The largest RC drilling campaign in Kalgoorlie Gold Mining (ASX: KAL)’s history has just commenced, with 50 RC holes for 6,200m set to confirm primary orogenic gold mineralisation at depth – underneath the aircore results that combined with geochemical analysis and geophysics, point towards a significant gold system similar to 1.1Moz at 1.2g/t Lake Rebecca Gold Project.
This is the key value adding exploration campaign that the market has been waiting for, where KAL will be drilling underneath extensive, thick gold mineralisation defined throughout the drilling conducted in 2024 and 2025 – and a total of 3.6km of strike will be tested. KAL will be utilising gold fire assays to deliver results to market in a matter of weeks.
While there are many exciting prospects at Pinjin, such as Wessex, which has previously recorded 8m at 7.36g/t Au from 32m, including 4m at 13.5g/t Au from 32m – Lighthorse is still the company’s main priority, and will be getting thoroughly explored with 40 holes for 4,750m across 1.6km of strike. KAL is hunting for the primary orogenic source of the supergene mineralisation seen in its headline assay of 17m at 4.81 g/t Au from 48 m, including 8m at 9.21 g/t Au from 52m – and with the hole ending in mineralisation.
Our previous article explained how low grade aircore results in the shallow oxide layer of a gold deposit can indicate large high-grade resources beneath, which is especially true locally in this region with Rebecca, but also extends to the gigantic scale seen at the 10Moz Gruyere gold mine, and the 13.6Moz Hemi deposit. Rebecca has incredible intercepts of 42m at 7.75g/t Au from 61m and 17.84m at 15.95g/t Au from 142m, directly below aircore intercepts of 4m at 0.56g/t Au from 20m, 3m at 0.34g/t Au from 20m and 1m at 0.30g/t Au from 20m.
KAL’s latest aircore results of 15m at 0.41g/t Au from 36m and 25m at 0.21g/t Au from 28m are crucial indicators of widespread mineralisation that significantly increases the potential scale of a mineralised system at Lighthorse – which is now similar in size to the 1.8km of strike that contains 960koz of Rebecca’s ounces.
The location of Pinjin couldn’t be any better, being just 37km from Northern Star’s Carosue Dam mine that is operating at 73.5% capacity, 22km away from Ramelius Resources’ Rebecca project which is scheduled to go into production in 2027, and 12km from the Anglo Saxon mine that has an open pit resource of 157koz at 6.1g/t.
KAL will also be putting through 3 RC holes for 400m at Providence South, where the company has detected that the host ultramafic unit is a faulted block of the same unit as Pinjin’s existing 76.4koz at 1g/t resource, which is over at the Providence and Kirgella Gift prospects.
The array of planned RC holes at Lighthorse can be seen below, overlaid with geophysics and areas of known mineralisation, with the 1.6km of strike stretching North and South of the current hotspot, where RC drilling hit 8m at 3.5g/t from 58m, including 2m at 13.65g/t Au, as well as 3m at 5.52g/t Aufrom 133m, including 2m at 7.92g/t Au. 650m North of previous RC drilling, there is an area of strong anomalism as confirmed by the 25m at 0.21g/t from 28m AC hole that will be targeted:
Source: KAL
Wessex is particularly interesting because it is that part of Pinjin that is barely 1km away from the Anglo Saxon pit, which between 2017 and 2020 produced 50,370oz at 2.4g/t by toll treating ore at NST’s Carosue Dam, when the gold price was fluctuating between US$1,150/oz and US$2,000/oz. A dedicated haul road was built to connect it to the processing plant 35km away – which could also be used for KAL to transport ore.
The 7 holes for 1,050m is a widespaced, first pass drilling program that will test high priority areas across 2km of strike. The standout assays from KAL’s prior aircore drilling can be seen below, in conjunction with the planned hole locations and also the litany of assays at the Anglo Saxon mine. This campaign is timely given the 8,000m of drilling being concurrently conducted by Hawthorn Resources, who are looking to expand the pit:
Source: KAL
This Campaign is the Time to Own KAL
Drilling started a little later than planned, but with the right company – who have a wealth of expertise from drilling the Rebecca project for RMS after it was opportunistically acquired for $146 million when the gold price was around US$1,800/oz. They know this particular region and its ground very well, which is important given that accuracy is critical when hunting for mineralisation along such long strike distances.
RC drilling is a highly nuanced process that depends on maintaining precise control over rotation speed, air pressure, bit selection, and rod handling. There are often a whole variety of ground conditions encountered including soft cover, hard rock, broken ground, or water-bearing zones that have to be carefully navigated to both reach the targeted depths and avoid sample smearing. After all, Rebecca had anomalous gold as low as 0.20g/t right outside an intercept of 50m at 4.05g/t Au.
At the grades KAL has been seeing at Pinjin, an additional resource of any size would be a high value bolt-on acquisition to NST’s Carosue Dam. It has been feeding grades varying between 0.8g/t-1.2g/t over the past year from an open-pit operation, and a significant amount of overall supply is sourced 45km north of the CDO processing plant.
NST is also investing in the project’s long term infrastructure, having recently constructed an 8MW solar farm operation as the mining giant prepares to bring the plant up to its 4Mtpa nameplate capacity – which toll treating and the acquisition of nearby satellite deposits will likely play a key role in.
KAL raised around $2.3 million from its $0.032 options this financial year, which were mass-exercised over the past week so investors could receive the bonus $0.06 option providing KalGold with a strong $5.0 million cash balance. 12% shareholder Regal Funds Management was also a major option holder, and likely exercised all of them which was balanced out by selling some stock. There should be less overhang in a couple of weeks, setting up an ideal environment for the stock to run into drilling results. The company also has the WA Government putting in $130k for four diamond drill holes that will be testing high grades at depth between the Kirgella Gift and Providence prospects.
If KAL can find pockets of primary mineralisation from this campaign, and demonstrate even a modest level of continuity – it will drastically improve Pinjin’s prospectivity and development timeline, which are already very exciting.
Subscribe here to receive all of our coverage
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and marketing purposes only, and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to invest. All opinions expressed are our own. We may receive fees or other forms of compensation in connection with the publication of this content, and may own shares in any of the mentioned companies. Please do your own research and seek professional advice before making any investment decisions.