Focused on Delivering High-Value Mining Opportunities
Located in one of the world’s most productive gold regions, Mila Resources is focussed on the rapid exploration and expansion of the Kathleen Valley Gold Project in Western Australia.
Kathleen Valley is located in the prolific Wiluna-Norseman gold belt in Western Australia, a recognised tier one mining jurisdiction which is among the most prolific gold regions in Australia and home to a number of significant mining operations, including the adjacent, high-grade Bellevue Gold Project, which exhibits similar geological characteristics to Kathleen Valley, with gold-silver mineralisation occurring within the same Mt Goode Basalt sequence.
Also proximal to the licence is the gold producing Wiluna Mining (~60km to the north), BHP's Mount Keith nickel mine (~20km to the north), and the Kathleen Valley Gold, which is located north of Mila’s project, and in 2015 extracted 65,900 oz gold from some relatively shallow gold pits over an 18-month period.
Map showing close proximity of Kathleen Valley project to existing gold discoveries and developments
<Image Source: Investor Deck [Mila/St Brides June 2021]>
Mila’s Kathleen Valley project was held back with native title restrictions for more than 30 years. These were overcome in 2018, paving the way for drilling on this prime tenement in 2019 for the first time. Mila subsequently acquired an interest in the project in November 2021.
The project consists of a single exploration licence E36/876, covering an area of approximately 7.25 km2, approximately 30 kilometres north of the town of Leinster. It benefits from an abundance of established mining infrastructure; it is close to the main goldfield highway and the electrical grid, and there are several gold processing plants in the district which may provide commercial development routes without the requirement to build a stand-alone processing plant.
In July 2023, Mila entered into an option agreement with LBM (Aust) Pty Limited, a subsidiary of ASX listed Liontown Resources Limited (ASX: LTR), granting Liontown the option to explore for lithium on the Kathleen Valley Licence Area. Liontown is the operator of the proximal Kathleen Valley Lithium Project which it expects to bring into production in mid-2024, and for which it has offtake arrangements in place with LG, Ford and Tesla. Under the proposed transaction, Liontown will fund all lithium exploration activities, mining costs and associated Heritage Surveys and Mila and its partners on the project will maintain ownership over the gold and other minerals on the licence.
The agreement will enable Liontown to acquire up to 80% of the Lithium Rights from Mila and its partners for a total consideration of up to A$2,200,000 through a phased investment programme. By agreement with its partners, Mila currently has a 50% interest in the Lithium Rights, representing 10% of the Lithium Rights following full exercise by Liontown of its option.
Furthermore, all drill and assay analyses from Liontown’s work at the Kathleen Valley Project will be shared with Mila’s exploration team, potentially enabling a further acceleration of geological assessment across the full licence area at limited cost to Mila. Liontown will also be liable for all costs associated with the Heritage Surveys over the relevant areas of the licence and will apply its significant expertise in Heritage Survey management enabling Mila to leverage off the development of these studies for the purposes of its own gold exploration and development activities.
Resource
An initial JORC Inferred resource of 21,000 oz gold has been independently confirmed, but more importantly this is part of a much larger JORC Exploration Target (JET) of 145,000-280,000 oz at 1.8-2.5g/t gold. This has been defined solely at the Coffey deposit in the southern area of the Project following just 12 reverse circulation drill holes totalling 2,160m.
Inferred Mineral Resource estimate for the Kathleen Valley gold-zinc-silver mineralisation
Exploration Target estimate for the Kathleen Valley gold mineralisation
The Company believes this resource is the “tip of the iceberg” and is focussed on expanding this further through targeted drill programmes and by utilising electromagnetic exploration techniques (a methodology also applied by Bellevue Gold) to target mineralisation. The Mila team is expecting to see the JET target and resource zone grow substantially as the area defined by the down hole electromagnetic survey grows.
Drilling in December 2021 identified a 10m wide zone of mineralisation with multiple +10g/t Au & Ag grades at Coffey, which Mila’s Chief Technical Officer, Neil Hutchison, described as “one of the most consistent and best overall gold intersections” he has seen in his 30-year career. This area accordingly remains a high priority target alongside additional deposits, including Sturrock and Powell, in the north of the licence area, where a zone of highly anomalous gold grades has been identified.
All of the resource drilling is within fresh rock, with no oxide or transition material defined to date.
Ownership
Mila currently has a 30% interest in Kathleen Valley, which it acquired in November 2021.
Mila has the option to increase its participating interest in Kathleen Valley to 80% on the issue of 97,656,750 new Ordinary Shares at a price of £0.024 per Ordinary Share in the Company (the “Second Consideration Shares”).
The remaining 20% interest is held by Metal Rocks Ltd. The Company proposes to enter into a call option agreement with Metal Rocks, pursuant to which the Company aims to acquire the right to purchase the outstanding 20%.
