Kula on mission to bring historic WA gold mine back to life
Kula Gold is anxiously awaiting results from two new diamond drillholes plugged into Western Australia’s historic Mount Palmer mine near Marvel Loch after testing for extensions to the orebody that was last mined in 1944.
The Mount Palmer mine sits about 15km east of the Marvel Loch gold plant and infrastructure and about 90km from the Edna May gold plant. It produced more than 150,000 ounces of gold at 15.9 grams per tonne between 1934 and 1944 before closing due to labour and materials shortages caused by World War II.
The mine was subsequently flooded and was never reopened, although limited exploration since then has mainly targeted shallow open-pit mining opportunities. Kula has been quick to rekindle exploration activities at the historic site after claiming 51 per cent of the operation from fellow ASX-listed junior Aurumin in late May. While awaiting the return of the diamond drilling assays, the company is also exploring four other new targets near the Mount Palmer mine.
In an update released today, management says it has also obtained positive leachability indications after re-analysing selected 1m sample intervals from its previous reverse-circulation (RC) drilling at Mount Palmer, which had initially been assayed by fire assay. That repeat analysis was undertaken to resolve disparities in the initial results and involved subjecting the samples to the trademarked Leachwell digestion process and fire assay analysis of the resultant leach residue tail.
The re-analysis shows significantly improved gold recovery – up to a 320 per cent grade improvement – and that the leach tails (residue after leaching) comprise low refractory material.
It means feed material from mining could potentially be processed directly via a carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuit, with a reasonable expectation of a good outcome from conventional cyanide leach. The company says it considers that a bulk-leach test on a bigger sample would be justified to cement its conclusions.
The diamond core had excellent recovery and will provide excellent structural data for analysis on this exciting high-grade project last mined in 1944. Excellent new prospects such as the El Dorado (6m @ 8.3g/t gold from 28m including 1m @ 45.4g/t gold from 30m with no follow-up) are being advanced to drill-ready status for a planned RC program.
While continuing its evaluation of the Mount Palmer mineralisation and in line with its strategy of exploring near existing operations “in the shadow of the headframe”, Kula has also sought other nearby gold opportunities.
The plan includes advancing its Bryant’s Lode prospect that returned a shallow 4m intercept going 3.02g/t gold from 18m near surface, which it says is in keeping with nearby historic holes of up to 7m at 3g/t including 1m running 10.6g/t.
The company’s new forays further afield have included assessment of the surface geochemistry and historical drill results at its Meiers Find prospect, concluding it could be a strike extension of the Mount Palmer gold mine. One old drillhole at Meiers intercepted 2m at 1.7g/t gold from 30m and 1m at 15.4g/t from 36m, while another featured 1m at 1.7g/t gold from 33m and had no follow-up drilling.
The company is now planning an ultra-fine fraction geochemical sampling program to home in any likely drill targets.
Additionally, it is looking at a possible northward extension of the historic Mount Palmer mine at its El Dorado prospect that threw up an intriguing past RC drill intercept of 6m going 8.3g/t gold from 28m and includes 1m at 45.4g/t from 30m. The hole was drilled in 1986 and has apparently never been followed up.
Accordingly, Kula is also proposing an ultra-fine fraction soil geochemical sampling program for that target area to bring it up to drill-readiness. The area encloses at least nine mapped shafts and a host of historical soil and auger sampling sites on regular grids, along with many rock samples, all of which exhibit some anomalism, especially along the strong magnetic trend on which the Mount Palmer shafts are located.
Kula’s geophysical interpretations have also identified a possible parallel structure more than 8km long, about 1.5km east of the Mount Palmer mine. The company has kicked off a reconnaissance/orientation geochemical sampling program across a suitable test area on that distinctive magnetic trend in the hope of advancing the completely unexplored target to become a productive gold mine.
Kula has plenty of work going on and figures that by combining its “shadow of the headframe” philosophy with the “if you aren’t sampling, you’re not finding” ethos, it has to stand a good chance of uncovering new targets.
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