AuKing Mining Ltd (ASX:AKN) continues to progress activities, including drilling, at the Koongie Park Project along with metallurgical test-work at Onedin deposit supported by the completion of its recent share placement.
Drilling at Koongie
AuKing started drilling at Koongie Park on May 24 and has so far completed 2,694 metres of reverse circulation (RC) drilling across 16 holes.
A total of 14 holes have been drilled at the Onedin South prospect and encouragingly for the company, preliminary visual observations and pXRF analysis have indicated the presence of mineralisation in these holes.
The company is waiting for assay results to gain a full picture of what Onedin may hold.
AuKing has now moved the drill rig to the Emull prospect to carry out a minimum of eight RC drill holes and 1,000 metres of drilling.
Onedin test-work
The company is continuing test-work on the Onedin oxide and transition ores, with two significant results achieved so far:
- an ammonia leach in conjunction with certain reagents has shown that some copper (and, to a lesser extent zinc) is releasing from the iron oxide/hydroxide material that is prevalent in the upper sections of the Onedin oxide zone; and
- there exists a supergene blanket beneath the oxide zone that contains high-grade copper oxide minerals (such as cuprite and native copper). Based on test-work utilising an ammonia leach solution combined with certain reagents, AKN has established a likely commercial recovery for these copper minerals in the supergene blanket zone.
These results provide encouragement for AKN as the test-work program advances over the coming weeks.
Placement complete
AuKing has completed its recent share placement in what has been trying conditions on the market.
The company placed seven million shares at 14 cents per share (shares are currently trading at around 8 cents), with shareholders approving the issue of free-attaching options (the same class as the existing ASX-listed AKNO options) on the basis of one free option for every three new shares applied for.
A total of 5,946,428 shares have been placed at an issue price of 14 cents per share (total proceeds $832,500 received) together with the issue of 3,567,856 free attaching options.
AKN’s board considers it is a significant achievement to complete the placement and represents a strong show of support for AKN and its project activities.
The balance of the placement (1,053,572 shares/ $147,500 proceeds) is expected to be completed shortly.