Kalamazoo Resources announces updated resource estimate for Ashburton gold project
Kalamazoo’s updated resource for Ashburton totals 16.2Mt at 2.8g/t gold for 1.44Moz.
Kalamazoo Resources (ASX: KZR) has announced an updated mineral resource estimate for its wholly-owned Ashburton gold project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
The new estimate stands at 16.2 million tonnes grading 2.8 grams per tonne gold for 1.44 million ounces.
It is based on reverse circulation and diamond drilling last May of 11,428 holes for 324,804 metres.
Kalamazoo noted its compares to the original resource of 20.8Mt at 2.5g/t for 1.65Moz, which was reported at the time it acquired the project from Northern Star in August 2020.
The new figures show a 10% uplift in grade and a 13% decrease in total ounces across the project’s four deposits, with the large Mt Olympus target now accounting for 75% of total resource base ounces.
Kalamazoo said the increased grades had mainly resulted from a change in the interpretation of major lodes at Mt Olympus, which resulted in higher confidence in the orientation and continuity of the gold mineralisation.
Zeus ounces
Kalamazoo also confirmed a 68% rise in ounces at the Zeus deposit, resulting in total ounces for Zoe Trend deposits (comprising West Olympus, Mt Olympus and Zeus) of 1.19Moz.
Mt Olympus and West Olympus have a combined mid-point exploration target of 171,000oz, within a range of 0.6Mt and 1.9Mt at between 3.5-4.5g/t gold for 67,500-275,000oz gold.
The company said optimised pit shells have been used to constrain the ounces into open pit and underground resources for the first time since mining of the oxide material was completed by Sipa Resources (ASX: SRI) in 2004.
Major milestone
Kalamazoo executive director Paul Adams said the mineral resource estimate represented a major milestone for the company.
“Importantly, Mt Olympus now has a significantly increased grade due to the new interpretation … the optimised pit shell constrained resource now sits at over 800,000oz with additional mineralisation potentially amenable to underground mining,” he said.
“Preliminary optimisation work performed on the new resource as part of our early development studies provides us with the confidence to advance this project we look forward to incorporating the results from the new estimate and early development work into our 2023 work program.”