ASX-listed gold explorer, Kingwest Resources, has rattled off yet another set of bonanza gold drill hits at its historic Menzies gold project about 120km north of Kalgoorlie. The company seems to be streaking towards a possible upgrade in the category level and size of the project’s overall mineral resource spread across a string of satellite deposits.
The Perth-based company recently released a predominantly inferred near-surface resource estimate for Menzies of 4.78 million tonnes grading 2.08 grams per tonne for 319,900 ounces of contained gold. The history of mining at Menzies has yielded almost 800,000 ounces of gold dating back more than 100 years. Between 1995 and 1999, Menzies produced 145,000 ounces of gold from ore grading 2.6 g/t, and between 1895 and 1943, the area recorded 643,200 ounces of gold output from underground ore averaging an exceptional grade of 22.5 g/t.
Kingwest’s Menzies project comprises a contiguous land package over a strike length in excess of 15km boasting a poultice of brownfields drill targets. A series of structurally controlled high-grade gold deposits have been historically mined, and according to the company, still display plenty of upside exploration potential for high-grade extensions having sat largely dormant for a couple of decades.
Latest stellar drill intersections from Kingwest’s major resource definition and extensional drilling assault in 2020 totalling approximately 14,000m came from the Stirling deposit. Notable RC intercepts were 2m going 37.71 g/t gold from 63m, 1m at 56.54 g/t from 56m, and 5m at 9.83 g/t from 40m including 1m at 38.75 g/t from 43m.
Other high-grade assays included 5m at 4.26 g/t from 38m including 1m at 16.15 g/t from 38m, 1m at 21.99 g/t from 30m, 1m at 8.35 g/t from 26m, 1m at 6.30 g/t from 89m, and 1m at 6.23 g/t from 46m.
The spectacular drill results for Stirling followed closely on the heels of the company’s torrent of enviable drill hits at the Lady Shenton and First Hit gold systems. They included 1m at 107 g/t from 88m, 5m at 13.8 g/t from 122m including 2m at 31.8 g/t from 123m, 2m at 18.1 g/t from 44m including 1m at 34.8 g/t from 44m, and 1m at 22.4 g/t from 82m.
Stirling’s intersections augur well for Kingwest’s ambitions for a significant upgrade to the Menzies global gold resource base given the Stirling deposit is among the smaller of the satellite deposits in close vicinity of one another that run along the Menzies Shear Zone. Its modest inferred resource currently stands at 310,000 tonnes at 2.17 g/t for 21,900 ounces of contained gold.
Kingwest points out that the latest drill hits at Stirling were encountered on the southern edge of the existing mineral resource and were also of a much higher grade than the estimated resource blocks. In other words, it may be staring down the barrel of a material increase in Stirling’s tonnage and grade in an updated Menzies mineral resource estimate.
Drilling to date has only focused on shallow mineralisation down to less than 100 vertical metres. The company says Stirling remains open at depth and further drilling has been planned to test for strike and depth extensions.
The company’s drilling blitz continues as it strives to improve its geological confidence levels in the Menzies parade of satellite deposits and convert a big chunk of the resources from inferred status to the indicated and or measured category.
Kingwest hopes to finish its infill and extensional drilling and exploration drilling campaigns by the end of the year, with 110 RC holes completed for a total of 10,084m to date.
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By Matt Birney
