Kalamazoo Resources stitches up 15km-long Victorian gold-antimony play
Kalamazoo Resources (ASX: KZR) has dramatically expanded its hunt for a Fosterville-style gold-antimony deposit in Central Victoria, consolidating a massive 1,574-square-kilometre land package and confirming mineralisation with first-pass drilling at its Mt Piper project.
The company has secured new tenure over the Seymour and Hughes Creek exploration licenses, giving it continuous coverage ofver a 15-kilometre prospective structural corridor that slices through its 100 per cent-owned project.
A maiden reconnaissance aircore drilling campaign across the Whiteheads Hill target within that corridor has already delivered a significant proof-of-concept. A 15-hole, 328-metre program confirmed the presence of in-situ gold-antimony anomalism associated with a west-dipping structure, validating the fertility of the corridor.
While Kalamazoo describes the results as sub-economic, the company believes theyy are significant because they confirm the presence of a mineralised hydrothermal system. Peak values from the drilling returned 155 parts per million (ppm) antimony and 68 parts per billion (ppb) gold..
The results provide an early-stage sniff of what could be lurking below and give Kalamazoo’s geos the confidence to plan a systematic exploration assault along the now-secured 15km trend.
Away from the main corridor, reconnaissance work has also lit up other prospects. Rock chip sampling at the company's Kurkuruk prospect returned encouraging peak assays of 3.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 1428 ppm antimony over a 670m strike. Notably, Cunninghams features rock chips from historical hard rock workings up to a whopping 21g/t and an eye-catching, plus one per cent antimony.
The Mt Piper project lies in the shadow of some of Victoria’s most celebrated gold and antimony operations. Kalamazoo says it's targeting the same epizonal style of mineralisation found at Agnico Eagle’s world-class Fosterville mine, Mandalay Resources’ Costerfield operation and Southern Cross Gold’s emerging Sunday Creek discovery.
The Fosterville mine is one of the highest-grade gold operations in the world, while Costerfield is one of only two primary producers of antimony in Australia, a critical mineral used in flame retardants, batteries and defence applications.
Kalamazoo now plans to integrate hyperspectral imagery, high-resolution airborne gravity gradiometry and geochemistry to define and rank a pipeline of drill targets at Mt Piper.
Securing and expanding this tenure gives us a significant opportunity to systematically explore for new high-grade gold and gold-antimony deposits in a region with clear geological analogues to major Victorian systems including Fosterville, Costerfield, Nagambie and Sunday Creek. Kalamazoo Resources Exploration Director Ben Ackerman
While the Victorian hunt represents an exciting, province-scale exploration play, it sits alongside the company’s primary focus, its 100 per cent-owned Ashburton gold project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, which already showcases a 1.44-million-ounce gold resource. The company's Mt Olympus deposit is the star of the show, contributing 1.07 million ounces alongside the project's 210,000-ounce Peake, 121,000-ounce Zeus and 32,000-ounce Waugh deposits.
Recent infill drilling at Mt Olympus landed 20 metres grading a stunning 19g/t gold from just two metres below surface, while a second hit clocked a hefty 43 metres running 3.8g/t gold from surface, featuring a richer slice of 30m at 4.8g/t gold. An updated mineral resources estimate for Mt Olympus is slated for the final quarter of the calendar year, with a prefeasibility study expected to land by April next year.
Recent tenement applications have also expanded Kalamazoo's 100 per cent-controlled ground in the Ashburton region from 327 square kilometres to a district-scale 519 sq km.
With a major resource already defined in the west and a big-game hunt now underway in the east, Kalamazoo appears to be advancing on two fronts. And with early drilling in Victoria confirming the scent of mineralisation in the backyard of some of Australia’s richest mines, the next drill campaign at Mt Piper could be one to watch.
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