As a successful mid-tier miner, Kirkland Lake Gold Limited achieved record gold production of 723,477 ounces in 2018, through the operation of its low cost, high grade assets at Fosterville Gold Mine, Australia and Macassa Gold Mine, Canada, and supports a well-funded exploration and development programs in both countries. Leveraging exploration successes, such as the discovery of gold at the Lantern deposit, Northern Territory, Australia, is key to supporting the Company's growth. The Lantern gold deposit lies approximately 200m south of the Cosmo Deeps Gold Mine (Cosmo Deeps), with both deposits hosted within siliciclastic rocks of the Koolpin Formation that have been folded about the northerly-trending Cosmo Anticline. The Lantern deposit is localised along the western limb of the anticline whereas Cosmo Deeps is localised in a stratigraphically higher part of the Koolpin Formation within the overturned eastern limb and hinge zone of the same antiform. The Cosmo Deeps host sequence is separated from the Lantern host sequence by a gabbroic sill, with higher gold grades focused within the footwall of an extensive carbonaceous mudstone that defines the top of the Koolpin Formation. The Lantern and Cosmo Deeps host sequences show an amphibolite-facies metamorphic assemblage overprinted by multiphase silica-carbonate-sulfide alteration. Gold mineralisation at both Cosmo Deeps and Lantern is focused within sandy siliciclastic sequences, but at Lantern bonanza gold grades also occur within selected quartz-carbonate-sulphide vein arrays. Understanding and documenting these differences was thus identified as a critical element during definition studies at Lantern. Since discovery the NT geology team has made significant progress towards understanding the mineralisation controls at Lantern, employing a fusion of long-established geological methods and innovative numeric data collection methods. Mentored by industry experts, the team is transforming underground mapping using point cloud photo imagery scanning technology and combining this with more representative sampling practises. Continuous geochemical and mineralogical drill core scanning technologies are being trialled, with the aim of providing a digital platform for better communication of geological information and freeing up geologists' time for interpretation in support of improving our geological understanding of Lantern.
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