Kuniko has completed a major integrated geophysical review at its Commonwealth-Silica Hill. gold-silver project in New South Wales, defining a suite of new high-priority drill targets on historically underexplored ground that could significantly expand the scope of the play.
The review, conducted with Resource Potentials, combined recent high-tech MobileMT survey data with historical gravity, magnetic and induced polarisation. The work has lit up multiple new targets, all within just one kilometre of the existing project, and supports the company’s view that it could be sitting on a broader, five-square-kilometre fertile area for gold and silver.
Commonwealth-Silica Hill is situated 100 kilometres north of Orange in what is considered elephant country for mineral explorers, NSW’s prolific Lachlan Fold Belt. The region is dotted with world-class operations, including Newmont’s goliath 30-million-ounce Cadia-Ridgeway mine and Evolution Mining’s Cowal and Northparkes projects. Notably, Kuniko’s ground also lies immediately along-trend from Alkane Resources’ massive Boda-Kaiser porphyry copper-gold discovery, which features an estimated 8.3 million ounces of gold and 1.5 million tonnes of copper.
The timing could also be opportune, with both gold and silver prices enjoying a strong run in the last couple of months, keeping high-grade discovery stories firmly on the market’s radar.
The project already comes with a head start, hosting a historical JORC-inferred resource estimate defined by previous owner Impact Minerals, tallying 88,800 ounces of gold and 3.3 million ounces of silver.Although it has not yet independently verified the historical estimate, Kuniko says it does provide a solid foundation from which its new targets could potentially drive significant growth.
Kuniko’s review has identified a prospective corridor extending for 4km across the broader project area and has pinpointed several compelling targets for follow-up drilling.
One of the highest-priority targets is a 500-metre extension of the known mineralisation at Silica Hill. The existing structure sits on the edge of a distinct gravity feature, with the review showing the anomaly extends for 500m to the south-east into an area that has never seen a drill bit.
Another key target is a strong IP anomaly that sits 400m north-east of the historical Walls Mine. Previous drilling at Walls hit up to 2.9 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 144g/t silver from 55m, while the nearby Welcome Jack prospect, 800m away, returned up to 8g/t gold from 29m.
Significantly, the new IP anomaly lies on the same fault structure as Welcome Jack and, like the Silica Hill extension, is on ground that has never been kissed by the drill bit.
Kuniko Limited managing director Maja McGuire said: “The completion of the integrated geophysical review marks an important milestone for the company. By combining recent Mobile MT work by us, and historic gravity, magnetic and IP datasets, we have significantly enhanced our understanding of the geological architecture of the broader area surrounding the existing Commonwealth-Silica Hill Project and generated a pipeline of compelling new exploration targets.”
The company says the review supports its belief that the project hosts a large, multi-deposit mineral system, with multiple buried intrusive bodies identified as potential hosts for mineralisation.
Kuniko’s phase one drilling at Silica Hill previously delivered a bonanza hit of 3.4m at 50g/t gold equivalent from 227.5m, which included a spectacular 0.5m section going 347g/t gold equivalent, comprising 27g/t gold and a coffee-spitting 20,603g/t silver. Recent phase two drilling successfully extended the mineralised system by 100m, with mineralisation remaining open. The company says the strongest IP chargeability anomaly identified across the entire project remains untested.
With land access available for all new drill targets and permit approvals expected shortly, Kuniko is now considering its next steps. These include priority permitting for drilling, soil geochemistry surveys and further targeted geophysics to refine the targets.
The company is also working towards an updated mineral resource estimate for the project, which is expected in December. However, management believes the latest review has outlined the potential to grow the resource even further beyond that.
While Kuniko's immediate focus is on advancing its Australian gold-silver asset, it also holds a portfolio of battery and critical minerals projects in Norway, targeting copper, nickel and cobalt, all geared towards the European energy transition market.
The Scandinavian portfolio includes the Ertelien nickel-copper-cobalt project, which hosts a JORC-compliant mineral resource of 40 million tonnes at 0.25 per cent nickel equivalent. It is complemented by the Ringerike battery metals project, a package of licences hosting multiple nickel, copper and cobalt targets along a 20km trend and the historic Skuterud cobalt project, which was once the world's largest cobalt producer.
With a clutch of new, undrilled targets sitting in a world-class mineral address and permits seemingly just around the corner, Kuniko has laid out a clear path to test its theory of a much larger mineralised system at Commonwealth-Silica Hill. If it can connect the dots, it might just prove there’s another elephant hiding in the Lachlan Fold Belt.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Murray Ward
