Mt York, which is nestled up against Pilbara Minerals’ world-class Pilgangoora lithium operations, and was partially mined for gold by Lynas Fund in the mid-1990s, and is now 26% larger with a resource of 1.1 million ounces at 1.23 grams per tonne, using a 0.7gpt cut-off.
Dropping the cut-off to 0.5gpt increases the resource to 1.33Moz.
Turner said the first resource update in two years, informed by 15,000m of drilling and fewer depth constraints, had changed the game for Mt York on several fronts.
“Mt York now has genuine scale at 1.1Moz in a tier-one location. And the results demonstrate the huge potential for further increases, with the mineralisation open in all directions and constrained only by drilling,” he said.
“Our resource optimisation work on the Main Trend outlines a single 3km-long pit constrained only by drilling at depth.”
It has signed a contract with Orlando Drilling for a 20,000m drilling program, including 7000m of RC and 13,000m of diamond, to help grow the inventory along strike, at depth, and between the current optimal pit shells.
The resource spans the Main Trend deposits: Main Hill, The Gap, Breccia Hill and Gossan Hill; with Iron Stirrup and Old Faithful as satellite deposits 4.5km and 6.5km to the north respectively.
There are inferred and unclassified resources below 150m at the Main Hill, The Gap and Breccia Hill that can be rapidly upgraded.
The work will also generate geotechnical and metallurgical data to support a prefeasibility study.
A camp is being established to support exploration, which will also see the first drilling for lithium at the Lucky Sump pegmatite, which is just 4km from Pilgangoora, and where samples up to 1.9% lithium have been collected.
The spodumene-bearing pegmatite samples were discovered during routine earthmoving activities next Mt York, and are likely part of a larger interpreted dyke swarm at Mt York
Kairos has around A$7 million cash to fund its activities.
