Eric Sprott takes a punt on Kairos Minerals with $5m investment

Billionaire gold and silver investor Eric Sprott has snapped up a A$5 million chunk in Pilbara conglomerate gold explorer Kairos Minerals (ASX: KAI), which Kairos executive chairman Terry Topping calls a “watershed” moment for the junior explorer.

Kairos issued a A$7 million share placement at A$0.55 each, with Mr Sprott securing more than half of the placement via his Sprott Capital Partners vehicle.

The placement proceeds boost Kairos’ coffers to A$10 million which will be spent on its exploration programs including targeting conglomerate gold potential at the company’s 1,158 square kilometres of tenure in Western Australia’s Pilbara.

Kairos has identified 22km of strike beneath the Mt Roe basalt, which is the mineralisation that hosts conglomerate gold discovery elsewhere in the region.

“This a watershed moment for the company which confirms our position at the forefront of the Pilbara gold rush,” Mr Topping said.

“Kairos is in the fortunate position of having both an extensive and high-quality ground position which is highly prospective for conglomerate-hosted gold and an established 258,000-ounce JORC compliant resource base at a project in Mt York with an extensive mining history.”

Modern gold rush in the Western Australian Pilbara

WA’s Pilbara has been awash with a modern-day gold rush after Artemis Resources (ASX: ARV) and Novo Resources (TSX: NVO) reported multiple gold nugget discoveries at their jointly owned Purdy’s Reward prospect.

What’s got everyone in a lather is the similarities of these watermelon seed-shaped gold nuggets to those found at the Witwatersrand gold reef in South Africa.

Witwatersrand is the world’s largest-known gold deposit, having produced more than 1.5 billion ounces of the precious metal and more to come.

Canadian-based major gold miner Novo Resources was one of the first to get in on the Pilbara action pegging up ground and forming joint ventures with Calidus Resources (ASX: CAI) and Artemis.

Meanwhile, other explorers with Pilbara tenements may have been literally sitting on a gold mine after focussing on different minerals in the region.

As the gold frenzy picked up pace and more discoveries were announced, other resources plays such as Millennium Minerals (ASX: MOY), Coziron Resources (ASX: CZR) and Southern Hemisphere Mining (ASX: SUH)  have gone prospecting across their own tenement in search of the illustrious metal.

One explorer rapidly anchoring itself in the Pilbara is De Grey Mining (ASX: DEG), which now holds 1,800 square kilometres in prospective tenements in proximity to the famed Purdy’s Reward.

In recent months, De Grey has reported more than 100 gold nugget discoveries across its landholding.

Eric Sprott invests in the Pilbara gold rush, speaks at upcoming symposium

As the smaller resource plays scrambled to peg up land, cashed-up investors have watched keenly.

One of those investors is Mr Sprott, who has been edging in on the scene for the past few months through his chairman position on Kirkland Lake Gold (TSX: KL), which grabbed a whopping A$57 million slice of Novo Resources in September and a further A$5 million in De Grey at the beginning of this month.

Meanwhile, this latest A$5 million stake in Kairos was secured via his Sprott investment vehicle.

Through these investments, Mr Sprott has exposure to hundreds of square kilometres of the Pilbara’s most prospective conglomerate gold landholdings.

Next month, Mr Sprott will be providing delegates with his own investment insights through his keynote presentation at the upcoming Precious Metals Investment Symposium in Melbourne.

The two-day event runs from 9-10 November and pulls together the entire precious metals value chain from explorers and miners to investors.