Kairos Minerals (ASX:KAI) is confident its Mt York project has emerged as a top-shelf Western Australia gold project with genuine scale and ongoing growth potential following the release of a significantly upgraded resource.
The 26% increase in the resource stems from recent highly successful drilling campaign; ~15,000m of drilling completed in 2021.
The 1,104,000 ozs Au resource has increased to 1,329,000 ozs Au at 0.5 g/t Au lower cut-off.
The company says the resource growth also reflects extension of assumed pit depth to take into account significant mineralisation excluded from previous inventory.
Kairos has signed a 20,000m drilling contract signed with Orlando Drilling, which is set to start within days targeting further significant resource growth.
Drilling will take place in parallel with geotechnical assessment and metallurgical test work.
“This substantial resource increase is a game-changer for Kairos on several levels,” Managing Director, Dr Peter Turner, said.
“Mt York now has genuine scale at 1.1Moz in a tier-one location. And the results demonstrate the huge potential for further increases, with the mineralisation open in all directions and constrained only by drilling.
“Our resource optimisation work on the Main Trend outlines a single 3km-long pit constrained only by drilling at depth.
“A major 20,000m drilling program has started with the aim of continuing to grow the inventory along strike and at depth and between the current optimal pit shells.
“We will also undertake important geotechnical and metallurgical work in preparation for a pre-feasibility study.”
Resource Estimate 2020 v 2022
The current resource estimate was based on mineralised envelopes developed on a 0.3 g/t Au lower cut-off whereas the previous estimate was based on wireframes developed on a guideline cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t Au.
Indicated and inferred resource estimate of 20.9 MT @ 1.30 g/t Au for 873,500 ozs has been superceded by a resource of 28.01 MT @ 1.23 g/t Au for 1,104,000 ozs. The 2020 resource model had a 0.5 g/t lower cut-off grade applied whereas the current model has a 0.7 g/t Au lower cut-off applied.
Increases in the current resources are experienced across each of the prospects but particularly at the Main Trend. The contained ounces across all deposits have increased from 873,500 ounces to 1,104,000 ounces, representing a 26% increase.
The Main Trend contained ounces has increased from 698,000 ounces to 899,000 ounces, an increase of 201,000 ounces or 29%. Tonnage increases of 34% and 35% for global and Main Trend deposits are seen in the current resource.
Increases in resources were attributed to the wide, higher-grade intercepts at The Gap prospect with new results of 49m @ 1.75 g/t Au from 135m (KMYC196) and 24m @ 3.14 g/t Au from 100m (KMYC198) (see KAI Press Announcement dated 25 May 2022) extending the previous resource model in that area.
All of the higher-grade mineralised trends are open at depth and are being targeted in the next round of drilling.
For further information please visit: https://www.kairosminerals.com.au/
