Mining

Kalamazoo Resources about to begin maiden drilling at Ashburton gold project

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By Robin Bromby - 
Kalamazoo Resources ASX KZR Ashburton gold drilling Waugh deposit

A highlight interval from the Waugh Zone at Kalamazoo’s Ashburton project was 1m at 17.85g/t gold.

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Kalamazoo Resources (ASX: KZR) will in early November launch a 7,000m maiden drilling program at its recently acquired Ashburton gold project, the first drilling to be done at the project since 2013.

Kalamazoo said it will be looking to substantially increase the existing 1.65 million ounce (Moz) oxide and sulphide resource, as well as making new discoveries and advancing project development plans.

Kalamazoo in June snapped up the Ashburton gold project on the edge of Pilbara Craton as Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST) shed what it regarded as a non-Tier 1 asset.

The 217sq km project currently holds a JORC resource estimate of 20.8 million tonnes at 2.5 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for a contained 1.65 Moz. The project has already produced 350,000oz of gold.

Ashburton came equipped with a self-contained camp, core farm and supporting infrastructure.

Five prospects to be drilled

The reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling will focus on five prospects: Peake, Peake West, Waugh, Connie’s Find and Petra.

The work is aimed at extending known mineralisation as well as infill drilling at Peake and Waugh.

Kalamazoo will be targeting new extensions to oxide gold mineralisation as well as deeper primary sulphide gold resources.

A new, buried induced polarisation target at the Petra prospect will be drilled for the first time.

Director and project manager Paul Adams said he was excited to be about to begin drilling.

“This is the culmination of a lot of hard work behind the scenes from our WA-based exploration team to have our first RC and diamond program in place just weeks after having settled this major project acquisition from Northern Star,” he added.

Unexplored gold extensions at Peake prospect

Mr Adams was managing director at the former Spectrum Metals which was taken over in March by Ramelius Resources (ASX: RMS). Mr Adams was involved in the Penny Well gold discovery.

The Peake prospect has a recorded historical production of 18,000oz at 7.0 grams per tonne gold and has a current resource of 3.7 million tonnes at 3.4g/t for a contained 399,000oz.

About 2,500m of drilling will follow up historical high-grade sulphide gold intersections below the western end of the old Peake open pit.

Drilling intercepts by Northern Star intersected this mineralisation which remains open below the current open pit, with the up-pit projection of gold mineralisation so far unexplored.