Less than a year after listing on the ASX, gold explorer Regener8 Resources has got boots on the ground with a focus on its greater Kookynie gold project near Western Australia’s historic mining town of the same name.
The company holds four tenements, with its Niagara North, Niagara East, Niagara West and Reach holdings, where it has highlighted several targets associated with historic shallow mines in the area.
The historic goldfield previously produced about 6700 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 25.8 grams per tonne gold for about 5100 ounces between 1898 and 1914. Regener8 now has plans to try and unlock the potential that its pioneering exploration predecessors may have missed.
The precious yellow metal was discovered in Kookynie in the late 1800s and led to a significant gold rush in the area, with the town growing to a population of 3500 by 1907. However, that figure has dropped significantly, with the Australian Census showing only 99 people living locally by 2021.
And while it still drips with nostalgia – and has some crumbling remnants of the once-heady days - a trip out into the now-ghostly townsite would suggest that number is likely to have further diminished.
Regener8 is looking to spark renewed interest in the area and has already successfully completed a maiden reverse-circulation (RC) drill campaign, with a particular focus on its Niagara West prospect.
A total of 33 holes were completed across 2530m after the program was expanded to include an additional hole at the Green Bullet target, where mapping identified outcropping quartz veins and historical workings.
The company says the campaign achieved the goals of confirming high-grade historical gold intersections, down-dip continuation of gold mineralisation and the confirmation of previously undrilled or lightly drilled prospects at Derwent and Green Bullet.
The RC program delivered some solid results, with one hole at its May prospect recording a 5m intercept at 3.18g/t gold from 29m, including 2m going 7.28g/t gold from 29m that also includes a 1m hit at an impressive 13.05g/t gold from 30m. A second hole showed a 2m section grading 4.49g/t gold from 39m. including 1m reading 8.42g/t gold from 40m.
The possibility of stacked mineralised structures in the Niagara area has been an ongoing hypothesis of geologists with knowledge of the district. Our observations and results from this maiden program are starting to suggest a strengthening possibility of occurrence, which further encourages future exploration for the prospect of a significant discovery. Regener8 Resources managing director Stephen Foley
Drilling at the previously untested Derwent prospect showed a 2m intercept at 7.77g/t gold from 45m, including 1m at 14.8g/t gold from 45m. The expanded program at the recently-discovered Green Bullet prospect also paid off with 1m at 2.28g/t gold from 81m, 1m grading 2.97g/t gold from 60m and 2m going 1.09g/t gold from 56m, including 1m reading 1.56g/t gold from 57m.
Regener8 says the outstanding high-grade intersections at its May and Derwent prospects underscore the high-grade nature – and potential – of gold mineralisation at Niagara West.
“We’ve pretty much mapped everything that’s there and we know what we want to target,” Mr Foley told Bulls N’ Bears.
“Our approach has been to take a systematic approach and we didn’t want to just go into it like a bull out of a gate. We didn’t want to just pepper this thing straight away with holes, we wanted to incrementally build our geological knowledge.
“It’s early days and we’re still trying to understand the geological model.”
While the company’s primary focus has been on the Niagara West area, it has also seen encouraging signs from early exploration at its other prospects. Management has identified a positive gold anomalism at Niagara North from historical drilling and geochemical surveys with potential underlying mineralisation to be investigated, with a future work program currently in the planning stage.
Initial results from an air-core (AC) program at Niagara East also returned positive results including up to 1m at 2.78g/t gold from just 19m. The Reach prospect has seen limited historical soil sampling and drilling and will also be assessed for future work.
Despite primarily being a gold explorer, the company says it is also actively seeking complementary opportunities and assets for its operation.
For a company that has not yet been listed for 12 months, Regener8 has shown it can put in the work and is steadily progressing with its Kookynie project. The market will be keen to see the results from follow-up exploration at the site as the explorer looks to put the historic part of the Goldfields back on the map.
Maybe then, the former WA harness racing horse known as “Willie”, who stands at the front of Kookynie’s Grand Hotel and who featured prominently in a recent WA Government tourism campaign, will not be the old township’s only modern star.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: office@bullsnbears.com.au
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