Kainantu is 100% owned by K92 Mining Limited (K92ML) (formerly Barrick (Kainantu) Limited); a company incorporated in Papua New Guinea, which is 100% owned by K92 Holdings (PNG) Limited (K92PNG), a 100% owned subsidiary of K92 Holdings International Limited (K92 Holdings).
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Summary:
The Kainantu property is located within the New Guinea Thrust Belt, close to its northern contact with the Finisterre Terrane.
The Kainantu area is underlain by rocks of the Early Miocene Bena Bena Formation, comprising pelite, psammite, conglomerate and marl beds metamorphosed to greenschist to amphibolite grade. These are unconformably overlain by Miocene age Omaura Formation consisting of volcano-lithic sandstones and siltstones and numerous fossiliferous limestone lenses. The overlying Yaveufa Formation consists of basaltic and andesitic flows, agglomerates, volcanoclastic sandstone and limestone (Tingey and Grainger, 1976). The mid-Miocene Akuna Intrusive Complex consists of multiple phases ranging from olivine gabbros, dolerites, hornblende gabbros and biotite diorites to granodiorites.
Gold-copper deposits within the SW Pacific Magmatic Arcs have been classified into three main groups by Corbett and Leach (Corbett and Leach, 1997):
- Porphyry-related (including gold skarn);
- High sulphidation gold-copper;
- Low sulphidation (including sediment-hosted replacement);
- Intrusion related Gold Deposits;
- Carbonate-base metal Au Deposits.
Telescoping may overprint the varying styles of low sulphidation gold mineralization upon each other or upon the source porphyry intrusion.
MINERALIZATION
Dominant host rock of the Kora Consolidated-Irumafimpa vein systems is the highly sheared and deformed Bena Bena Formation, composed of low grade metamorphosed phyllites and amphibolites, intruded by the Elandora porphyry at the north west end of the vein system. Mineralization on the property includes gold, silver and copper in low sulphidation epithermal Au-telluride veins (Irumafimpa), Au-Cu-Ag quartz-sulphide veins of Intrusion Related Gold Copper (“IRGC”) affinity at Kora Consolidated, indications of porphyry Cu Au systems (Blue Lake) and alluvial gold.
The Kora Consolidated-Irumafimpa mineral zone occurs in the centre of a large mineralized system, approximately 5km x 5km in area, that has been subject to drilling in parts and comprises several individual zones of vein and porphyry-style mineralization. The Kora Consolidated-Irumafimpa (including Kora, Eutompi and Kora North) vein deposits has been demonstrated from drilling results and underground development to be a continuous mineralised structural system.
The Kora Consolidated mineral zone comprises a K1 footwall lode and a K2 hangingwall lode separated by varying widths of 0 to 15m. In parts there is interstitial mineralization between K1 and K2 known as the Kora Link lode and about 90 to 150m to the east lies the parallel Judd lode. The Judd lode (J1) as well as J2 to J4 mineralised zones appear to be a vein system similar to the Kora Consolidated zone, but as yet has not been fully defined by drilling.
Kora Consolidated vein system is a broad northwest trending mineralized zone more than 2.5 km long and up to 60m wide in which individual veins vary from less than one metre wide with pinch and swell features over short distances (Au telluride lodes at Irumafimpa) to more continuous veins up to several metres wide (Au, Cu – rich quartz and sulphide lodes, IRGC).
A substantially sized, gold/copper mineralised porphyry has been identified at Blue Lake (Kotampa), where drilling is continuing. The first ten holes, drilled on a fence, mostly at 200m spacing, demonstrated the presence of a prominent silica-clay lithocap, overlying mineralised propylitic (epidote-chlorite) alteration, with higher grade potassic alteration intersected in two drill holes.
Peripherally, exploration activities have also identified further areas of vein and porphyry-style mineralization. Other less advanced prospects on the property include epithermal Au veins similar to Irumafimpa, IRGC veins similar to Kora, porphyry Cu-Au systems, skarn Cu, Pb and Zn mineralization and alluvial gold.