Mt York Gold Project
Mt York Gold Project is a 100% owned, advanced gold deposit located 100km south of Port Hedland in Tier 1 gold country. The project is 4km south of Pilbara Minerals’ Pilgangoora Lithium-Tantalum Mine and occurs in the same prolific greenstone belt.
The bulk of the mineralisation at Mt York is contained at the hangingwall position of a banded iron formation (BIF) or sometimes in the footwall position of the BIF in contact with a basalt unit. The hangingwall consists of a series of metamorphosed sediments that now appear as alumino-silicates. The mineralisation within the BIF unit is continuous and can be traced over a minimum distance of 3,000m and is open along-strike and at depth. This prospect is called ‘Main Trend’ and has been the focus of most drilling and resource work. The global resource also includes two smaller satellite deposits called Iron Stirrup and Old Faithful. Regional exploration to deliver further resource growth past the 1.6 Moz of current gold resources is considered extremely high on the Greater Mt York tenements.
Mineralisation at Mt York’s Main Trend occurs mostly within sulphidic BIF rocks with or without silicification. The main sulphide mineral species is pyrrhotite with minor arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite.
The project has current resources of 49.24 MT @ 1.02 g/t Au for 1,618,000 ounces (Indicated Resources of 23.7 MT @ 1.1 g/t Au for 835,000 ounces, Inferred Resources of 25.54 MT @ 0.95 g/t Au for 784,000 ounces) at a 0.5 g/t Au cutoff grade. At a 0.7 g/t cutoff the resource is 32.13 Mt @ 1.26 g/t Au for 1,297,000 ounces (Indicated Resources of 16.92 Mt @ 1.30 g/t Au for 707,000 ounces, Inferred Resources of 15.21 Mt @ 1.21 g/t Au for 592,000 ounces). Optimal cutoff grades, resource & reserve tonnages and in-pit resources and reserves will all be reviewed as part of Kairos’s pre-feasibility results that are advancing through 2023. Metallurgical test work for optimal processing flow sheet and design and geotechnical work are underway.
Table 1. Mineral Resource Estimate for the Mt York gold project, including the updated resource for Main Trend (0.50g/t Au cut-off above -150mRL = 325m maximum vertical depth). Totals may vary due to rounding.
Table 2. Grade and Tonnage table for the combined Mt York gold project (Main Trend, Iron Stirrup and Old Faithful). Totals may vary due to rounding.
The Mt York Gold Project has seen unprecedented resource growth since 2016 and the Kairos Technical Team believe that the resource will grow further through systematic targeting of high-grade plunging shoots at the 3,000m-long Main Trend. Future exploration at Main Trend will concentrate on drilling the Main Hill Prospect from the northeast to the southwest where access to the mineralisation is more accessible.
Mt York Regional Exploration Upside
The exploration team at Kairos has identified numerous, highly-promising opportunities for further resource growth beyond the three deposits currently included in the Mineral Resource. Exploration activities will now focus on exploring areas within the greater Mt York tenure that show significant gold discovery potential.
Target generation and target ranking is currently being undertaken across the Mt York district with the aim of producing a robust pipeline of quality exploration targets that will guide efforts to discover significant shallow gold mineralisation. The ultimate goal is to identify satellite deposits that would augment the Mt York gold project and contribute to its long-term success.
Plan view of the Mt York project area showing significant gold rock chip and soil sample results over an arsenic-in-soils grid.
Exploration targets include:
· Zakanaka: A historic open pit mining centre 2km north of Main Trend with mineralisation remaining open along strike and at depth.
· Gilt Dragon: A gold prospect 3km to the southeast of Main Trend with significant historic early stage drill results, including 19m @ 1.31g/t Au from 1m.
· Darius: Approximately 1km south of the Iron Stirrup deposit, soil sample MYS2027 returned 5,389ppb of gold, the highest gold result returned from the 2021 geochemistry program at the Mt York project.
· Old Faithful South Extension: A 1km long anomaly associated with elevated arsenic-in-soils was defined approximately 1.2km to the south of the Old Faithful deposit, with peaks of 992ppm arsenic and 450ppb gold.
· Steamboat: Approximately 500m south-east of the Old Faithful deposit, rock chip sampling returned assays of up to 4.6g/t of gold within a broader area with elevated arsenic in soils.
· Iron Stirrup Southeast: Soil anomaly up to 228ppb gold and 732ppm arsenic returned from a target area interpreted as a possible extension of the Iron Stirrup mineralisation
· Exploration undercover: The area south and east of the Main Trend deposit is under shallow alluvial cover. Aircore drilling completed in 2021 identified 0.46 g/t Au at end of hole. Ultrafine soil samples also show Au and multi-element pathfinder anomalism.
