Krakatoa Resources Limited (ASX: KTA), an Australian exploration company focused on developing mineral projects, has announced the commencement of its 2026 drilling and development activities at the Zopkhito Antimony-Gold Project in Georgia. The company holds an exclusive option to acquire up to an 80% interest in the 1,779-hectare project, which operates under a mining licence valid until March 2042. This marks the second season of surface diamond drilling at Zopkhito, with a primary objective to convert and expand the existing foreign resource estimate into a JORC standard Mineral Resource Estimate.
The drilling program is specifically targeting areas where mineralised antimony and gold veins have been identified within historical adit developments. Krakatoa reported that the Zopkhito Project currently holds a foreign resource estimate of 225 kilotonnes at 11.6% antimony for a contained 26,000 tonnes of antimony, alongside 7.1 million tonnes at 3.7 grams per tonne gold for 815,119 ounces of gold. In the coming weeks, the company expects to commence underground drilling and bulk adit sampling, complementing the surface work. The broader 2026 work program also encompasses metallurgical optimisation and preliminary mining studies to advance the project.
Krakatoa CEO Mark Major expressed his satisfaction with the commencement of the field season following a period of heavy snow. Mr Major highlighted that this year’s drilling program is crucial for delivering a maiden JORC-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate and progressing early mine development studies. He added that the 2025 drilling program successfully validated both the high-grade nature and the extension potential of the antimony and gold mineralisation. With antimony’s growing global strategic importance, Mr Major believes Zopkhito could emerge as a significant European source of this critical mineral.
