Pilbara explorer Kairos Minerals (ASX: KAI) has recovered a “bonanza” 256 gold nuggets weighing a combined 254 grams during the early stages of a helicopter-supported exploration program at its Croydon project in Western Australia’s far north.
The nuggets were found within a newly-discovered colluvium patch adjacent to the prospective unconformity contact between the basal sequence of the Fortescue Group Mount Roe Basalt and older Archean basement.
The contact sits along a 22 kilometre-long corridor within Kairos’ 100%-owned tenements E47/3522 and E47/3523, in an area where stream sediment sampling earlier this year returned up to 12.4 grams per tonne gold.
The helicopter-borne exploration program has been focused on areas where earlier fieldwork identified previously-unrecognised prospective conglomerate units of up to 30m in thickness at four different locations, predominantly within the southern portion of Kairos’ tenement package.
Some of the 256 gold nuggets discovered display flattened “watermelon seed” shapes, similar to those found throughout the Pilbara.
Work schedule
Kairos executive chairman Terry Topping said preliminary metal detecting to date has only focused on an area smaller than 150m x 50m and there is still a lot of work to be done.
“The presence of such a significant accumulation of gold nuggets within the first area followed up from our regional stream sediment program, makes this project a priority focus for us,” he said.
“We have already commenced the required approvals and clearance processes to undertake selected trenching and drilling activities to establish the overall dimensions of the prospective conglomerate horizon.”
Mr Topping said the company will commence the next phase of exploration next week, to include further sampling and metal detection ahead of the planned drilling campaign.
The Croydon project sits within Kairos’ wholly-owed Pilbara gold project.
In May, the company announced an updated JORC indicated resource at Pilbara of 6.84 million tonnes at 1.3 grams per tonne for 285,000 ounces, and an inferred 7.53mt at 1.47g/t for 358,000oz for a total mineral resource of 14.4mt at 1.39g/t gold for 643,000oz.
At mid-afternoon, shares in Kairos were trading 12.50% higher at $0.036.
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