Kingfisher (LON:KGF) Mining Ltd (ASX:KFM) has started its drilling program at the Mick Well REE project in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia.
This program will include 39 drill holes for about 4,000 metres and is designed to target the high-grade REE mineralisation at MW2, where rock chip results over 40% TREO have been returned.
Mapping and sampling have also delineated five parallel lodes of outcropping mineralisation within a 300-metre-wide mineralised zone. The cumulative strike length of the five mineralised lodes within the MW2 mineralised zone is 3 kilometres, with all of the lodes remaining open in all directions.
Importantly, the mineralisation targeted in the current program is only 500 metres northwest of KFM’s discovery drilling in the MW2 area where previously reported high-grade results included 5 metres at 3.45% TREO, including 3 metres at 5.21% TREO as well as 12 metres at 1.12% TREO, with 4 metres at 1.84% TREO.
MW2 planned RC drill holes, mineralisation and rock chip samples. The outcropping mineralisation is 500 metres northwest of Kingfisher’s MW2 discovery drill holes which included 5 metres at 3.45% TREO, with 3 metres at 5.21% TREO and 12 metres at 1.12% TREO, with 4 metres at 1.84% TREO.
Kingfisher’s executive director and CEO James Farrell said of the current program: “We are thrilled to have the drill program at MW2 underway. The program brings together several months of work in mapping, sampling and delineating the surface outcrops of mineralisation at MW2.
“Our previous drilling at Mick Well which led to the discovery of the rare earths mineralisation in the area returned high-grade mineralisation over 5 metres at 3.5% TREO. We hope to see similar results from this program, particularly as we are drilling a target where we have identified an area of well-developed mineralisation at surface.
“Our surface exploration programs are ongoing and will continue during the drilling program. This work aims to develop a pipeline of exploration targets in this exciting and emerging rare earths region.“
Aerial photograph of the MW2 area showing the drill lines and the location of the NE-trending mineralised dykes.
Fieldwork to continue
While KFM spins the drillbit, it is also continuing its current mapping and rock-chipping work to target a large number of laterally-extensive high-priority targets in a broad area that extends 10 kilometres west-northwest from MW2.
These targets are associated with carbonatite complexes as well as high thorium and magnetic responses – similar to what is seen from the newly identified outcropping mineralisation at MW2.
Significantly, all of these targets within this 10-kilometre-long area also lie within KFM’s target corridor, the Chalba Shear Zone, which extends for 54 kilometres across its Gascoyne tenure.
A busy 2022
Kingfisher has been busy with extensive and targeted exploration programs at its Gascoyne projects.
Through this work, the company aims to develop and test drill targets from ground-based mapping and rock sampling, but it also plans to develop a pipeline of exploration opportunities by integrating current and scheduled tenement-scale airborne geophysical surveys with geological knowledge from its breakthrough REE discovery at Mick Well.
You can see the hard work KFM has put in this year in the table below:
What’s next for KFM
- November 2022: Additional results from MW2.
- November 2022: Annual general meeting.
- November 2022: Additional results from MW7.
- December 2022: Results from airborne geophysics surveys.
- December 2022: Results from ongoing surface mapping and rock chip sampling in the Mick Well area.
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