Kalamazoo Resources kicks off Victorian drilling campaign at Lightning gold prospect
South Muckleford hosts Fentiman’s Reef which was mined between 1860-1904 at an average grade of 1oz/t gold and up to 42% antimony.
Gold explorer Kalamazoo Resources (ASX: KZR) has launched its latest Victorian drilling campaign starting with the Lightning prospect within its Castlemaine gold project.
The company today said a minimum of 2,700m or up to 4,000m of diamond drilling will be undertaken at Lightning before a 7,000m reverse circulation (RC) drilling program will commence at the South Muckleford gold project. The RC campaign is still awaiting final approval.
The planned drilling program is the result of recent work including regional and infill surface geochemistry programs, detailed field mapping and 3D structural modelling.
Kalamazoo chairman and chief executive officer Luke Reinehr said the project areas are located within rich historical goldfields holding a combined past production of almost 8 million ounces of gold.
“Our strategy from the outset has been to utilise technologies and innovations previously not used on these projects to better assist us in our search for the next world-class discovery in the Bendigo zone and whilst these programs are extensive, we are confident they will assist us in identifying exploration targets with the potential to contain high-grade gold resources,” he said.
Lightning prospect
A total of 15 high priority exploration targets have now been identified at the Castlemaine and South Muckleford gold projects.
The Lightning prospect was identified last year as one of Kalamazoo’s top 10 prospects within Castlemaine. It is located 2km south of the Mustang prospect, where the company completed its maiden diamond drilling program in April.
The Lightning area contains historical workings and infrastructure that indicate the prospect was the subject of extensive mining during the mid to late 1800s.
Kalamazoo is particularly interested in the prospect due to its structural style, which is similar to the historical Wattle Gully underground gold mine, located 5km to the south and which previously produced about 411,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 11 grams per tonne.
An initial 2,700m of diamond drilling has been designed to test high-grade gold targets associated with the coincidence of prospective structures, surface geochemistry and ground induced polarisation (IP) anomalies, and historical mine workings. This is expected to be completed by early December.
A further 1,400m will depend on results, as well as government approval.
South Muckleford drilling
The RC program proposed for the South Muckleford project will test four priority gold targets for a total of 7,000m.
The prospects are associated with highly prospective structures and significant historical workings.
Upon the receipt of final government approval, anticipated this quarter, Kalamazoo to move to this project after drilling is completed at Lightning.
Results from other programs
Kalamazoo recently completed a regional-scale soil geochemical sampling program in collaboration with the CSIRO; this was part of the work that helped identify drill targets at Castlemaine and South Muckleford.
The company today said a further 59 samples have been collected at the Tarnagulla Central gold project with assays results still pending.
Meanwhile, trial airborne LiDAR surveys have been flown over three key areas of the Castlemaine and South Muckleford projects with final processed data anticipated in early November.