Early doors Killi’s Fox prospect has the same fingerprints as neighbour’s 8Moz Tanami gold monster

Newmont’s Callie mine in the Tanami Desert may have delivered over eight million ounces of gold to this day, but it was found on an anomaly no stronger than 50ppb gold.

So news Killi Resources (ASX:KLI), exploring 120km along strike on the WA side of the NT border at its West Tanami project, has found similar anomalies over a 2.8km wide corridor at the Fox prospect, is sure to turn some heads.

Assays have been returned for drilling into the Dead Bullock Formation on Killi’s ground, the host lithology (rock system) for the Callie mine, the centrepiece of Newmont’s 500,000ozpa Tanami gold project.

The aircore results identified low-level gold, silver and arsenic anomalism all over the corridor, matching up with Killi’s model of a sediment-hosted gold system, with logging of the upper portion of a diamond drill hole also striking the highly prospective Dead Bullock Formation.

First pass aircore lines completed at Trickster and Deva have returned a gold result in bedrock below alluvial cover of 4m at 100ppb from just 8m deep.

The picture is starting to come together for Killi, CEO Kathryn Cutler says, which designed its regional program to test hydrothermal mineralisation of gold and/or rare earths elements.

“These results are exactly what we are looking for, and in the right rocks, as these low-level gold and arsenic anomalies are indicative of orogenic sediment-hosted gold systems throughout the Tanami,” she said.

“Callie was found on a 50ppb gold and arsenic result, so we are thrilled to have +100ppb gold intervals and to have identified the Dead Bullock sediments on our ground.

“These are the first two pieces of the puzzle, so we can now narrow in on the structures to find those fold hinges we need as the gold traps.”

Fantastic Mr Fox

Killi has completed four first-pass aircore drill lines at the northern end of its West Tanami project across Fox, Deva and Trickster, covering 9km of combined stratigraphy.

The highest result was at the Fox prospect, which returned an aircore hit of 4m at 135ppb from 72m at the interpreted “hinge zone”.

Numerous other drill results have struck anomalous gold at Fox, along with rock chips grading up to 420ppb Au.

The 100ppb hit at Deva and a strike of 4m at 30ppb Au from 8m at Trickster meanwhile, provide the first evidence of mineralisation in the D5 Fault to the north of the project area.

An EIS funded diamond hole, in which the WA Government will pick up half of the drilling costs, was also completed to a depth of 890.4m, with geological logging and XRF confirming the stratigraphy where the West Tanami project resides.

The top of the diamond hole begins in the Killi Killi Formation, host to the historic Coyote and Kookaburra gold mines, passing through a transitional zone and then into the DBF known for hosting Callie.

More exploration is to come, with results pending for aircore drilling at the Tent Hill and Cheyenne prospects, and diamond core results on the way.

Killi also plans to “actively continue exploring the base metal potential of the project”, recently identified by the explorer, based on visual observations of the hole.

All up assays remain pending for 7000m of the aircore program and the 890m long diamond hole, as well as surface soil and rock chips which will be reported in the coming months.

Assays are also pending for soils and rock chips at the Ravenswood North project in north Queensland for the West Branch, Hawkeye and Success West prospects.

Anomalies from a recent airborne VTEM survey are also being evaluated and modelled, while approvals should be received shortly to enable drilling at the Rocky gold, silver, copper and molybdenum target before the end of 2022, where rock chip samples have identified a 4km strike footprint.

This article was developed in collaboration with Killi Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.