Mining

Kin Mining completes ‘active and positive’ quarter of exploration at Cardinia gold project

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By Imelda Cotton - 
Kin Mining ASX Cardinia Hill deposit new wide high-grade gold intercepts

The new drilling results are expected to feed into a mineral resource upgrade at Kin’s WA gold project.

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The September quarter was an active and positive period for junior explorer Kin Mining (ASX: KIN), with drilling programs delivering positive results across the flagship Cardinia gold project in Western Australia.

Highlights included an updated mineral resource estimate for the Cardinia Hill deposit, as well as positive drilling results which further upgraded the prospectivity of the regional Mount Flora and Iron King prospects.

The Cardinia Hill indicated and inferred estimate now sits at 2.2 million tonnes grading 1.5 grams per tonne gold for 106,000 ounces of contained gold, representing an increase of 45,000 ounces on the estimate released in May.

The new figures boosted the total resource estimate for the greater Cardinia gold project to 31.1Mt at 1.27g/t gold for 1.28 million ounces.

Kin included the same optimisation parameters used for existing mineralisation models, using a gold price and operating cost assumptions in line with recent experience for open pit extraction.

Mount Flora drilling

Kin completed a maiden aircore program at Mount Flora in April, comprising a total of 269 drill‐holes for 10,166m targeting three gold‐in‐soil anomalies.

Drilling delivered “outstanding” gold results, particularly at the eastern zone of mineralisation, with highlights including 22m at 8.96g/t and 8m at 2.79g/t.

Assays identified several mineralised trends interpreted to be associated with splays originating from the Federation Fault and other parallel structures.

Follow-up drilling in July comprised an additional 268 aircore holes for 10,763m to test potential extensions of the eastern zone and areas where favourable geology and quartz veins were intersected in end‐of‐line holes.

Assays confirmed the presence of mineralised lodes at the eastern zone (spanning at least 700m of strike and up to 150m wide) and at the northwest zone (400m along strike and up to 80m wide).

Best results were 8m at 3.75g/t gold from 32m; 4m at 4.34g/t from 12m; 16m at 1.16g/t from 24m; and 4m at 1.30g/t from 24m.

Multi‐element assays for bottom‐of‐hole samples used to characterise the mineralisation, alteration and rock types confirmed the gold to be associated with anomalous silver, tellurium and tungsten in sulphide‐rich quartz carbonate vein structures within mafic rocks.

Other projects

Kin owns six gold projects east and west of the centrally-located Cardinia development which it has been advancing with a range of exploration activities over the past 12 months.

Work has included ground‐based geophysical surveys, surface auger soil geochemical surveys and first‐pass air‐core drilling programs to evaluate their prospectivity.

The company aims to provide an initial assessment of the mineralisation style and gold grade at each project and decide whether to develop them as standalone operations or as satellite feeders to the main Cardinia mining and processing operation.

Key parameters governing the development options include the distance from Cardinia, potential alternative treatment options, project size and mineralisation grade.

Other projects in the portfolio of tenements offering nickel sulphide potential are being assessed in parallel with the gold project evaluations.

Entitlement offer

At the end of the reporting period, Kin launched a non‐underwritten, non‐renounceable 1‐for‐6.5 pro‐rata entitlement offer to raise $12.92 million for the next phase of exploration at  Cardinia.

The offer allows eligible shareholders to subscribe for one new share for every 6.5 shares held at an offer price of $0.105 per share.

Kin has received confirmation from two of its substantial shareholders that they intend to subscribe a portion of their entitlements to the value of $3.84 million, collectively totalling 30% of the offer.

Funds raised will provide Kin with sufficient working capital to complete the next phase of exploration at Cardinia and follow-up on new discoveries and targets identified during recent drilling campaigns.

These include emerging discoveries at Mount Flora and Iron King, as well as multiple new prospects identified following an improved understanding of the geology and potential of the area.