K92 Mining Inc. has commenced the underground incline drive from the Irumafimpa mine toward the Kora deposit at the Kainantu Gold Mine site in Eastern Highlands Province.
The company announced that drilling and blasting has commenced and the drive to Kora will represent a continuation, from the switchback point, of the current
Irumafimpa incline drive that is accessed from the 840 Portal.
Kora is a large and high grade deposit, open for expansion in every direction and strongly mineralised at the extent of all drilling, with a current resource estimate of 4.36 million tonnes of 7.3 grams per tonne of gold (g/t Au), 35 g/t Ag (silver) and 2.23% Cu (Copper).
The underground inclined drive of 5m x 5m is designed to provide access to the Kora deposit, where K92 is targeting the commencement of production in the First Half 2018.This also provides the Company with the ability to drill test thereafter between Irumafimpa and Kora from underground set ups. This area has not been previously tested due to topographical challenges associated with drilling from the surface and is considered highly perspective given the current interpretation of Irumafimpa and Kora being on the same vein structure.
K92 Chief Executive Officer, Ian Stalker, says “Kora is already a large and high grade deposit and the upcoming drill program is designed to test our belief that this high grade deposit has significant expansion potential. While accessing Kora as part of our production strategy is important, equally exciting is the ability to use underground set ups to drill test the area between Irumafimpa and Kora, and Kora at depth.
“Also, while the gold and silver grades at Kora are exceptional, it is also important to point out that this is a high grade copper deposit which bodes well should the macro environment for copper continue to strengthen,” he said.
K92 Mining Inc. estimates that it will take about nine months from the start date to complete the drive and the drive is planned to extend to the Mining Lease 150 boundary, which is the current known limit of Kora mineralization.
Drill testing from underground set ups, designed to take place at 100 metre intervals along the way, is expected to commence within the next 60 days.
In addition to drilling between the Irumafimpa and Kora deposits, K92 will also be drilling down dip from the known resource to infill between the known resource and the single deepest known hole drilled on the deposit BKDD0023.
This hole recorded an intersection of 30.6 metres @ 2.0 g/t Au, 4.8 g/t Ag and 1.3% CU, including 6.4 metres @ 5.52 g.g/t Au and 8M @ 3.7% Cu from from 920.8 metres, approximately 500 metres below the current resource.
Consideration will be given to extending the drive beyond the Mining Lease 150 into the adjacent Exploration Lease (EL 693) which is also held by K92, to allow exploration drilling to be undertaken to potentially extend the known limit of mineralization to the North.
K92 Minis INC says Kora remains open for expansion in every direction and strongly mineralized at the extent of all drilling.