Kingfisher Mining (ASX:KFM) believes it has found the ‘best’ rare earths targets for testing as it plans a maiden drilling program for 2024 at the LK1 prospect in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia.
Speaking with Mining.com.au, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) James Farrell says the company has been waiting to conduct drilling until it has developed a pipeline of targets within the area, and these latest results have exceeded expectations.
“I think we’ve now reached that point where we have two areas, 30km apart at Mick Well and at LK1, where we’ve got some really cracking targets to get the drill stuck into.”
“we’ve got some really cracking targets to get the drill stuck into”
At this stage, the program will at least consist of reverse circulation (RC) drilling, according to Farrell.
The $9.93 million market capitalisation company recently completed airborne magnetics, radio metrics, and ground-based gravity surveys in the project area, which revealed several ‘large’ rare earth element (REE) anomalies at LK1, with peak light rare earth oxide (LREO) value of 0.21%.
Kingfisher reports the anomalies discovered coincide with the new carbonatite pipe targets identified at LK1, with the two ‘larger’ pipe targets both more than 1,000m in diameter, extending from near the surface to depths of more than 1,000m below the ground.
Farrell says: “The ground-based geochemistry survey is what really defines those sort of highly anomalous rare earth zones around these geophysics features.”
Further, surface mapping around the targets has confirmed the presence of ironstones, which have returned anomalous rock chip results of 0.12% and 0.10% total rare earth oxide (TREO).
The company plans to continue focusing on rare earths in the Gascoyne heading into 2024 and will be moving its pipeline of targets that have been built up out of the early exploration phase and into drill testing.
Kingfisher notes that while LK1 is mostly undercover, the prospect shares similarities with the ‘large, high-grade’ carbonatite discovery at Mick Well, which lies 30km east of LK1.
Kingfisher Mining is an ASX-listed rare earths and copper-gold explorer focused on its 1,676km-square tenement holding in the underexplored Ashburton and Gascoyne Mineral Fields of Western Australia.
As of 30 September 2023, the company had $2.692 million cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Kingfisher Mining
