Mt Kare
Gold/Silver Resource - Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (PNG), has the world's greatest concentration of world-class gold and copper deposits. In Indochine's 100% owned Mt Kare project the gold resource, has had prior expenditure of approximately A$60 million, including 365 drill holes. This led to an initial JORC-compliant Mineral Resource Statement for the Mt Kare Gold Project, released in December 2011, with 2.1 million ounces gold equivalent or 1.8 million ounces gold. The deposit lies 15 kilometres southwest of Barrick's 28 million ounce Porgera gold mine, which produces over 500,000 ounces of gold per year.
Geologically the Mt Kare deposit shares many similarities with the nearby Porgera gold mine, with the same host rocks, similar geological structures, mineralisation types and the same age of mineralisation. This indicates the large potential for growth in the current Mt Kare resource. Porgera is one of the world's top 10 gold mines, with over 500,000 oz/yr production for over two decades, and has developed significant infrastructure, including roads and power lines, nearby to Mt Kare. Porgera started as a high grade underground mine and later developed a major open cut operation, now more than 500 metres deep.
The Mt Kare projects' total Mineral Resource is 43 Mt at 1.5 g/t Au for 2.1 Moz Au, 18 Moz Ag or a 2.5 million ounce gold equivalent, with nearly 75% in the higher confidence Measured and Indicated category, based on 454 diamond drill holes (73,639 m), as at July, 2013.
The company's 2012 Pre-Feasibility Study set out options for development, which will be optimised for underground mining of the high grade zones utilising the recently updated resource model and new integrated geological model.
Mt Kare Project showing high grade zones