Kalamazoo Resources picks up new exploration licence at Castlemaine gold project
The Queens licence has expanded Kalamazoo’s total foothold at the Victorian project to 310sq km.
Australian explorer Kalamazoo Resources (ASX: KZR) has been granted a new exploration licence adjoining its Castlemaine gold project in central Victoria, taking its total landholding in the area to 310sq km.
Referred to as Queens, the licence is adjacent and to the east of Kalamazoo’s Wattle Gully South discovery in the state’s prolific Bendigo Zone.
It straddles the highly-prospective Taradale Fault and immediately surrounds the Malmsbury gold project, which is owned by GBM Resources (ASX: GBZ) and was subject to a joint venture option in March with Novo Resources Corp.
The Castlemaine project now comprises three tenures at Wattle Gully (over approximately 70sq km), Wattle Gully South (over 218sq km) and Queens (over 22sq km).
Gold endowment
The Queens licence area has known gold endowment and is considered highly prospective for high-grade mineralisation similar to that found at the nearby Fosterville mine owned by Kirkland Lake Gold (ASX: KLA).
It includes parts of the historic Drummond and Belltopper Hill goldfields, which have proven high-grade gold mineralisation and numerous historical mine workings.
Past records indicate the area has already produced approximately 100,000 ounces of high-grade gold from hard rock sources.
Valuable tenure
Kalamazoo chairman and chief executive officer Luke Reinehr said the addition of valuable exploration tenure on the eastern border of Castlemaine was an important result for the company.
“We consider this new licence area to be under-explored and highly prospective due to its Fosterville-style epizonal orogenic characteristics,” he said.
“Our exploration work will aim to generate high-priority targets for future drill testing,” Mr Reinehr added.
Activities will focus on the completion of low-cost, low-impact reconnaissance field mapping, soil sampling, ground geophysical surveys and structural geological modelling.
Second highest producer
The Bendigo Zone is the second-highest producing goldfield in Australia, having churned out an estimated 60 million ounces from alluvial and continuous quartz reef mining activity from 1853 to 1954.
From within this zone, the Bendigo goldfield produced an estimated 22Moz primarily from quartz reef mining, while the Ballarat goldfield was the second largest with an estimated 10Moz of production, followed by Castlemaine with 5.6Moz.
Mr Reinehr said Kirkland’s recent exploration success at Fosterville demonstrates the substantial gold prospectivity that Victorian systems can possess at depth.