AKN: Flagship base metals project progress update
Investment Memo: AKN 2022
Key Objective #2: Metallurgical testwork progress
Earlier today, our junior base metals investment AuKing Mining (ASX:AKN) provided an update on recent activities at its flagship Koongie Park project in WA.
Koongie Park has an existing JORC resource of 8.9Mt at 1.01% copper, 3.67% zinc, 0.77% lead, 0.16g/t gold, and 26g/t silver, with drilling programs planned to expand this further.
The latest drilling campaign began on 24 May, and has now completed 16 RC (reverse circulation) holes for 2694 metres, primarily at the Onedin South prospect. Another 8 holes totalling at least 1000 metres is planned for the nearby Emull prospect. We can expect first assay results sometime in late July/ early August.
In addition, AKN provided some encouraging news on the metallurgical testwork for the oxide and transition ores at Onedin, quoting directly from today’s ASX announcement:
- “An ammonia leach in conjunction with certain reagents has shown that some copper (and, to a lesser extent zinc) is releasing from the iron oxide/hydroxide material that is prevalent in the upper sections of the Onedin oxide zone; and
- There exists a supergene blanket beneath the oxide zone that contains high grade copper oxide minerals (such as cuprite and native copper). Based on testwork utilising an ammonia leach solution combined with certain reagents, AKN has established a likely commercial recovery for these copper minerals in the supergene blanket zone.”
Whilst more met testwork is required, today’s news bodes well that a solution can be found that can ultimately result in the economic recovery of the valuable commodities within AKN’s flagship. This is what we want to see next from AKN, along with our #2 Objective from our AKN Investment Memo, namely the met results:
Next items we’re keeping our eyes open for are assay and further met testwork results in the next quarter.
