Kula, Aurumin hit paydirt at historic WA Mt Palmer gold tailings
Channel sampling on the tailings dump at Kula Gold and Aurumin Limited’s historic Mt Palmer gold mine in Western Australia’s Southern Cross Goldfields has hit paydirt with grades as high as 17.9 grams a tonne (g/t) gold.
Kula owns 51 per cent of the joint venture (JV) and has the option of moving to 80 per cent by spending $1 million on exploration drilling across three years.
Overall, 146 waste pile survey samples were taken that averaged an impressive 1.7g/t gold. The results confirm a theory that the very basic recovery process used by the old timers 80 years ago has allowed plenty of gold to slip through to the keeper.
Management says the initial findings suggest a highly nuggety gold distribution, which might open the door to a simple and cost-effective recovery process.
Given the current surging gold price, which is sitting at an all-time high and slightly shy of the magic $5000 mark, these trenching results are likely to give the project a major boost as the JV partners look to turn a quick buck with a fast and easy toll treatment exercise.
In tandem with the latest sampling, the JV has conducted a 658-metre air core program at the dump to drill out 46 holes, 14m deep, using a systematic grid pattern.
The quick campaign was designed to determine the exact size of the waste pile – which is estimated at 200,000 tonnes – and provide a more detailed picture of the gold distribution left behind. Assay results are expected in the next couple of weeks.
We are moving this quickly to detailed sampling and extending the program across all old mine dumps as well as surveying volumes and conducting metallurgical test work for potential low-cost gravity extraction.
Kula and Aurumin’s leases at Mt Palmer cover a 10-kilometre stretch of the highly prospective Southern Cross gold belt. When the old mine was active in the late 1930s and the early 1940s it produced more than 150,000 ounces of the yellow metal at a stunning 15.9g/t grade. Operations at site closed down in 1944 due to war conscription and never reopened.
Beyond the promising dump samples, the JV is also ramping up a wider exploration strategy, with a reverse circulation drilling program kicking off this week to test high-grade targets along the gold belt.
With the rapidly improving prospects of some sort of near-term production, the broader plan is to use any cashflow to put towards a more aggressive exploration campaign around and under the historic mine.
Since the old workings only reached down to 150m underground and only seven holes have been drilled below them, the company is keen to do more detailed exploration in the firm belief that more treasure may lie beneath.
Kula’s latest results appear to be catching the market’s attention with the company’s share price hitting 0.8 cents today, up as much as 100 per cent this week on its best volume in weeks.
The JV partners are expecting the air core assays to drop any day now, which means laser-focussed punters are likely to be watching closely as they look for opportunities to cash in on the current gold rush.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au
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