The company today released a maiden JORC resource of 82.3 million tonnes at 1.1 gram per tonne gold and 5.3gpt silver for 2.8 million ounces of gold and 13.9Moz of silver, using a 0.5gpt cut-off.
The project, east of Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, previously had a NI 43-101 resource of 73Mt at 1gpt gold for 2.3Moz, using cut-offs of 0.37-0.45gpt gold, reported in August by previous owner WCB Resources.
Kingston and WCB recently completed a merger.
The company has set an exploration target of 10-20Mt at 0.8-1.2gpt gold for 300,000-800,000oz, based on known mineralisation within the block model that falls outside the current resource.
“The Misima gold project is a world-class deposit, and this initial JORC resource sets a benchmark for our exploration going forward,” Kingston managing director Andrew Corbett said.
“We believe there is enormous potential to significantly increase the contained ounces from drilling the near-mine extensions, initially focussing on outcropping mineralisation at Umuna East and Misima North.
“The resource is open at depth, so there is also excellent potential to extend it down dip.”
Placer Dome mined the project in the 1990s, producing around 3.7Moz of gold and 22Moz of silver until the low gold price forced its closure.
Kingston said the initial JORC resource compared favourably with Placer’s reported pre-mining inventory of 76.1Mt at 1.19gpt gold for 2.9Moz of gold.
The company noted that with past production and the current resource, Misima was a plus-6Moz deposit with further exploration upside.
Four target areas have been identified with the aim to grow the resource, including the underexplored Umuna East and Misima North areas.
Field work has restarted, with mapping and trench sampling to be carried out ahead of drilling early next year.
Kingston holds 49% of Misima currently, but is earning up to 70% from Pan Pacific Copper, a joint venture between JX Nippon Mining and Metals and Mitsui Mining and Smelting.
Kingston had $3.1 million in cash at the end of September, and is fully funded to meet the remaining JV expenditure of $1.9 million by March 2019.
Shares in Kingston rose by 5% to 2.1c, valuing the company at just under $20 million.
