AuKing Mining ups stake in Koongie Park to 75% ahead of schedule
AuKing Mining chief executive officer Paul Williams says securing the 75% ownership of Koongie Park was an “important milestone”.
AuKing Mining (ASX: AKN) has upped its stake in the Koongie Park joint venture to 75% after completing the second earn-in milestone with Anglo Australian Resources (ASX: AAR) more than two years ahead of schedule.
In December, AuKing achieved the first earn-in milestone – bringing its holding in the project at the time to 50%.
It has now secured the final 25% interest under the joint venture agreement by spending $1.5 million on exploring Koongie Park, which is near Halls Creek in Western Australia’s east Kimberley. This increased AuKing’s holding in the project to 75%.
AuKing chief executive officer Paul Williams said securing 75% ownership of Koongie Park was an “important milestone” for the company.
“Based on the results from the drilling program in 2021, AuKing is building a strong platform for future development activities at Koongie Park,” he added.
Advancing Koongie Park
During the December quarter, AuKing’s first drilling program at Koongie Park made “excellent progress”.
By mid-December, the company had completed 29 holes for 6,400m of diamond and reverse circulation drilling.
This unearthed broad high-grade intercepts. Notable results were 124m at 1.03% copper, 1.08% zinc, 1.54% lead and 50 grams per tonne silver from 8m; 20m at 1.5% copper, 5.8% zinc, 0.91% lead and 102g/t silver from 148m; and 9m at 3.05% copper, 1.11% zinc, 0.18% lead, 14g/t silver and 0.11% cobalt from 475m.
Drilling was completed at the Onedin target and also led to the discovery of near-surface copper mineralisation north of the Sandiego deposit.
The discovery returned highlight intercepts of 5m at 1.37% copper from 50, and 2m at 1.71% copper from 85m.
AuKing stated assays received to-date from all areas drilled were “very encouraging” and support the board’s view of Koongie Park’s “excellent prospectivity”.
The program involved infill drilling at Onedin and Sandiego to improve AuKing’s geological interpretation and resource confidence.
Combined, Onedin and Sandiego have a resource of 6.8Mt at 1.3% copper, 4.1% zinc, 0.3g/t gold and 26g/t silver.
Samples were also taken from Onedin during the December quarter for metallurgical test work which evaluated ammonia-based AmmLeach technology to improve base metal recoveries.
As well as base metals and silver, elevated levels of rare earths have also been identified at Sandiego, with further sampling and analytical work planned to determine the full extent of this mineralisation.