Australian-headquartered mining and exploration player, Kingwest Resources Limited (ASX:KWR) has recently reported the continuation of open high-grade gold mineralisation at depth throughout the Menzies Gold Project (MGP), which is one of Western Australia’s major historic gold fields.
Following the release of the announcement, KWR stock surged by 20.6 per cent, closing at $0.205 on 12th February 2020.
It is worth noting that there has been limited modern exploration within the last twenty years at MGP, whose deposits are 100 per cent owned by KWR.
Recent Assays Support KWR Drilling at MGP
The Company notified that the recent assays from historic underground face-sampling conducted at the lowest levels of the Lady Shenton underground workings at MGP support its drilling and validate very high-grade gold mineralisation that remains open at depth.
The Lady Shenton was a significant historic producer and the evidence that very high-grade gold extends to the deepest extents of mining. Moreover, the Lady Shenton Lode consists of numerous discrete shoots of high-grade gold mineralization, which plunge towards the south and have an unusual thickness and shape.
The Company reported the following assays from face samples taken along development drives and rises at Lady Shenton:
- 22m @ 49.5 g/t Au from 18 channel samples from level 10 within, and
- 45m @ 22.3 g/t Au from 37 channel samples.
The Company mentioned that within the deepest/lowest level of the Lady Shenton Gold Mine, the ideal mineralization occurs at a 45m interval, from where 37 channel samples were gathered, which yielded an average grade of 22.3g/t Au. In addition, the sampling of a 21m section from Level 9 yielded an average grade of 8.5g/t Au from 14 samples (see figure below).
The assays support KWR’s drilling results, which showed KWR027 intersecting 1.5m @ 14.3g/t Au from 292.1m, including 0.3m @ 71.3g/t Au.
The intersection is over 40m deeper than the Lady Shenton Gold Mine’s deepest level. KWR027 is the deepest drill-hole at Lady Shenton and is situated below underground sampling.
The Company’s 2019 drilling results confirmed that KWR027 is very promising for the later phase of extension drilling. The recent assays further validate the interpreted continuation for high-grade gold mineralisation at depth.
Moreover, one can conclude that major deposit locations within the Menzies Mineralised Corridor are now open at depth over a several kilometre trend and drill hole collar locations for holes larger than 200 metres.
Results of Lady Shenton and Yunndaga are of Similar Tenor
The recent assays are of similar tenor to those recently released for Yunndaga, which also confirmed that very high-grade gold mineralisation remains open at depth.
The Company reported the following assays from face samples taken along development drives and rises at Yunndaga:
- 31m @ 22.3 g/t Au with an average width of 2.1m; and
- 62m @ 20.4 g/t Au with an average width of 0.7m along Level 21
- 19m @ 24.5 g/t Au with an average width of 1.5m between Levels 19/20
- 15m @ 21.2 g/t Au with an average width of 1.5m and between Levels 20/21.
What Next?
Kingwest has planned to continue reviewing historic data incorporating underground sampling at other MGP deposits to:
- refine planning of deep drilling in and beneath these deposits, and
- probably define high-grade mineralisation within remnant pillars.
The Company stated that the close spaced nature of the underground sampling majorly supports in estimating unmined mineralisation and targeting possible extensions to these high-grade zones.
In addition, the Company intends to:
- drill test zones of mineralisation identified in recent assays.
- test extensions of mineralisation outlined in KWR’s Q4 2019 drilling.
In a nutshell, the recent assays have validated the existence of high-grade shoots at Lady Shenton that extend far beyond the depths tested by any drilling concluded so far. To put it another way, they support the proposition that there is high-quality gold mineralisation at depth at a lot of locations in the MGP.
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