South Pacific Metals has begun a new exploration campaign at its wholly owned Kili Teke copper-gold project in Papua New Guinea's Hela Province after securing support from landowners and provincial and local government authorities.
The company said the programme follows community awareness meetings held in April and May and marks its return to Exploration Licence 2310 through its Papua New Guinea subsidiary, Kainantu Resources Ltd. The project is located about 40 kilometres from the Porgera gold mine within one of the country's most prospective gold-copper belts.
Kili Teke hosts an NI 43-101 inferred mineral resource of 237 million tonnes grading 0.24 grams of gold per tonne and 0.34% copper, containing an estimated 1.81 million ounces of gold, 802,000 tonnes of copper and 40,000 tonnes of molybdenum, equivalent to 4.2 million ounces of gold. The existing resource is confined to the Central Main Porphyry, representing only a portion of the broader intrusive complex.
South Pacific Metals said it has identified more than 10 exploration targets across three mineralisation styles, including the Ridge Gold Area, Ieru Porphyry and a corridor of copper-gold skarn targets. A machine-learning study completed with ALS GeoAnalytics ranked 14 drill targets, including six priority targets that will be evaluated during the exploration programme.
The company said more than 95% of historical drilling has been concentrated on the Central Main Porphyry, leaving the Ieru Porphyry, Ridge Gold Area and Skarn Corridor largely untested. Historical drilling returned intercepts including 7.8 metres grading 12.98% copper and 11.75 grams of gold per tonne, while surface rock-chip samples assayed up to 38.7% copper and 40 grams of gold per tonne. The company believes these areas offer significant potential for additional discoveries beyond the current resource.
The exploration programme will begin with camp establishment, community engagement, geological mapping, soil sampling, ground magnetic surveys and trenching before progressing to drill testing of the highest-ranked targets. The staged approach is intended to refine targets using geological, geochemical and geophysical data before drilling commences.
Executive Chairman Michael Murphy said Kili Teke represented a rare opportunity for a junior explorer because of its sizeable existing resource and exploration upside.
"Kili Teke is rare for an explorer of our size. A district-scale system with a 4.2-million-ounce resource and more than US$20 million of past work behind it, yet with three of its four prospect areas barely drilled," Murphy said.
"Our job is to follow the data, stage by stage, back to the productive heart of this system, and we are doing so with the full support of the landowners and the Hela Provincial Government."
Kili Teke has been explored for more than a decade, with previous operator Harmony Gold investing more than US$20 million between 2014 and 2017. The work included nearly 37,000 metres of diamond drilling, geophysical surveys, geochemical sampling and geological mapping that led to the definition of the current inferred resource. South Pacific Metals has since incorporated machine-learning analysis and updated geological modelling to identify new exploration targets across the 253-square-kilometre licence area.
The company said the current exploration campaign is aimed at expanding the known mineralised system and advancing one of Papua New Guinea's most advanced undeveloped copper-gold projects.
