Kainantu fully acquires Kili Teke project in Papua New Guinea
Kainantu Resources (KRL) has announced a successful 100% acquisition of Kili Teke gold-copper project located in Papua New Guinea from Harmony Gold Mining.
The completion of this acquisition was contingent on receiving clearance from the PNG Mineral Resource Authority, which was obtained after the two companies signed the acquisition agreement in April 2022. Kainantu Resources made an initial cash payment of $1 million (approximately C$1.35 million) in two installments to acquire the project. As part of the agreement, KRL issued a total of 11.25 million warrants to Harmony Gold, with each warrant priced at $0.20. These warrants represent 9.9% of Kainantu’s shares.
Kili Teke project
Kainantu Resources CEO Matthew Salthouse expressed his satisfaction with the acquisition, emphasizing that taking full control of the Kili Teke project marks a significant milestone for KRL and its stakeholders. He highlighted the project’s potential to serve as a high-grade open-pit mine focused on gold. Additionally, he mentioned that KRL now has ownership and control over all of its portfolio projects, which include Kili Teke, May River, KRL North, and KRL South.
The Kili Teke project is described as a porphyry gold-copper development project situated approximately 40 kilometers from the Porgera Gold Mine in the Koroba-Kopiago District of Hela Province, PNG. Harmony Gold secured the project’s Exploration License (EL 2310) in 2014, and it has been renewed three times since then.
The project boasts an inferred mineral resource estimate of 237 million tonnes with a composition of 0.34% copper (Cu), 0.24 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold (Au), and 168 parts per million of molybdenum (Mo). This translates to a total of 802 kilotonnes (kt) of copper, 1.81 million ounces of gold, and 40kt of molybdenum, with a cutoff grade of 0.2% copper.
Kainantu Resources has indicated that the Kili Teke project has the potential to be developed as a small-scale open-pit mine, capable of producing higher-grade copper and gold, thus offering strong economic returns. Moreover, the mineral resource estimate provided does not include identified skarn mineralization, which is expected to further enhance the copper and gold grades by 5% and 4%, respectively, and increase the respective metal contents by 11% and 10%.
