King River Resources has made an eye-catching start at its recently acquired Mindoolah gold project in Western Australia’s Murchison province, with its first-pass drill campaign finding plenty of shallow, high-grade gold intercepts.
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campaign → make → intercepts
The company’s maiden reverse-circulation program delivered an impressive 79 per cent hit rate, with 15 of the 19 holes intersecting significant mineralisation at an average depth of just 41 metres.
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15 → deliver → metres
The successful drill campaign tested targets defined by a recent surface sampling blitz, which had lit up the project area.
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which → test → area
The company’s initial fieldwork returned a suite of high-grade rock chips, including stunning results of 44.3 grams per tonne (g/t) and 22.6g/t gold that have now been validated at depth.
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that → return → depth
King River’s best results from its phase-one program at Mindoolah, located about 70km north-west of Cue, include a high-grade hit of 1m at 13.59g/t gold from just 43m at the Bertram’s prospect.
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results → locate → prospect
At the Le Soleil prospect, drilling confirmed mineralisation beneath historical workings with a 3-metre intercept grading 4.7g/t gold from 38m, including a solid 1-metre section going 10.7g/t gold.
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drilling → confirm → gold
Notably, the Le Soleil hole, which ended in mineralisation, was forced to an early stop at just 42m due to swelling clays.
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which → end → clays
‘What makes these results particularly compelling is just how shallow this mineralisation is across the project.’King River Resources managing director Graham Gadsby
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mineralisation → make → Gadsby
The results from Bertram’s have confirmed both high-grade quartz veins and broader mineralised halos.
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results → confirm → veins
In addition to the headline 13.59g/t gold hit, other notable results from the prospect included a 12-metre section assaying 1.1g/t gold from 35m, featuring a higher-grade one-metre core grading 5.41g/t gold.
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results → include → gold
Another hole returned 4m at 1.62g/t gold from a shallow 24m, including a richer one-metre slice of 4.85g/t gold.
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hole → return → gold
King River Resources managing director Graham Gadsby said: “Delivering a ~79% hit rate from our maiden Phase 1 RC program at Mindoolah is an exceptional outcome that strongly validates the geological and structural targeting model we have established.
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we → say → model
Equally exciting is our single test hole at Le Soleil, which returned shallow gold of 3m @ 4.70 g/t Au including 1m @ 10.70 g/t Au right near the end of the hole before swelling clays forced an early stop at just 42m.”
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clays → return → m.
Another layer of intrigue in the Mindoolah story is a curious mismatch between the history books and what remains on the ground.
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what → remain → ground
While official records from a modern open-pit run in the 1980’s show just 38,589 tonnes were mined, King River’s own calculations of the void carved out across the project’s pits suggest a colossal 1.08 million tonnes of material was actually excavated.
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tonnes → show → material
Even after accounting for waste stockpiles, a huge volume of rock appears unaccounted for, hinting that either a significant amount of gold-bearing material still remains on site, or much more ore was processed than the old records show.
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records → account → site
The company says the drilling at Bertram’s has confirmed continuity along a northeast-trending dyke and quartz-vein system.
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drilling → say → system
It believes the results demonstrate that Mindoolah hosts both discrete, high-grade veins and wider mineralised zones within the host granite.
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Mindoolah → believe → granite
The results come at an opportune time, with the gold price remaining historically strong and M&A activity for WA gold assets staying lively, underlining a healthy appetite for drill-ready ground in proven mineral provinces.
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activity → come → provinces
King River appears well-funded for its renewed exploration push, with $3.67 million in cash as at the end of June, having recently bolstered its coffers with the strategic sale of some of the shares it holds in Tivan Limited.
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it → appear → Limited
The company currently retains 77 million shares in Tivan, worth a further $15.6 million.
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company → retain → Tivan
With a follow-up phase-two RC drilling program scheduled to kick off this month along with a new aeromagnetic survey to refine additional targets, the company looks set to keep the exploration momentum rolling at Mindoolah.
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momentum → schedule → Mindoolah
With a proven targeting model, a fistful of cash, and a historical mining riddle to solve, King River’s follow-up work at its new Murchison gold play could get very interesting very quickly.
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work → solve → play
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting?
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company → list → something
The Aporia
