Kalamazoo Resources stacks up more Pilbara gold ahead of feasibility study
- Penny Taylor
- 11 hours ago
- 3 min read
Kalamazoo Resources (ASX: KZR) has completed a major 72-hole, 13,726-metre resource definition drilling program at its flagship, 100 per cent-owned Ashburton gold project in Western Australia’s Pilbara.
The company says the latest high-grade results have strengthened its confidence in the project’s cornerstone Mt Olympus deposit.
The campaign has ticked off a key development milestone by de-risking the 1.44-million-ounce gold inventory and materially increasing geological certainty ahead of an updated resource estimate and a prefeasibility study (PFS).
With infill drilling across a tightened 20m by 20m spacing now complete, assay results from its final 15 holes have demonstrated excellent continuity of gold mineralisation across Mt Olympus.
Management says the narrower drilling is expected to upgrade additional inferred mineral resources into the higher-confidence indicated category – an important step in optimising future mine scheduling and completing the upcoming PFS.
Standout intercepts from the latest assays included a 20-metre hit grading 3.1 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 62m, a shallow 9-metre section grading 6.0g/t gold from just 22m and 22m running at 3.6g/t gold from 61m.
Other notable results from the latest assays, reinforcing grade and continuity, included 17.6m at 5.0g/t gold, a broad 60-metre interval at 1.3g/t gold and 14m at 5.4g/t gold.
Several holes also intersected mineralisation beyond the current resource envelope yet remained inside the conceptual pit shell, hinting that additional mineable ounces may already exist within the planned development footprint.
Further assay results from the completed resource definition program are due in the coming weeks and are expected to feed into the updated resource estimate.
Ashburton continues to demonstrate the characteristics we believe are essential for a high-quality Australian gold development project: scale, grade, growth potential, and attractive project economics. Kalamazoo Resources CEO Andrew McDougall
With resource confidence banked at Mt Olympus, Kalamazoo has gone back on the offensive with a twin program of fresh drilling to chase new ounces.
The first is targeting underground extensions beneath and down-plunge of the planned Mt Olympus open pit. It follows earlier drilling in March that returned a whopping 43.8m grading 3.4g/t gold from 93m, including 21m at 4.6g/t gold, confirming the continuation of high-grade mineralisation beneath the conceptual pit shell.
The second set of holes is being directed towards the nearby high-grade Peake deposit to test extensions of high-grade shoots under the old pit. Success at Peake could establish a nearby high-grade ore source, materially extending the project’s potential mine life.
Results from both the Mt Olympus underground and Peake growth drilling programs will be reported as they become available.
The Ashburton project lies 35km south-east of Paraburdoo in one of Australia’s premier mining jurisdictions and is a classic brownfields revival story. Ashburton historically produced 350,000 ounces of gold between 1998 and 2004.
It now hosts a global resource of 1.44 million ounces spread across four orebodies, led by the 1.07-million-ounce Mt Olympus, alongside the 210,000-ounce Peake, the 121,000-ounce Zeus and the 32,000-ounce Waugh deposits.
The company is also thinking beyond its existing resource, recently submitting applications for six additional exploration licences adjacent to the Ashburton project to extend its footprint along the same mineralised trend. If granted, the move would expand its 100 per cent-controlled Ashburton landholding by almost 192 square kilometres, bringing it to a district-scale 519 square kilometres.
The backdrop for this de-risking and expansion remains an exceptionally strong Australian-dollar gold price. Higher prices have steadily improved the economics of bringing additional ounces into future mine plans, making successful resource growth increasingly valuable.
As Kalamazoo works towards an updated resource estimate and prefeasibility study later this year, Ashburton is increasingly looking less like an exploration success story and more like a future WA gold mine.
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