King River Resources has kicked off its largest-ever drilling program, launching a massive 11,000-metre reverse-circulation (RC) campaign at the company's historically mined Mindoolah gold project in Western Australia’s highly prospective Murchison region.
The rods are now turning on the huge phase-two program to probe eight priority targets across the project located 70 kilometres north-west of Cue. The campaign marks a strategic shift from initial reconnaissance to a systematic test of structural corridors that management believes are most prospective for significant gold mineralisation.
A majority of the 11,082-metre program will be trained on three major targets: Excelsior, the Demagnetised Target and the Excelsior Repeat.
Excelsior will see 3252m of drilling in what will be the first meaningful deep test beneath the historical open pit. Drilling will reach depths of up to 354m in a hunt for deeper extensions of the gold system beneath the old workings, where previous drilling jagged a solid 4m at an impressive 9.3 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from just 33m.
The Excelsior Repeat target, a conceptual lookalike northeast of the old Excelsior pit, will also receive similar treatment with a 1710-metre program. Notably, while the target sits in a comparable structural position to the Excelsior workings, it has no known historical mining or drilling, presenting as a raw, untested discovery opportunity.
Another key focus will be the Demagnetised Target, a major magnetic depletion zone west of the Le Soleil prospect that will be tested with 3150m of drilling. King River believes the feature could be a large-scale hydrothermal alteration system that may extend well beyond the limits of historical mining, creating a significant exploration target.
The new campaign will also follow up on high-grade gold hits from the company’s successful phase-one drill program. That initial foray delivered an impressive 79 per cent hit rate and confirmed shallow, high-grade mineralisation, including 1m grading a hefty 13.59g/t gold from 43m at the company's Bertram’s prospect.
Similarly, at the company's Le Soleil prospect, the maiden campaign returned 3m running 4.7g/t gold from 38m, including a one-metre slice going a chunky 10.7g/t gold. Intriguingly, that hole was abandoned at just 42m while still in mineralisation due to difficult drilling conditions, leaving the door wide open for further discovery potential lurking at depth.
Rounding off the drilling blitz, the drill bit will be pointed at a suite of other structural and intrusive targets across the broader project area. The team plans about 780m of drilling at Mindoolah Main Reef to test a recently identified mafic intrusive dyke measuring up to 4m wide and returning a surface sample of 1.15g/t gold. Another 630m will target a major fold hinge at Cundy, interpreted from high-resolution geophysics as a key structural control on gold mineralisation. Lastly, the company will sink 360 m into the Double Barrel/More Pork prospect, chasing a recent surface sample that returned an eye-catching 8.11g/t gold from a quartz vein.
King River Resources managing director Graham Gadsby said: "Commencing this 11,082m Phase-two RC campaign marks a major milestone for Mindoolah, representing our largest targeted drilling program to date at Mindoolah. Phase-one achieved its core objective, confirming shallow gold mineralisation beneath historical workings while providing the subsurface data required to build a robust geological model."
The company’s renewed focus on Mindoolah follows its appointment of Gadsby as managing director in October last year. Gadsby is a geologist with an impressive track record, having been instrumental in discovering the significant Never Never and Pepper gold deposits for Spartan Resources.
Adding a further layer of intrigue to King River's Mindoolah story is a curious mismatch between historical records and the physical evidence on the ground. While official records show just 38,589 tonnes were mined from an open pit in the 1980s, the company’s own calculations of the pit void suggest 1.08 million tonnes of material was actually excavated, hinting that much more ore may have been processed than the old records show or that a lot more gold-bearing material still remains on-site.
In parallel with the drilling, a second high-resolution aeromagnetic survey is scheduled to fire up to help further refine regional targets. The company says results from the survey will be progressively integrated with mapping and geochemistry, along with the fresh drilling data as it comes to hand.
King River looks to be well-funded for its renewed exploration push, with $3.67 million in cash as at the end of June, having recently bolstered its coffers with the strategic sale of some of the shares it holds in Tivan Limited. The company currently retains 77 million shares in Tivan, worth a further $13.5 million.
With a massive RC drill program now underway, a new geophysical survey about to take flight and management with a proven nose for discovery, King River appears to be entering a catalyst-rich period. Following up known high-grade gold and testing large, undrilled conceptual targets could give the company multiple avenues to drive growth at Mindoolah.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Murray Ward
