Kairos Minerals reports high grade rock chip assays at new Pilbara gold target
Kairos Minerals has unearthed 1.8g/t and 12.9g/t gold in rock chips at Skywell.
Rock chip sampling from a new target at Kairos Minerals’ (ASX: KAI) Mt York ground in Western Australia’s Pilbara has returned up to 4.6 grams a tonne gold.
This target, named Steamboat, lies outside the existing Pilbara-wide gold resource and its discovery was first reported by the company last September.
Steamboat is 500m southeast of the cornerstone Old Faithful deposit, which is included within the company’s Mt York project, which, in turn, is part of its Kairos Minerals’ overall area, known as the 1,547sq km Pilbara gold project with a total resource of 20.9 million tonnes at 1.30g/t gold for 873,500oz of contained gold.
This includes an indicated resource of 8.56Mt at 1.3g/t gold for a contained 366,000oz.
Minimal historic exploration around new target
Results received so far from Steamboat cover only 175 of the 392 rock chip samples collected over the Mt York area during the 2021 field season.
Kairos has now completed a drone survey and mapping at Steamboat, and drilling is planned for the 2022 field season.
Heritage surveys have also been completed for the new target area, and drilling approvals are in place.
Steamboat has seen only minimal historic exploration.
Kairos executive chairman Terry Topping said a new gold target is a great way to begin the new year.
“Given the proximity of the Steamboat prospect to the existing Old Faithful deposit, and the strength of the surface rock chip samples, this is shaping up as a priority focus for our exploration activities at Mt York in 2022.”
Frustratingly slow assay results
However, Mr Topping notes that the slow turnaround of assay results remains an ongoing industry-wide frustration.
“We are still awaiting assays from a significant number of holes drilled at Mt York last year.”
In September 2021, Kairos reported first-stage geochemistry sampling at Steamboat identified the new area, with rock chip samples up to 1.1g/t gold.
Kairos’ Pilbara project extends to the east and south of the ground held by De Grey Mining (ASX:DEG) and its renowned Hemi 6.8Moz gold discovery.
The Pilbara project encompasses the historical Lynas Find gold project, which produced more than 125,000oz between 1994 and 1998.