The total inferred resource has come in at 6.96 million tonnes at 5% zinc, 0.8% copper, 0.1% lead, 19 grams per tonne silver and 0.1gpt gold, comprising the Morrisons, Queenslander and Victoria lodes.

The figure includes a higher grade resource of 2.4Mt at 7.1% zinc, 1.1% copper, 0.2% lead, 28gpt silver and 0.2gpt gold.

Despite setting a two-year target of 1-2Mt, the maiden resource for the Queenslander and Morrisons lode is 3.52Mt at 5% zinc, 0.6% copper, 0.2% lead, 17gpt silver and 0.1gpt gold, including a high-grade component of 1.45Mt at 7% zinc, 0.7% copper, 0.4% lead, 28gpt silver and 0.1gpt gold.

The Victoria lode already had a resource of 3.44Mt.

Kagara has set a five-year resource target of 9-11Mt for the combined lodes.

The company recently discovered a new zone of mineralisation adjacent to the Penzance historical pit, which has not been included in the Redcap resource.

All systems at Redcap remain open along strike and the company will follow up a number of prospective targets.

Kagara also updated the resource for the King Vol project, increasing the confidence of the resource.

The indicated and inferred resource for King Vol is 2.76Mt at 11.9% zinc, 0.6% lead, 0.7% copper and 30gpt silver for 424,000 tonnes of contained zinc.

A new reserve will be calculated in the June quarter.

King Vol is slated as Kagara’s next development in the Chillagoe region with a feasibility study underway.

Total resources in the northern Chillagoe region are now 10.7Mt, reaching the two-year target of 10-11Mt after just six months of aggressive exploration.

Kagara is spending $A50 million on exploration in North Queensland over the next two years to increase its production.

“The first priority for the two-year exploration push was in the northern Chillagoe region, where our focus was to increase the resource base sufficiently to justify the capital investment required to complete the Mungana processing facility, which was mothballed during the Global Financial Crisis in 2009,” Kagara managing director Geoff Day said.

“In broad terms, the company’s target was to identify a nominal 10 million tonne polymetallic resource base in this region from one, or at most two, potential mining fronts, which would be sufficient to sustain 8-12 years of ore feed into the Mungana plant as well as deliver additional feed to the Mount Garnet process plant.”

The second priority for the company is growing resources in the central Mt Garnet region and a new resource of 1.03Mt at 1.3% copper, 1.7% lead, 4.2% zinc, 29gpt silver and 0.34gpt gold was announced today for two polymetallic lenses at the Balcooma mine.

Shares in Kagara gained 3% or 1c to 35c.