Drilling at Ashburton gold project extends Waugh Zone for Kalamazoo Resources
A highlight interval from the Waugh Zone at Kalamazoo’s Ashburton project was 1m at 17.85g/t gold.
Assays from a phase two drilling program at Kalamazoo Resources’ (ASX: KZR) Ashburton gold project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region have extended a new area of moderate to high-grade mineralisation known as the Waugh Zone.
The zone was extended to 2.5km during drilling to the northwest and southeast of the project’s Waugh deposit, which hosts 68,000 ounces at 3.6 grams per tonne gold.
Stand-out results received from several targets across the Waugh Zone showed best intercepts of 5m at 7.37g/t gold from 93m, including 2m at 13.58g/t from 93m; 2m at 9.49g/t gold from 40m, including 1m at 17.85g/t from 40m; 8m at 3.56g/t gold from 1m, including 1m at 7.25g/t from 6m; and 7m at 2.07g/t gold from surface including 5m at 2.75g/t from surface.
Significant new gold mineralisation was also discovered at the Annie Oakley prospect at the north-western end of the Waugh Zone.
Assays from two holes spaced 240m apart returned 8m at 3.56g/t gold from surface and 2m at 9.49g/t (including 1m at 17.85g/t) from 40m.
First results
Ashburton project manager Paul Adams said Kalamazoo was pleased with the first results coming through from the phase two work.
“The new discovery at Annie Oakley is located close to the existing Waugh deposit and provides us with confidence for the discovery of additional medium to high-grade gold oxide resources along the northern margin of the Diligence Dome, where strong anomalism exists,” he said.
“This whole area, which we have named the Waugh Zone, will be a focus for [us] as we design and implement an extensive phase three program to commence early next year.”
Phase two design
Kalamazoo’s 14,772m phase two program – which included 97 reverse circulation holes for 9,235m and seven aircore holes for 5,537m – was designed to test targets within a 5km radius of the 1.08 million ounce Mt Olympus gold resource, which sits within the Ashburton project.
These targets include Annie Oakley and are believed to demonstrate potential to host additional shallow, oxide, and non-refractory primary gold mineralisation, consistent with Kalamazoo’s focus on substantially increasing Ashburton’s resource base.
The Waugh Zone is one of five deposits that comprise Ashburton’s mineral resource estimate of 20.8Mt grading 2.5g/t gold for 1.65Moz.
Renewed focus
Ashburton is located in a region which has seen a renewed focus on gold exploration due to the recent world-class Hemi oxide-sulphide gold discovery by De Grey Mining (ASX: DEG).
This has been complemented by major gold development progress by Calidus Resources (ASX: CAI) at the 1.25Moz Warrawoona project and by Capricorn Metals (ASX: CMM) at the 2.1Moz Karlawinda project.