Microcap explorer Killi Resources has welcomed South African major Gold Fields as an investor and partner.
The option and joint venture agreement signed over the West Tanami project, in remote Western Australia, will allow Killi to focus on its exciting Mt Rawdon West project, one of two projects the company holds in Queensland.
Mt Rawdon West is just 8km along strike from Evolution Mining’s circa 70,000 ounce per annum Mt Rawdon mine in the highly prospective New England Fold Belt, which also hosts Gympie and Cracow epithermal gold mines and the Mount Morgan gold-copper porphyry deposit.
Killi recently completed first pass work at Mt Rawdon, which returned better-than-expected results.
Rock chip results returned grades of up to 7.2% copper and 12.4 grams per tonne gold within a 4.5km by 1.5km copper-gold-molybdenum soil anomaly at Baloo.
Using a Centre for Exploration Targeting-pioneered geophysical tool, Killi has identified multiple blind intrusives.
“We really love Mt Rawdon West, so we're dying to get out and do work there,” Killi Resources CEO Kathryn Cutler said.
Cutler will head to Queensland later this week to do just that.
“The project really is shaping up to look like it's got multiple layers of prospectivity,” she said.
“I'll be going out and we'll start mapping and further reconnaissance. The mapping will really focus on identifying veining and alteration, which is really important for porphyry and epithermal copper-gold systems.”
Following that, the company will conduct an induced polarisation (IP) survey to define drill targets at Baloo and the 1.8km by 400m Kaa anomaly.
IP was pivotal in discovery of one of Australia’s biggest porphyry deposits – the Cadia mine in New South Wales.
“One of the points for exploration for these styles of systems is don't pull a rig in too fast before you've got all your data,” Cutler said.
“That's got a much higher success rate than then just going and sort of doing a shallow drill program across the surface of the anomalies.
“Following on from that we’ll then start a maiden drill campaign at the project, based on the results of the IP survey.”
Gold Fields agreement
Gold Fields, which is Australia’s third-largest gold producer by ounces, already has a 15% stake in Killi’s Tanami neighbour, Hamelin Gold.
Killi is the second-largest landholder in the region behind Hamelin with 1600sq.km.
Killi CEO Kathryn Cutler said the company made the decision to seek a partner for the project due to its size and was quickly approached by Gold Fields.
She described Gold Fields’ involvement as a “big feather in the cap”.
Under the joint venture agreement, Gold Fields can earn up to 85% in West Tanami by spending A$13 million over two stages.
The JV will be managed by Gold Fields and a technical committee will be formed featuring an equal split of members from each company.
As part of the agreement, Gold Fields has agreed to invest A$500,000 in Killi as part of a broader oversubscribed A$1.5 million share placement, which will fund work at Mt Rawdon West.
Orogenic potential
The West Tanami project is about 100km along strike from Newmont Corporation’s world-class Callie mine, which is currently being expanded.
“And we're directly along strike and surround one of the largest granitoid intrusions on the western edge of the Tanami belt,” Cutler said.
“It's a really big project to sink our teeth into, so we needed to find a partner that understood the potential, understood large-scale big elephant country, but also understands that technically, it may take a few years to get it up to where it needs to be for a really large discovery.
“Gold Fields is definitely that partner for us.”
‘Last frontier’
Cutler admitted the Tanami was not for the faint of heart.
“It's really the last frontier in exploration in this country, because it is challenging – the weather alone is challenging,” she said.
A heavy wet season saw the Halls Creek-Fitzroy Crossing Bridge washed away, limiting access to the region from Perth.
“But the isolation, there is reasonably no infrastructure within a few hundred kilometres – and I mean none,” Cutler said.
“That's why it's so underexplored. It takes so much energy and money to just get out there that when you do get out there, you only manage to do sort of small piecemeal programs and that's definitely all a junior can do.
“But that's why you need a major partner, because they can provide that support all the way through the season … those guys will end up having a camp out there, which will make things a lot easier to manage.”