KUALA LUMPUR: Taiton Resources Ltd, partly owned by Malaysian investors is uncovering fresh mineral potential at its Kingsgate project in New South Wales, Australia, after a review of decades-old exploration data revealed previously overlooked tungsten and antimony mineralisation alongside gold.
The company said its review of historical shallow drilling identified 4.0 metres grading 0.20 per cent tungsten trioxide (WO₃) from 46 metres, including a 1.0-metre interval grading 0.47 per cent WO₃ from 49 metres.
Historical soil sampling also outlined a coherent tungsten anomaly extending more than 100 metres, with peak concentrations of 920 parts per million (ppm).
Despite these encouraging indicators, tungsten had received limited attention during earlier exploration, with only about 5.0 per cent of historical drill holes assayed for the metal as previous work concentrated on high-grade molybdenum-bismuth quartz pipes, the company said in a statement.
Taiton executive director David Low said the findings highlighted the potential to broaden the project's mineralisation profile beyond molybdenum and bismuth.
"Our review continues to demonstrate that Kingsgate is much more than a molybdenum-bismuth project. The limited tungsten assaying completed historically has delivered highly encouraging results, while the presence of antimony and gold provides additional exposure to commodities currently experiencing strong market interest," he said.
"With only a small proportion of historical drilling assessed for tungsten, we believe there is considerable scope to unlock additional value from this strategically important polymetallic system."
Located east of Glen Innes, Kingsgate lies within the New England Batholith, a granite province known for its tin, tungsten and molybdenum mineralisation.
Taiton interprets the project as a granite-related molybdenum-bismuth-tungsten system, with tin, arsenic, antimony and locally occurring gold forming part of the broader mineralisation.
More than 100 quartz pipes have been identified across a corridor measuring about 3.2 kilometres long and 800 metres wide, at least 54 of which were historically mined.
Low said historical records show that about 350 tonnes of molybdenum and 200 tonnes of bismuth were extracted from the high-grade quartz pipes between the 1880s and late 1920s.
The renewed focus on tungsten comes as Australia seeks to strengthen its position in the supply chains of critical minerals.
Tungsten is included on Australia's Critical Minerals List. Geoscience Australia reported that the country held the world's second-largest tungsten resources in 2024, accounting for 12 per cent of the global total, but contributed only about 1 per cent of worldwide production.
Global supply remains heavily concentrated in China, which the United States Geological Survey estimated produced 67,000 tonnes of tungsten in 2025, equivalent to 79 per cent of global mine output.
China's introduction of export controls on selected tungsten products and related technologies in February 2025 has further highlighted concerns over supply-chain concentration for the critical mineral.
Against this backdrop, Low said Kingsgate presented an opportunity to investigate a historically underexplored tungsten system using existing exploration material and historical data.
He said the company's next phase of work will involve resampling available historical drill cores and re-assaying them for a broader range of elements, including tungsten and antimony.
Taiton also plans targeted soil and rock-chip sampling across recorded quartz pipes and areas where historical exploration coverage is limited.
The findings will be integrated with historical geological and drilling data to rank priority targets for reverse circulation and diamond drilling, supported by multielement analysis.
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