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Relocated Karora grows hungry

fter divesting the last of its nickel assets AISC. The exciting thing about this growth
Ain Quebec, “shutting down” its Toronto plan is that it’s completely self-funded from
offices, dropping the Royal Nickel Corp cash in our treasury.”
name and cutting constraining royalties, During this transformative phase, Karora
Karora Resources Ltd continues to rede- will drill across its 1,900sq km WA tene-
fine its hunger for gold in Western Australia. ment package at $20 million per year over
In its second year as a rebranded com- four years.
pany, Karora revealed at Diggers & Dealers “We’re excited to see what we can find
its plan to triple production to 200,000oz by from that drilling,” Huet said. “In fact, this
2024. year, we had another discovery at Lake
“That’s a massive step up from where we Cowan of 50m @ 1.4 g/t.”
are today,” executive chairman Paul Huet Pushing the company towards the golden
said. “And it’s starting this year.” 200,000oz milestone is Phase 2 of a mill Paul Huet
Huet is a fitting vehicle for the Karora expansion to 2.5 mtpa, a second decline at
story, a Canadian-born “bad hockey player” its flagship Beta Hunt operation and starting ering listing on the ASX,” he said. “We want it
who relocated his own family from North the Spargos mine to the west. to be successful, we have to be smart about
America to WA for the job. “At Beta Hunt, we’re keeping it simple,” it. We have to think about the right timing.
As Huet moved down under, Karora shed Huet said. “When you look at an ASX listing, for it to
its own possessions in Canada, including a “Our motto is to keep it simple and repeat be successful, you need some kind of activ-
28% nickel interest in Quebec. something that we’ve already done. It’s a ity, some kind of merger or acquisition. You
The company’s new game plan is to re- very exciting year for us.” need to raise money for the listing to be suc-
write its Royal Nickel past and build a larger From a curious Australian crowd, Huet cessful.
appetite for gold through a lean and effi- was asked the inevitable question about a “As much as we want to do it, the timing is
cient diet. dual listing on the ASX. His response didn’t just not on par for us today. But it’s certainly
“We’re looking to continue our aggres- close any doors, but he also told people not something that we keep very close to our-
sive path on reducing our costs,” Huet said. to hold their breath. selves.”
“Our goal is to get to about $US900/oz “There’s absolutely no doubt we’re consid- – Fraser Palamara

Kirkland keeps the drill rigs spinning

ff the back of its Fosterville mine the momentum of recent record results to
Opurchase, one of Kirkland Lake complement ambitious expansions.
Gold Ltd’s first appearances at Diggers “Fosterville continues to perform at ex-
& Dealers in 2019 was all about growth ceptional levels,” Landmark said.
and proving there was more to the Ben- “It had a stunning Q2 and it produced
digo operation. 158,000oz at AISC of $US353/oz. It re-
This year, senior vice president of ally has been a great operation for us and
corporate affairs John Landmark took continues to be so.
the stage to sing the same tune and do “We also had record production
a gold-worthy victory lap, continuing to across Kirkland Lake Gold. We produced
banish remnants of doubt that first fol- 379,000oz at an AISC of $US780/oz.”
lowed the company’s acquisition. John Landmark presented remotely for Kirkland this year These results, combined with the on-
As Landmark remotely flicked through going success of Fosterville, has likely
presentation slides in a video presenta- intend to have two or three rigs there by the silenced any remaining doubters.
tion, 17 drill rigs were turning at Fosterville end of the year, drilling out the down plunge If anything could smear the Kirkland
as part of a $US90 million, 200km pro- extension.” presentation, it would be Landmark’s physi-
gramme aimed at even more discovery and As Landmark spoke, a further five drill cal absence and the missed opportunity to
resource definition. rigs were also spinning underground at the show off the next Melbourne Cup made in
Although Landmark tried his best to show project’s Swan zone, among others. collaboration with ABC Refinery, which he
equal love to the company’s other projects, “We’re also drilling at Cygnet, Daley’s Hill revealed over video.
such as Macassa and Detour Lake, Foster- and Harrier,” he said. Just like when Kirkland first bought Fos-
ville and its Robbin’s Hill extension clearly “It was a couple of years ago now we did terville, which had lost the interest of local
spiked the most interest. microseismic studies supported by regional miners, Landmark backed the trophy’s own
“At Robbin’s Hill we are looking at the airborne physics and surface geochemistry price tag.
down plunge extension,” he said. “We’re which generated a number of targets that “Here today I can assure you it’s the real
drilling it from surface with four surface rigs. we’re now following up.” deal,” he said.
“We’re moving our first underground drill Just like previous appearances, Kirk- – Fraser Palamara
rig in there I think [by September] and we land’s place on the Diggers stage carried

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