Carnavale Resources has started more than 7,000 metres of aircore drilling at Kookynie while lodging environmental and mine development applications for its proposed Swiftsure and Tiptoe pits. The company says its bankable feasibility study is essentially complete, with an updated financial model and ASX release expected in October.
- More than 4,000m targeting greenstone-granite mineralisation
- More than 3,000m planned to sterilise infrastructure areas
- Mine Development and Closure Plan application lodged
- Natural Vegetation Clearing Permit application lodged
- Kookynie BFS financial model still being updated
7,000m drilling campaign begins at Kookynie
Carnavale Resources Ltd (ASX:CAV) has begun a new aircore drilling campaign at its Kookynie Gold Project in Western Australia, combining exploration upside with practical groundwork for a proposed mine.
More than 4,000 metres will test the greenstone-granite boundary about 2km northwest of the high-grade Swiftsure deposit. Carnavale says the target shares geological characteristics with the nearby Cosmopolitan, Champion and Puzzle deposits, although the current program is designed to test a prospective theory rather than report a new discovery.
The company says earlier aircore drilling was positioned too far west to properly test the main north-south structure marking the boundary. The new targets were identified using earlier drilling, detailed infill work around the proposed Swiftsure and Tiptoe pits, airborne magnetic data and recent gravity modelling beneath alluvial cover.
Sterilisation drilling prepares proposed pit infrastructure
A separate program of more than 3,000 metres will examine proposed infrastructure areas within the mining lease. Carnavale describes this as sterilisation drilling, intended to check that planned infrastructure for the near-term open-pit development of Swiftsure and Tiptoe is not placed over mineralisation.
That work is less glamorous than testing an undrilled target, but it is directly tied to project design. The release does not provide new assay results, a revised resource estimate or an updated mining schedule, so the immediate significance lies in the progression of technical and permitting work rather than a change to the project's reported gold inventory.
Permit applications lodged ahead of October BFS
Carnavale has also lodged applications for a Mine Development and Closure Plan and a Natural Vegetation Clearing Permit with the relevant Western Australian departments. The company says both applications are required before mining can begin and were prepared through work completed for the bankable feasibility study.
The BFS documentation is described as essentially complete, with only an update to the financial model remaining. Carnavale expects to release the study in October 2026, but that timing is a stated expectation rather than a completed milestone, and the permit applications remain subject to assessment.
The next meaningful test for the project will therefore come on two fronts: whether drilling identifies mineralisation along the newly targeted contact, and what the completed financial model says about the economics, capital requirements and development pathway for Swiftsure and Tiptoe. Until then, Kookynie is moving from geological promise towards project definition, but it has not yet crossed into mine construction.
Bottom Line?
The filing advances Kookynie on several fronts, but the October BFS and permit outcomes will determine whether the project’s proposed mining path becomes commercially actionable.
Questions in the middle?
- Will the new drilling identify economic mineralisation along the untested greenstone-granite structure?
- What capital, operating assumptions and development timing will the completed BFS disclose?
- How long will the Mine Development and Closure Plan and vegetation clearing applications take to progress?