The Eric Sprott-backed junior's soil sampling within the Croydon project last year defined hydrothermal specimen gold over 10km long strike extent, that is up to 200m wide, grading above 30 parts per billion. 

 

Most exciting is a 1.1km-long core area that was defined by samples of 100ppb (0.1 grams per tonne), with peaks of up to 0.64gpt.

 

Analysis of collected gold specimen suggests the mineralisation is primary and not redeposited, explaining the lack of nuggets at surface.

 

Kairos' executive chairman Terry Topping said Fuego was a very large drill-ready target in the Hardey Formation, the sedimentary units that hosts the Paulsens underground mine to the south.

 

While Paulsens was mined in the 1930s, it wasn't until the late 1990s that Tapian Minerals, where Topping worked at the time, started taking the potential for deeper gold seriously.

 

Developed as an underground operation by a Taipan and St Barbara-linked company in 2004, Paulsens produced more than 910,000oz until Northern Star Resources placed the mine on care and maintenance in early 2018.

 

Topping said the anomaly at Croydon and Paulsens had some similarities, so the identification of such a large, high-tenor gold-in-soil anomaly, 5-10 km to the southwest of last year's rich nugget patch discovery, was a significant exploration breakthrough.

 

Kairos will swing its exploration focus towards Fuego's more conventional potential with approvals in place for trenching and drilling, and a taxpayer co-funded exploration grant for $150,000 in matching funds for RC and diamond drilling. 

 

The work is expected to begin in March.

 

Kairos's Pilbara project is about 100km south of Port Hedland, close to the Pilgangoora lithium mine and the historical Lynas Find gold project that produced over 125,000oz of gold between 1994 and 1998. 

 

Croydon is within the central part of its Pilbara project which has an overall resource of 643,000oz.

 

Kairos started the year with $1.7 million to fund its Pilbara work. 

 

Shares in the minnow were steady at 0.6c, valuing the company at $5.1 million.