project next month.
The company suggests the most promising of these targets to date is A10, which occurs at the intersection of a 500m-wide north-west-trending shear zone and the thick Black Flag conglomerate, shares a similar geological setting to that of the 6.4-million-ounce Kanowna Belle gold deposit about 80km along strike to the south-east.
Kingwest is eyeing about 4,000m-5,000m of lake aircore drilling probing the litho-structural targets and the geochemical gold anomalies in areas of the salt lake that it says have been under-explored.
The Goongarrie project is located about 40km south of Kingwest’s flagship Menzies gold project 90km north of Kalgoorlie.
It reported further intriguing gold drill hits from Menzies this month too.
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By Matt Birney
