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Murray Ward
King River Resources has made an eye-catching start at its recently acquired Mindoolah gold project in Western Australiaโs Murchison province, with its first-pass drill campaign finding plenty of shallow, high-grade gold intercepts. The companyโs 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.
The successful drill campaign tested targets defined by a recent surface sampling blitz, which had lit up the project area. The companyโs 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.
King Riverโs 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 Bertramโs 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.
Notably, the Le Soleil hole, which ended in mineralisation, was forced to an early stop at just 42m due to swelling clays.
โWhat makes these results particularly compelling is just how shallow this mineralisation is across the project.โ
King River Resources managing director Graham Gadsby
The results from Bertramโs have confirmed both high-grade quartz veins and broader mineralised halos. 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. Another hole returned 4m at 1.62g/t gold from a shallow 24m, including a richer one-metre slice of 4.85g/t gold.
King River Resources managing director Graham Gadsby said: โDelivering 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. 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.โ
Another layer of intrigue in the Mindoolah story is a curious mismatch between the history books and what remains on the ground. While official records from a modern open-pit run in the 1980โs show just 38,589 tonnes were mined, King Riverโs own calculations of the void carved out across the projectโs pits suggest a colossal 1.08 million tonnes of material was actually excavated. 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.
The company says the drilling at Bertramโs has confirmed continuity along a northeast-trending dyke and quartz-vein system. It believes the results demonstrate that Mindoolah hosts both discrete, high-grade veins and wider mineralised zones within the host 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.
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. The company currently retains 77 million shares in Tivan, worth a further $15.6 million.
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.
With a proven targeting model, a fistful of cash, and a historical mining riddle to solve, King Riverโs follow-up work at its new Murchison gold play could get very interesting very quickly.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
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