Mining

Kalamazoo Resources wraps up Ashburton maiden drilling, prepares for gold deportment studies

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By Danica Cullinane - 
Kalamazoo Resources ASX KZR Ashburton Gold Project maiden drilling Western Australia

Kalamazoo’s maiden drilling program at the WA project has intersected ‘Waugh-type’ thick quartz and ironstone units.

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Gold explorer Kalamazoo Resources (ASX: KZR) has completed its maiden drilling campaign at the Ashburton gold project in Western Australia, which tested areas for their potential to host additional oxide and primary gold mineralisation close to existing resources.

The program comprised 5,677m of reverse circulation and 104m of diamond drilling focused around the Waugh and Connie’s Find prospects on the northern side of the Diligence Dome, and at Peake and Peake West on the southern side of the Dome.

The areas were chosen as high priority targets due to their current resources, including 3.7 million tonnes grading at 3.3 grams per tonne gold for 399,000 ounces at Peake and 590,000t at 3.6g/t gold for 68,000oz at Waugh. The areas are also believed to host new oxide and primary sulphide gold mineralisation along strike, down dip and down plunge from the existing resources.

‘Waugh type’ mineralisation intersected

According to the company, drilling at the Waugh and Connie’s Find prospects intersected thick quartz-and-ironstone units that are characteristic of mineralisation contained in the existing Waugh resource.

Preliminary interpretations suggest these units occur in bedding sub-parallel planes down plunge from the Waugh pit and within cross-cutting structures at Connie’s Find that parallel surface anomalism, Kalamazoo reported.

At the Peake West prospect, shallow drilling intersected broad zones of bleached siltstones below anomalous surface rock chip samples in the western extension of the mineralised Peake structure.

Final assay results from the maiden drilling campaign are pending, Kalamazoo said.

Gold deportment studies

During this maiden drilling program, two RC holes for 348m were drilled to provide adequate bulk samples for gold deportment studies and subsequent metallurgical test work.

Gold deportment studies are combined physical, chemical and mineralogical assessments undertaken to gain a full understanding of the nature and variability of gold in a resource.

Kalamazoo said this work is expected to be carried out “early in 2021”.

The company had acquired the Ashburton project from Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST) in June and embarked on its maiden drilling campaign in November. This is the first drilling to be undertaken at the project since 2013.

Today’s announcement follows last week’s news that Kalamazoo had completed a diamond drilling program at the Lightning prospect within its Castlemaine gold project in Victoria. Here, the company said a preliminary interpretation of the drilling results indicated the Lightning prospect is a similar structure to the nearby historic high-grade Wattle Gully mine.