Kookynie Gold Project
The Kookynie Gold Project is located approximately 180km north of the town of Kalgoorlie and present an opportunity to develop a high-grade gold resource based off historic and recent exploration within the area undertaken by Arika Resources Limited and past explorers.
Located within the Keith-Kilkenny Tectonic Zone, the Kookynie Project hosts some of Arika Resources’ key gold assets which include the historical mining centres of Diamantina-Cosmopolitan-Cumberland, known as the DCC trend, as well as McTavish, Leipold, Champion and Altona.
The historic Cosmopolitan Gold mine produced 331,000 ounces of gold between discovery in 1895 to 1922 at an average grade of 15 g/t Au. During the early part of last century, the Cosmopolitan ranked as one of the largest and most profitable gold mines in Western Australia.
The Cosmopolitan Mine is untested by modern exploration, in particular the potentially rich plunge extensions of the main mineralised shoots. Drill testing of the Cumberland and Diamantina depth extensions is very shallow.
Arika Resources has drilled 380 holes for over 34,000 metres across several deposits, prospects and exploration targets within the Kookynie Gold project since early 2020. This volume of drilling has yielded significant intercepts with some truly spectacular gold results including, but not limited to:
Leipold
• LPRC0077 – 4 metres @ 26.91 g/t Au from 65 metres, incl. 1 metre @ 100.77 g/t Au from 67 metres
• LPRC049 – 10 metres @ 7.44 g/t Au from 108m, incl. 2 metres @ 21.03 g/t Au from 111 metres
McTavish
• McTRC0044 – 3 metres @ 19.1 g/t Au from 88 metres incl. 1 metre @ 52.8 g/t Au from 89 metres
• McTRC0049 – 5 metres @ 25.9 g/t Au from 28 metres incl. 3 metres @ 41.5 g/t Au from 30 metres, and 1 metre @ 91.2g/t Au from 30 metres)
Champion
• CPRC0041 – 28 metres @ 1.83 g/t Au from 72 metre
Cosmopolitan
• COSRC0027 – 1 metre @ 4.4 g/t Au from 183 metres and: – 1 metre @ 7.7 g/t Au from 208 metres
Altona
• ALTRC0030 – 3 metres @ 14.9 g/t Au from 97 metres incl. 1 metre @ 39.2g/t Au from 97 metres
• ALTRC0010 – 6 metres @ 2.03 g/t Au from 34 metres; and – 1 metre @ 8.36 g/t Au from 89 metres
McTavish South
• MCTSAC0020 – 8 metres @ 2.61 g/t Au from 28 metres
• MCTSAC0028 – 8 metres @2.60 g/t Au from 28 metres
Results from this drilling include identification of new mineralisation at McTavish South, extensional and resource drilling at Champion, Leipold, McTavish, Altona and Cosmopolitan Deposits. In addition to an extensive drill program, Arika Resources released a maiden JORC 2012 compliant Mineral Resource Estimate containing 83,000 ounces of gold for the Leipold, McTavish and Champion Deposits in April 2022. Arika Resources has proven with its exploration activities that the Kookynie Gold Project has substantial unlocked value and the Kookynie area still retains significant mineral endowment.
Arika Resources has categorised the Kookynie Gold Project into three distinct zones based on key characteristics as geographic location, mineralisation style and stage of project advancement (Figure 1).
Central Zone
The Central Zone of the Kookynie Gold project hosts several significant gold deposits and prospects and is the primary focus of exploration activities. In particular, Arika has focused its exploration activities on the McTavish, Leipold and Champion deposits for which we released our Maiden 20212 JORC compliant Resource in 2021.
Substantial exploration upside remains in the Central Zone, with McTavish, Leipold and Champion prospects all open at depth and along strike, and limited exploration undertaken at Cosmopolitan and Altona. Further exploration is planned for McTavish South prospect as well.
The McTavish Prospect
Assay results from drilling by Arika Resources at the McTavish Prospect delivered some of the best high-grade results at the Kookynie Project to date, with spectacular intercepts including:
- McTRC0049 – 5 metres @ 25.9 g/t from 28 metres incl:
- 3 metres @ 41.5 g/t from 30 metres,
- 1 metre @ 91.2g/t Au from 30 metres;
- McTRC0064 – 6 metres @ 20.6 g/t from 19 metres incl:
- 4 metres @ 29.1 g/t from 20 metres;
- McTRC0044 – 3 metres @ 19.1 g/t from 88 metres incl:
- 1 metre @ 52.8 g/t from 89 metres;
- McTRC0051 – 4 metres @ 3.5 g/t from 8 metres incl:
- 1 metre @ 11.4 g/t from 10 metres
The McTavish prospect remains open at depth and along strike, as shown in images above and below:
In addition, a considerable extension of mineralisation of over 400 metres to the McTavish Deposit, at McTavish South, was discovered with significant composite drilling intercepts shown in Figure 5 below:
The Leipold Prospect
Drilling at the Leipold prospect extended mineralisation a further 200 metres and is now defined over nearly 1km to a vertical depth of only 130 metres, remaining open along strike to the north (towards McTavish) and at depth.
Of the 22 holes drilled at Leipold since January 2021, 17 holes returned mineralised intercepts, which included:
- LPRC0122 – 2 metres @ 4.7 g/t from 65 metres incl. 1 metre @ 8.4 g/t from 66 metres,
- LPRC0114 – 3 metres @ 3.3 g/t from 133 metres incl. 1 metre @ 6.4 g/t from 135 metres,
- LPRC0112 – 4 metres @ 3.4 g/t from 127 metres,
- LPRC0123 – 6 metres @ 1.7 g/t from 26 metres,
- LPRC0118 – 1 metres @ 7.4 g/t from 35 metres, and o LPRC0126 – 10 metres @ 1.1 g/t from 30 metres.
The Leipold Prospect remains open at depth and along strike.
The Champion Prospect
The Champion prospect has delivered consistent grades over considerable widths from the most recent assays from drilling which commenced in January 2021, returning significant intercepts in 16 of the 24 holes drilled, including:
- CPRC0023:
- 5 metres @ 1.5 g/t from 95 metres and;
- 4 metres @ 3.9 g/t from 104 metres incl:
- 2 metres @ 6.5 g/t from 105 metres.
- ▪ Combined interval of 12 metres @ 2.04 g/t Au from 95 metres.
- CPRC0035:
- 5 metres @ 2.1 g/t from 117 metres incl:
- 1 metre @ 6.3 g/t from 120 metres.
- 5 metres @ 2.1 g/t from 117 metres incl:
- CPRC0034:
- 1 metre @ 3.6 g/t from 179 metres & 4 metres @ 2.8 g/t from 185 metres incl:
- 1 metre @ 7.2 g/t from 185 metres.
- Combined interval of 10 metres @ 1.6 g/t Au from 179 metres.
- 1 metre @ 3.6 g/t from 179 metres & 4 metres @ 2.8 g/t from 185 metres incl:
The Champion Prospect remains open at depth as shown in Figure 7 below:
Western Zone
The Wandin Prospect and tenement area has received minimal exploration in the past 15 years despite mapped lithologies analogous to the Niagara Mining Centre. The Niagara Mining Centre has a general strike length over five kilometres with significant gold endowment from historical extraction and has current in ground un-exploited resources making the prospects of the potential in the Wandin tenure very exciting.
The Mulga Plum Prospect, has historical drilling and surface rock chip results which include:
- AJAR0009 – 2 metres @ 8.84 g/t Au from 14 metres,
- AJAR0003 – 2 metres @ 2.96 g/t Au from 42 metres, &
- AJAR0011 – 6 metres @ 1.22 g/t Au from 10 metres.
- Rock chips from veins have hosted mineralisation of up to 17.1 g/t Au (Figure 9).
Northern Zone
The Northern Zone of the Kookynie Gold Project represents the third priority area after the Central and Western Zones containing the Orient Well East Prospect. Strategic outcomes are yet to be completed for target generation purposes.