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ReGIonAL RoUnDUp

Kingston funded to go town

study manager will soon be appointed be the starter for mining via the Ewati- 2022 was the target. The environmental
A to drive the Misima PFS for Kingston nona pit (recent rock chip sampling re- approvals process has started, however,
Resources Ltd in PNG. sults from outcropping 70m @ 4.99 g/t, travel restrictions due to the coronavirus
And, with $8.4 million recently locked including 28m @ 8.08 g/t and including may cause some delays.
in by the company, whoever takes charge 6m @ 15.58 g/t, 12m @ 3.67 g/t and 4m Corbett said the virus hadn’t affected
can proceed with study work without @ 10.96 g/t). PNG in a meaningful way with the Gov-
funding worries. “It is a big project so people should be ernment handling the situation very well.
“We are targeting to have the PFS on looking for a big [maiden] ore reserve and With Kingston’s senior geologists and
Misima out at Christmas time and hope- that is what we think it is going to be. Of drillers being expats, site work at Mi-
fully we will get drilling at Misima before the 3.2 moz resource, we have 1.5 moz sima is in a holding pattern for now. In
that and also completing 100% owner- in the indicated category, so if everything the meantime, the company is preparing
ship of the project in the next six months goes well and if they get to reserves that for a tilt at the Livingstone gold project,
as well,” Kingston managing director An- is a pretty big number,” Corbett said. 140km north-west of Meekatharra in
drew Corbett told Paydirt recently. “We’re looking at a 10-year mine life Western Australia.
“We have an agreement to move to and a pretty big project. Placer’s pro- The company owns 75% of Living-
100% ownership of the project. It has cessing plant was 5 mtpa, we expect to stone, where the Homestead prospect
taken us two years to get from 49% to have a similar size because at 1 g/t gold contains a 49,000oz gold resource (18m
100%, so we have ticked a few boxes you’d want to have a pretty big process- @ 7.85 g/t from 68m, 5m @ 20.5 g/t from
and we’ll just have to wait and see.” ing plant. 3m and 7m @ 12.59 g/t from 35m). King-
Corbett’s later comments were in re- “We are planning to do what Placer did. sley is shaping as another likely pros-
sponse to a question concerning King- We’ve got their mill designs and process- pect, with RC drilling last year intersect-
ston’s rating as a potential takeover tar- ing plant here, so we are just repricing ing 10m @ 11.95 g/t from 20m, 5m @
get given how large a project Misima is the same plant. We are using the same 3.68 g/t from 12m and 2m @ 13.88 g/t
shaping as. location, haul road, ports and airports from 71m.
A former Placer Dome asset, Misima and digging up the same pits. We are lit- “We’ve always said that Misima needs
produced in excess of 230,000 ozpa gold erally following what Placer did; back in a funding source or a stepping-stone and
over 15 years before open pit operations their day silver provided 10% of revenue. Livingstone could be that,” Corbett said.
were shuttered in 2004. Hopefully that will be a similar number for “If we can drill Livingstone out in the
So far, Kingston has managed to work us, our silver is a lower grade but we are next six months and a get a resource
up a total inferred and indicated resource very optimistic we can improve the re- on that, there’s an opportunity for some
of 105mt @ 0.93 g/t for 3.21 moz gold coveries. If we can get the silver recover- means of cash flow via toll treating or as-
and 18 moz @ 5.4 g/t silver. ies up a bit, it might be a 10% by-product set sale. We’ve always liked having two
An indicated resource of 49.9mt @ credit which will be very handy,” he said. projects together and if we can drill Liv-
0.95 g/t for 1.52 moz gold is the platform With the Placer template to follow and ingstone in July and a few months later
for the Misima PFS. The 220,000oz re- a tailwind in the gold sector, Corbett said get back to Misima, that will be ideal.”
source at Quartz Mountain is primed to a final investment decision on Misima in
– Mark Andrews

Misima produced 230,000 ozpa gold for 15 years when owned by Placer

Page 66 JULY 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT