Kin Mining unearths shallow gold at Cardinia

Junior explorer Kin Mining (ASX: KIN) has continued to define shallow gold mineralisation at its wholly-owned Cardinia gold project in Western Australia with recent drilling returning grades of up to 4.29 grams per tonne of gold.

The company today reported assays results from three new reverse circulation drill holes at the Cardinia Hill prospect, which it said confirms the continuity of shallow mineralisation over a 500m strike length.

Notable intercepts from Cardinia Hill include 7m at 2.44g/t gold from 117m including 5m at 1.21g/t gold from 13m; 4m at 0.86g/t gold from 14m; and 1m at 1.07g/t gold from 48m.

Additional air core drilling at the Helens South and Helens East prospects also showed the widespread distribution of the shallow mineralisation, Kin reported.

Drilling highlights from Helens South included 4m at 4.29g/t gold from 12m and 8m at 1.8g/t gold from 4m.

These latest results build on the shallow, high-grade gold results announced at the end of April, which included 15m at 4.42g/t gold recovered from one of the first five holes at Cardinia Hill.

Kin managing director Andrew Munckton said the now completed phase two RC and AC program has given “significant insight into the enormous untapped exploration potential” at the Cardinia gold project with results still outstanding for almost two-thirds of the drilling.

“The results so far have reinforced our belief that Cardinia is a significantly mineralised area, worthy of considerable additional drilling and exploration in the coming months,” he said.

Mr Munckton added that Cardinia Hill is “shaping up as a significant new discovery” with grades achieved so far exceeding those reported previously across the broader Cardinia project.

Further assay results expected

Kin’s phase two drilling program was designed to follow up new discoveries made at the Cardinia Hill, Comedy King and Lewis East prospects in December last year and to begin first-pass AC drilling on several other targets in the immediate Cardinia area.

The drilling program is now complete with a further nine RC holes completed at Cardinia Hill to define the extent of the high-grade mineralisation.

Kin said further RC and AC drilling has been completed at the Comedy King, Lewis East and Faye Marie prospects with assays results expected “over the coming weeks”.

“The company has approximately 3,500 samples being analysed at the laboratory presently, and we are looking forward to reporting these results to the market as they are received,” Mr Munckton said.

Mr Munckton said he is confident the systematic approach the company has adopted towards exploration at Cardinia “is yielding good results and has put us on a clear pathway to make further significant discoveries”.

Cardinia gold project

Kin’s wholly-owned Cardinia gold project has an estimated ore reserve of 7.9 million tonnes at 1.1g/t gold for 283,000 ounces.

Last August, the company completed a pre-feasibility study that estimates an initial 8.2-year operation and life-of-mine revenue of $809.8 million based on a $2,000 per ounce gold price.

The proposed development includes two open pit mines feeding into a 1.5Mt per annum conventional carbon-in-leach processing plant.