Kingwest Resources Limited (ASX: KWR) has declared a highly encouraging update on the Lady Harriet – Bellenger – Warrior System and Selkirk Prospects within its Menzies gold project (MGP) in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields region.
Kingwest reported that the Menzies and Goongarrie JORC Mineral Resources Estimates (MRE’s) have grown to + 250,000 ounces. The company said that near surface gold MRE’s has increased and the deeper drilling targeting high-grade gold extensions is continuing.
KWR reported that the Menzies Gold Project near surface MRE’s now totals 233,300 ounces and Menzies – Goongarrie combined total is now 258,336 ounces.
The company said that near surface Menzies MRE’s continued to increase from 171koz Au in Dec 2019, and 208koz Au in February 2020, to 233k oz Au in March 2020. KWR is anticipating continued work to further increase MRE’s.
The company reported that several large deposits (Lady Shenton, First Hit) do not have near-surface MRE’s but are being drilled currently.
KWR said that pit optimisation and economic studies are ongoing for several deposits and others are planned.
Menzies-Goongarrie project
Menzies is located 130 km north of Kalgoorlie and is reached via the sealed Goldfields Highway. The Menzies area is comprised of multiple mining leases, exploration, and prospecting licences.
The Menzies area comprises multiple prospects including: Lady Irene, Warrior, Selkirk, First Hit, Pericles, Lady Shenton, Lady Harriet- Bellenger, Aspacia, and Yunndaga.
Important deposit within Goongarrie project is the Goongarrie Lady deposit.
The Menzies gold project has recorded historical production of 643,200 oz @ 22.5g/t Au1 from underground (U/G) between 1895 and 1943 plus 145,000 oz @ 2.6g/t Au1 open cut between 1995 and 1999, for a total of 787,200 oz @ 18.9g/t1 Au.
Updated MRE for Lady Harriet-Bellenger, Warrior, Selkirk
Kingwest Resources Ltd. has now announced the updated Mineral Resource Estimate’s (MRE’s) for the Lady Harriet – Bellenger – Warrior System and Selkirk Prospects at its Menzies Gold Project. KWR said that this has prepared and reported in accordance with the JORC Code (2012).
The company reported that the new estimates are based on new drilling by Kingwest Resources in 2019 and re-evaluation and remodelling of the various deposits. The new geological interpretation and resource estimate has been complete by Don Maclean, a consultant to Kingwest Resources.
Assay data used for MRE
Kingwest said that the MRE is based on geological assay data from 134 RC drill holes at Lady Harriet-Bellenger, 22 RC drill holes at Warrior and 44 RC and 3 diamond core drill holes at Selkirk completed up to the end of December 2019. RC drilling was completed by previous project operators. The Selkirk and Lady Harriet prospects
also have historic grade control drilling and channel sampling information which was used to assist in modelling the upper portions of the various lodes.
Focus on gold below old pits
The Company said that is maintaining its focus on the high-grade gold below old pits and the steady, incremental increases in near surface resources.
KWR said that the current deeper, high-grade drilling targets as part of the Exploration Target are all below historically mined (1990’s) open pit mines with underground mining (ended 1940’s) of plunging shoots which are proven to be continuing at depths in excess of 600m vertical.
Updated MRE reported
The company said that the Warrior and Bellenger Resources are shallow extending from near surface to 120 metres below surface and have potential to be exploited as open pits.
KWR said that the resources estimated at Selkirk and Lady Harriet extend below previously mined shallow open pits and may be able to be mined via pit cut-backs.
The new estimates are presented in the table below.
35% increase
The company reported that the resources at Lady – Harriet -Warrior have increased by 35% since the previous estimate in March 2016. Selkirk was not previously reported.
The company said that this difference can be attributed to differences in domaining, classification, additional drilling and differences in bulk density values used.
Kingwest said that it plans to undertake pit optimisation and economic studies in the coming months to evaluate the potential for open pit mining of these resources.
Total MRE now greater than 250,000
Kingwest annnounced that it has increased near-surface resources at the MGP to 233,300 ounces of gold while combined resources across the MGP and nearby Goongarrie project now totals 258,336 ounces of gold within 3.9 million tonnes grading 2.03 g/t of gold.
The updated MRE add to the totals at Menzies and Goongarrie are as shown below.
Future plans
Kingwest announced that it is working with relevant consultants to conduct open pit optimisation studies on the MRE’s at Menzies and Goongarrie.
KWR said that additional drilling is planned to infill Inferred Portions of the resource and to obtain material for bulk density and metallurgical testwork. The company said that a new site DTM will also be obtained.
Management comments
Kingwest CEO Ed Turner said: “We are very pleased to continue to continue to increase our near surface gold resources whilst at the same time we target deeper higher-grade resources.
We are investigating profit share arrangements with third parties to potentially mine these shallow resources while we focus on the higher-grade deeper targets.”