AuKing Mining reports high-grade, near-surface assays from drilling at Koongie Park copper-zinc project
AuKing Mining chief executive officer Paul Williams said assays from initial drilling at Koongie Park had “exceeded expectations”.
Assays from the first five holes of a 7,500 metre campaign at AuKing Mining’s (ASX: AKN) Koongie Park copper-zinc project in northeast Western Australia have returned high-grade, near-surface copper-zinc-silver and other mineral intersections.
Drilling at the Onedin deposit was directed along the eastern edge of mineralisation defined from historic drilling activities and commenced with a proposed water bore hole which was sampled due to its proximity to previously-intersected mineralised zones.
The results from one hole revealed a 124m continuous near-surface copper, zinc, lead and silver zone.
This same hole also hit high-grade molybdenum towards the lower end of the hole despite limited evidence of molybdenum being previously assayed.
Significant intervals from the hole were 124m at 1.03% copper, 1.08% zinc, 1.54% lead and 50 grams per tonne silver from 8m, including 23m at 0.72% copper, 1.24% zinc, 0.96% lead and 1g/t silver from 25m; 28m at 1.12% copper, 1.17% zinc, 1.50% lead and 1g/t silver from 56m; 22m at 2.02% copper, 0.44% zinc, 0.27% lead and 63g/t silver from 92m; and 12m at 1.87% copper, 3.54% zinc, 8.58% lead, 387g/t silver and 0.27% molybdenum from 120m.
Best assays from other holes were 8m at 0.24% copper, 1.08% zinc, 0.61% lead and 3g/t silver from 28m; 23m at 0.17% copper, 0.91% zinc, 0.11% lead and 2g/t silver from 44m; 8m at 0.11% copper, 3.49% zinc, 1.05% lead and 3g/t silver from 114m; and 20m at 1.50% copper, 5.80% zinc, 0.91% lead and 102g/t silver from 150m, including 7m at 3.36% copper, 6.77% zinc, 0.11% lead and 148g/t silver from 151m.
Exceeding expectations
Chief executive officer Paul Williams said results had exceeded expectations.
“These first assay results are very encouraging and provide a strong foundation for our future activities at this project,” he said.
“They provide important information which will be incorporated into our existing understanding of the Onedin resource.”
Mr Williams said the company continues to make good progress on the first drilling program at Koongie Park, with more than 3,500m completed to date and a focus on deeper diamond drilling operating on a 24-hour basis.
Work is expected to continue for another two months with a view to improving geological interpretation and resource confidence at Onedin and the neighbouring Sandiego deposit.
Underexplored project
Koongie Park comprises two mining and eight exploration licences covering an over 500 square kilometres near Halls Creek.
It has an existing JORC resource of 6.8Mt at 1.3% copper, 4.1% zinc, 0.3g/t gold and 26g/t silver.
The project area remains significantly underexplored at depth and along strike and is believed to be highly-prospective for further VMS (volcanogenic massive sulphide) discoveries.
AuKing has identified multiple drill targets to expand on existing known resources at Onedin and Sandiego.
Both deposits remain open at depth and to the south.