Kingston Resources (ASX:KSN) - gold explorer & developer

Kingston Resources (ASX:KSN) – gold explorer & developer

Kingston Resources Limited (ASX:KSN) Managing Director Andrew Corbett provides an update on the company's Misima and Livingstone Gold Projects.

Kathy Skantzos: Hello. Kathy Skantzos for the Finance News Network. Joining me from Kingston Resources (ASX:KSN) is Managing Director Andrew Corbett. Andrew, welcome to FNN.

Andrew Corbett: Hi, Kathy. And thanks for having me in today.

Kathy Skantzos: First off, could you start with an introduction to the company?

Andrew Corbett: We've been going now for four years as a gold exploration and progressing into a development company now. We have two projects. Our first project, we picked up in late 2016, was Livingstone in Western Australia. And then in late 2017, we picked up the Misima Gold Project, which is our cornerstone project, and we think the flagship for the Kingston business and the strategy at the moment.

Kathy Skantzos: Thanks, Andrew. Could you tell us about the history of gold production on Misima Island and its potential?

Andrew Corbett: The history of the project or the island itself is quite fascinating. They discovered gold in the late 1800s. So over 100 years ago. And they've been mining gold ever since. There was some undergrounds pre-World War II, and then post-World War II, there was a large-scale open pit owned and operated by Placer Dome. That's what produced the 3.7 million ounces. Placer closed the mine in 2004, because of the low gold price. There's really been very little gold exploration since. We got involved, like I said earlier, in 2017, and we've progressed from 49 per cent ownership to 100 per cent ownership of the project.

Kathy Skantzos: To the Misima Project in more detail, could you tell us more, starting with the size of the project?

Andrew Corbett: Yeah, look, it's a big project. When it was running in Placer days, it averaged 230,000 ounces per annum for 15 years. So, it's a large-scale open pit. Like I said, previous production, about 4 million ounces. We're sitting here today with the best part of over 3 million ounces. So you're talking about a 7 million ounce endowment in a 3km strike length. So it's pretty large project. And to the north, the mineralised corridor extends for 4km and there's a lot of exploration to be done there.

Kathy Skantzos: And what about the drill program?

Andrew Corbett: Yeah. We had to stop drilling because of Covid in late March. And I think that's a problem that most of the industry's had to tackle and deal with. And we actually are in the process of a return to operations program as we speak. We're aiming to get started again with two drill rigs next quarter. And that'll be focused really on in-field drilling. We have over a million ounces of inferred resource that we want to upgrade to indicated. And also we've got a number of near mine exploration targets at both Umuna and Quartz Mountain area.

Kathy Skantzos: Thanks, Andrew. Closer to home, you have another project north-west of Meekatharra. What can you tell us about that?

Andrew Corbett: Yeah, we've got the Livingstone Project in Western Australia. It's about 140km out of Meekatharra, and it's a very exciting project. It's got a 50,000 ounce resource already. And we've made a discovery 10km west called Kingsley. We're currently drilling that project as we speak. They've got some really nice high-grade results on the last program, and that's about 800m of the potential strike that we've drilled. And we're currently drilling that, and it's been mapped over 2km. So it's an exciting target.

Kathy Skantzos: Great. Now to finances and strategy. Who's been backing the company and what impact has Covid-19 had on drilling?

Andrew Corbett: Obviously, we have had to pause with the drilling program in PNG, but that's now in the process of restarting. In Western Australia, we're currently drilling. In terms of our shareholders, we've got three significant, substantial shareholders, and the top 20 actually is about 60, 64 per cent of our register now. They're very supportive. We recently completed a capital raising. So our funding position is very strong. We raised $8.4 million at 16. And the best part is at the moment that we're trading at 24 cents. So everyone's very happy with the last raising, and we're in a good position to progress both projects.

Kathy Skantzos: And could you provide a comment on the share price?

Andrew Corbett: We upgraded the resource for Misima in May, late May it was actually, to 3.2 million ounces. That got taken very well. And I think that's part of the reason why our share price has been strong. It's trading well, we're well funded. And obviously, it's a great time to be building a gold company with the gold price up at US$900 or so.

Kathy Skantzos: Thanks Andrew. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Andrew Corbett: Yeah, look, it's an exciting time for Kingston. Look, our vision is to build a gold company. There can't be a better time to do it with the gold momentum and the gold price. We've got a lot of ounces and scale with Misima. It will be a large project. We're very confident around its potential to be rebuilt. And exciting times from WA with the smaller exploration projects. So we look forward to updating shareholders in the next few months.

Kathy Skantzos: Andrew Corbett, thanks for the update and congratulations on the progress.

Andrew Corbett: Thanks, Kathy. Appreciate your time.

Source: Finance News Network