Kingston Resources begins exploration at historic Mineral Hill copper-gold mine

Newly-minted gold producer Kingston Resources (ASX: KSN) has commenced exploration at the historic Mineral Hill copper-gold project in New South Wales, targeting near-mine or brownfields targets within the existing mining lease.

The company has engaged local Condobolin-based contractor Resolution Drilling to do the work.

Reverse circulation extensional drilling will start at the Pearse North deposit and move onto the Southern Ore Zone for resource and reserve infill work at the Upper A lode.

Drilling will take in the historic Jacks Hut, GD140 and Missing Link prospects with the aim of defining the geological models and identifying potential open pit resources.

Kingston is currently ramping up production from the processing of existing tailings with full rates targeted to be reached this quarter.

The tailings processing operation is expected to unlock the broader potential of Mineral Hill, with minimal capital required to access several production-ready open pit and underground deposits.

Important step

Managing director Andrew Corbett said drilling at Mineral Hill would be an important step for Kingston on the path to establishing production beyond the tailings project.

“The Pearse deposits are an attractive place to start when planning mine life extension activities … with a relatively small investment, we believe additional drilling has the potential to underpin the first year of ore feed following completion of our tailings reprocessing project,” he said.

“Additionally, the significant potential evident at the Southern Ore Zone, Jacks Hut, Parkers Hill and the broader exploration package provides an outstanding base for us to extend the mine life at Mineral Hill.”

Project acquisition

Kingston acquired the Mineral Hill project last month from US company Quintana MH Holdings Co, transforming it into a producer with a diversified asset base in the Asia-Pacific region which also includes the 3.8 million ounce Misima gold project in Papua New Guinea.

Mineral Hill delivered immediate gold production, cash flow and gold-copper exploration opportunities within a tier-one mining district.

The project is considered to be considerably underexplored and its potential has been highlighted with the recent discovery of the Pearse and Red Terror deposits.

The Pearse North deposit hosts a resource of 300,000 tonnes at 2.7 grams per tonne gold for 26,000oz including a reserve of 180,000t at 2.5g/t gold for 15,000oz.

At the existing Pearse open pit, historic mining did not reach planned depths and approximately 140,000t of ore at 4.82g/t gold for 22,000oz remains in the mineral resource.

The Southern Ore Zone represents a potential underground mine which will leverage the existing decline development and infrastructure.

The zone was previously mined from underground utilising long-hole open stoping.

It has a current mineral resource base of 1.78Mt grading 1.79g/t gold, 18g/t silver, 1.2% copper, 1.2% lead and 1% zinc.