Kingfisher (LON:KGF) Mining Ltd (ASX:KFM) has completed its 2022 drill program targeting rare earth element (REE) mineralisation below high-grade outcropping at the Mick Well REE Project in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia.
The company’s latest drill program consisted of 37 drill holes across 4,225 metres, designed to target the high-grade REE mineralisation at MW2, where rock chip results above 40% TREO have been returned.
First samples from the drilling are already in the laboratory in Perth, with initial assays expected in January 2023.
Moving forward, Kingfisher anticipates that the next program will include follow-up drilling along with drill testing of new targets at MW2 as well as maiden drilling at MW7.
“Fantastic year”
Kingfisher executive director and CEO James Farrell said: “I am pleased to announce the completion of drilling at Mick Well for 2022.
“Four drill holes added to the program and five other holes had to be delayed and will now be completed as part of our next drill program which we anticipate will include infill and additional drilling at MW2 as well as first-pass exploration drilling at MW7.
“2022 was a fantastic year for the company.
“In January we announced the breakthrough REE discovery at MW2 and not long after, we followed up with further high-grade monazite mineralisation intercepts with 5 metres at 3.45% TREO and from the same program, we also identified high-grade clay hosted REE mineralisation at the Mick Well prospect.
“As the year progressed, we continued to make discoveries of outcropping high-grade REEs, first in the MW2 area and then at MW7 and MW8.
“Our understanding of the geology in the Mick Well area is steadily advancing and we certainly believe we are looking at a regional-scale REE system with potential for large-scale carbonatite intrusions.”
Drill program
The program was also designed to significantly expand upon previous drill results from MW2 which included 5 metres at 3.45% total rare earth oxides (TREO), where the high-grade monazite mineralisation occurs within well-developed potassium, sodium and mafic fenites that are associated with the intrusion of carbonatites.
Four additional holes were added to the program during drilling and due to constraints associated with rig availability five drill holes in the initial plan were delayed and will now be prioritised for completion in 2023.
Farrell added: “We are also seeing more similarities between MW2 and Hastings’ world-class Yangibana Project, and in particular, the Bald Hill deposit, which makes up the majority of the mineral resources at Yangibana.
“This is particularly important for the company due to the significant breakthroughs we have already made at this early stage of exploration which has covered just 5 kilometres of the 54-kilometre Chalba target corridor.
“In addition to the Chalba target corridor, we were fortunate to have tenure which covers a second 18-kilometre target REE corridor along the Lockier shear granted.
“This area makes up our new Mooloo Project and will be included in our exploration activities for 2023.
“We are looking forward to receiving the assay results from the drilling with the last of the samples expected to be delivered to Perth before Christmas and the first of the assay results expected in January 2023.”
"I would like to thank shareholders for their support and all of those involved in the project during 2022, I am already looking forward to continuing our exploration work in 2023.”
About the project
The Mick Well and Kingfisher projects are about 230 kilometres east of Carnarvon, in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia.
Kingfisher holds exploration licences covering 969 square kilometres and has recently increased its interests in the Gascoyne Mineral Field by nearly 40% through the targeted pegging of additional tenure interpreted to be prospective for rare earth elements.
The tenure includes rocks of the Proterozoic Durlacher Suite that hosts the world-class Yangibana Deposit which includes 29.93 million tonnes at 0.93% TREO as well as the Archaean Halfway Gneiss.