Kingston Resources (ASX: KSN) has debuted ore reserve updates for the Pearse North and Pearse South open pits at its Mineral Hill gold-silver mine in New South Wales.
The updated reserves now total 260,000 tonnes at 3.7 grams per tonne gold and 57g/t silver for 31,000 ounces of contained gold and 470,000oz silver.
Pearse North and Pearse South will be the initial pits exploited as Kingston transitions from tailings processing to traditional hard rock mining at Mineral Hill.
Anticipated production through to the end of 2024 will comprise nearly all mining from these pits.
Historical production at Pease South was 219,000t at 6.06g/t gold and 64g/t silver for 42,630oz gold and 447,907oz silver.
Kingston managing director Andrew Corbett said the updated reserves containing high-grade mineralisation were a “springboard” to successfully transition Mineral Hill into conventional mining.
“The modelled revenue makes a significant positive impact on Kingston’s cash flow projections.”
“We see this as the first step in our transition back to hard rock mining at Mineral Hill and in delivering value from this outstanding tenement package,” Mr Corbett added.
Building value at Mineral Hill
In addition to mining the Pearse open pits, Kingston is building resources at the Southern Ore Zone (SOZ) and Jack’s Hut Trend.
The underground component of the overall life-of-mine plan at Mineral Hill is expected to contain a significant proportion of SOZ.
SOZ has a current resource of 3.8Mt at 1.29g/t gold, 19g/t silver, 0.9% copper, 1.6% lead, and 1.4% zinc for 158,000oz gold, 2.35Moz silver, 34,000t copper, 60,000t lead and 54,000t zinc.
A full life-of-mine schedule is expected to be released this month, which will be backed by extensive technical studies, including geotechnical engineering, metallurgy and mining evaluations.
Work is also underway on a revised mineral resource for Jack’s Hut Trend, which is prospective for copper, gold and silver.
Kingston’s strategy is to become a mid-tier gold and copper producer from Mineral Hill and its Misima asset in Papua New Guinea.
Get the wire before the market opens.
The ASX small-cap stories that matter, filed before 9am AEST. Curated by the Small Caps desk.