Classic Minerals has delivered more high-grade gold intercepts from infill RC drilling at the company’s flagship Kat Gap gold project 170km south of Southern Cross in WA. Significant results include a 1m hit going 47.5 grams per tonne gold from 20m and a broader 6m strike going 4.08 g/t from 48m.
The results come from another 32 holes of Classic’s 109-hole infill program designed to provide more accurate data for the company’s resource model as it looks to start producing. The infill program is centred around an area 100m to 300m north of the project’s cross cutting Proterozoic dyke with the latest results coming from the explorer’s northern-most drill efforts.
So far Classic has drilled 67 holes for 3975m at Kat Gap and about 42 drill holes for 3135m remain to be drilled which the explorer anticipates chewing through within three weeks.
Significant results from earlier holes include a 1m hit going 40.1 g/t from 33m within a 2m intercept at 21.07 g/t also from 33m and a 10m intercept reading 16.19 g/t from 37m including 1m at an impressive 45 g/t from 46m.
Most of the remaining program will consist of relatively shallow holes down to depths as far as 80m, however in some cases holes will be drilled to reach 160m to extend the known gold mineralisation at depth. The company hopes its work will add additional minable ounces and result in a potentially larger open pit design.
Classic’s Kat Gap deposit hosts almost 93,000 ounces of gold in an inferred mineral resource of 975,722 tonnes of ore grading 2.96 grams per tonne. Notably, it is the highest-grade contributor to the company’s total gold inventory of 403,906 ounces.
As the company looks to start producing gold from Kat Gap it says the infill program will dramatically reduce the number of grade control RC holes required in the pit once operations are underway.
Just last week, Classic showcased its gold processing capability after its pilot plant test delivered more than 95 per cent of liberated gold through a simple gravity process. Once fully commissioned onsite, the plant is expected to produce gold in line with previous test work that demonstrated a recovery of up to 70 per cent of the gold in the feed.
Gold appears to have reclaimed further territory overnight after the price of the precious yellow metal climbed above US$1720 per ounce after bottoming out on a yearly low of about US$1621 last week.
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By Matt Birney
