Kalgoorlie Gold Mining is planning to kick off an air-core (AC) drilling program at its Pinjin project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields next month to follow up an April campaign that hit zones running up to 3.07 grams per tonne gold.
The program will centre on the company’s Wessex target at the project that sits on the eastern flanks of the prospective Laverton Tectonic Zone (LTZ), about 140km north-east of Kalgoorlie. The LTZ is a regionally-significant structural corridor that hosts multiple gold camps, including Ramelius Resources’ 1.04 million-ounce Rebecca gold project, just 30km to the south and on the same major structure.
In May, KalGold said its first pass AC drilling had intersected “exceptional” results, including one hole that nailed 28m at 1.27g/t gold from 36m including 8m running 1.9g/t and 8m going 2.15g/t, while a second, adjacent hole scored 12m going 1.17g/t from 52m with 4m at 3.07g/t from 56m.
The Wessex mineralisation comprises gold anomalism defined in an area of about 800m by 250m. Neither limited historical drilling or KalGold’s initial work has closed off subsurface mineralisation, leaving it open to the north, south and east – areas the company says it will target in its next round of AC drilling to scout for extensions.
Management anticipates its upcoming drilling – on a 160m-by-80m grid – will expand the mineralised footprint and also test the entire prospective extent of the Wessex trend, including subtle geophysical anomalism that could point to links between the Wessex and nearby Anglo Saxon systems.
Kalgoorlie Gold Mining managing director Matthew Painter said: “The recent discovery of the continuation of gold mineralisation highlights the possibility that the greater Anglo Saxon gold mineralising system extends southward to Wessex and potentially beyond. Being located within a known goldfield hosted by a crustal-scale gold mineralising structure such as the Laverton Tectonic Zone, the possibilities begin to multiply.”
The Anglo Saxon gold system lies just 1km to the north-east of Wessex and was mined by Hawthorn Resources’ (70 per cent) joint venture (JV) with Gel Resources (30 per cent) via its open pit operation. It produced more than 50,000 ounces of gold between December 2017 and December 2019.
In October 2020, the JV confirmed an underground mineral resource estimate of 796,000 tonnes at a grade of 6.1g/t gold for 157,000 ounces. Three years later, it kicked off a deeper 25 reverse-circulation (RC) drillhole program at Anglo Saxon to firm up that resource – which would be among the highest-grade underground gold resources in WA.
KalGold says success in its next round of AC drilling at Wessex would prompt follow-up RC drilling, with the aim of taking the project towards an initial mineral resource estimate.
Management says it has approvals in place and aims to kick off the drilling next month, subject to rig availability, adding that it expects to later extend its work to other targets within a 5km radius of its Kirgella Gift and Providence targets.
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