There’s plenty more to come for Kaiser Reef from the historic Maldon Goldfields in Victoria, which has been living up to its reputation as one of Australia’s highest grade gold domains.

The owner of the Maldon assets is Kaiser Reef Gold (ASX:KAU), which is looking to revive a historic mining complex in Maldon – a dig which has returned some 1.74Moz at 28g/t in its lifetime.

Those high-grades are continuing in drilling by Kaiser Reef to build on historic workings.

Eaglehawk, by the numbers

Recent results from down dip drilling targeting near access to the 491,000oz Eaglehawk Reef mine pulled out some stunning grades including:

  • UH-UDH-029: 0.65m at 37.6 g/t gold
  • UH-UDH-027: 6.5m at 6.2 g/t gold
  • UH-UDH-013: 0.66m at 20.6 g/t gold; and
  • UH-UDH-022: 0.47m at 12.8 g/t gold

And the best may still be to come

Diamond drilling has been completed at the Nuggetty Reef gold mine in Maldon, one of Australia’s highest-grade orebodies with a historic production profile of 310,000oz at an outstanding 187g/t.

Kaiser Reef
Deep drilling at Maldon is returning plenty of extensions to historic deposits. Pic: Kaiser Reef

Just like the old timers

Pleasingly for Kaiser Reef, most holes drilled into the Eaglehawk Reef target hit at its projected location, hitting mineralisation strikingly characteristic of previously mined areas at Maldon.

That’s providing plenty of encouragement given it is Kaiser Reef’s first drill program at Maldon.

It already owns and operates the high grade A1 gold mine and processing plant just 3km away, which will provide an obvious processing pathway for ore from Maldon should drilling continue to deliver success.

Drilling has initially targeted the projected extensions to historic high-grade mineralisation at the Alliance South Shoot lode within the Eaglehawk Reef, one of Maldon’s largest high-grade lodes that produced nearly 500,000 ounces of gold.

As many as 30 holes are being drilled from underground.

It already has a serviced decline, which along with the proximity of processing infrastructure and a granted mining lease means a rapid and low-cost return to mining could be completed with Kaiser’s mining fleet and experienced mining team for minimal capital cost.

Underexplored, underappreciated

But drilling remains the main game at the moment given how obviously underexplored Maldon is despite its high-grade history.

The Maldon goldfield is located in the Bendigo Zone and is hosted in similar geology and has undergone the same broad structural deformation and mineralisation events as regional Bendigo, including the field which hosts the Fosterville gold mine.

We all know the revival story behind Kirkland Lake’s massive high grade gold operation there.

It’s probably a good time as well for a wee reminder of just a handful of the historical results across Maldon that prove its prospectivity, which Kaiser Reef is chasing extensions of:

  • 0.90m at 103.0 g/t gold
  • 2.73m at 42.2 g/t gold
  • 2.75m at 22.6 g/t gold
  • 0.44m at 205.0 g/t gold
  • 2.00m at 58.0 g/t gold
  • 2.30m at 12.5 g/t gold
  • 0.83m at 80.0 g/t gold
  • 1.0m at 45.5 g/t gold
  • 3.55m at 11.9 g/t gold
  • 2.95m at 18.5 g/t gold; and,
  • 0.85m at 114.6 g/t gold.

That’s a lot of gold.

Deeper step out drilling at Maldon is next on the cards following the early success.

 

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Kaiser Reef Gold, 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.

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