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KalGold lines up biggest drill blitz yet at Laverton gold

Headshot of Rowena Duckworth
Drilling rigs will be operating in the coming months at Kalgoorlie Gold Mining’s Pinjin gold project in Western Australia’s eastern Goldfields.
Camera IconDrilling rigs will be operating in the coming months at Kalgoorlie Gold Mining’s Pinjin gold project in Western Australia’s eastern Goldfields. Credit: File

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining is gearing up for the biggest drilling campaign yet at its Pinjin gold project near Laverton, with multiple rigs set to test extensions of known mineralisation while probing fresh discovery ground along one of Western Australia’s most fertile gold corridors.

The company plans to fire up a suite of drilling programs from mid-April targeting the Kirgella Gift–Providence system, the emerging Lighthorse discovery and a series of new structural targets along the Laverton Tectonic Zone.

The upcoming campaign will include the full trifecta - reverse circulation drilling (RC), diamond drilling and wide-spaced aircore programs designed to both grow the existing gold resource and hunt for entirely new mineralised systems beneath transported cover.

An initial 41-hole RC program totalling about 6850 metres will focus on Kirgella Gift–Providence, where KalGold is looking to extend mineralisation to the north and west. The campaign will also look to tighten drill spacing within the existing JORC inferred mineral resource envelope, estimated at 2.34 million tonnes at one gram per tonne(g/t) gold for 76,400 ounces.

As mineralisation remains open in multiple directions, management believes the current drilling could reveal more key structures leading to the discovery of further gold along strike and at depth.

In parallel with the work at Kirgella Gift–Providence, the company will also kick off drilling at its neighbouring Lighthorse prospect with a combination of infill and extensional holes targeting conductive features defined by geophysical surveys.

Diamond drilling will then be rolled out to test deeper potential beneath Kirgella Gift and Providence, with four holes planned to probe high-grade primary gold mineralisation at depths of 80 to 200 metres below the current resource.

Beyond the known deposits, KalGold is also preparing a much larger greenfields reconnaissance program to explore previously untouched ground.

Up to 215 aircore holes covering 10,750 metres will be plunged into the Laverton Tectonic Zone Flexure target - a major structural bend roughly 3.5 kilometres southeast of the Kirgella Gift–Providence system.

This area lies entirely beneath transported cover and, remarkably for the area, has never been systematically explored despite geophysical surveys throwing up extensive demagnetisation features that hint at underlying gold mineralisation.

The renowned Laverton Tectonic Zone is a significant corridor in WA’s Eastern Goldfields, hosting several big gold deposits, including heavyweight operations such as AngloGold Ashanti’s Sunrise Dam, as well as Goldfields’ Granny Smith and Wallaby mines. Its rich endowment has long made the region a prime hunting ground for explorers chasing new discoveries.

KalGold’s tenure stretches across 22 kilometres of highly prospective gold-bearing strike, 140 kilometres northeast of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and is squarely within one of the most sought-after addresses in Australian gold exploration.

Notably, it sits neatly between Hawthorn Resources’ high-grade Anglo Saxon deposit, which boasts 157,000 ounces at 6.1g/t and Ramelius Resources’ one-million-ounce Rebecca project, adding a healthy dose of regional credibility to the current exploration model. The latter already has a pre-feasibility study in place, mapping a clear route to production by 2027.

After unforeseen drill rig availability challenges driven by very strong industry demand, KalGold is accelerating exploration at Pinjin because we see outstanding potential for project advancement and significant discovery.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining managing director Matt Painter

The company is also progressing discussions with the Kakarra Aboriginal Corporation following a 2025 native title determination to nut out a new heritage protection agreement covering its exploration activities across the southern Pinjin and Bulong Taurus projects.

With multiple rigs planned and a pipeline of targets stretching along the Laverton Tectonic Zone, KalGold is positioning itself to systematically test the broader gold potential of the Pinjin project.

And with gold prices still hovering around record highs, explorers drilling along proven structural corridors like the Laverton belt are increasingly hoping the next hole could uncover the next big thing.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au

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