Classic Minerals has joined the ranks of WA gold miners after hauling the first ore from its wholly-owned Kat Gap gold mine, which sits 170km south of Southern Cross in the State’s Central Wheatbelt.
Initial haulage is focused on 6500 tonnes of ore recovered from the bulk sample pit at the mine, which hosts almost 93,000 ounces of gold in an inferred mineral resource of 975,722 tonnes and is the highest-grade contributor to the company’s total gold inventory of 403,906 ounces. Kat Gap has a healthy grade of 2.96 g/t gold.
Classic says Kat Gap has strong gold grades and near-surface mineralisation and will now expand its focus from exploration to gold mining. The company’s nearby Forrestania gold project, which is 20 per cent-owned by Hannans, contains further resources of 311,050 ounces of gold at a head grade between 1.3 and 1.4 g/t gold.
The company has installed a “Gecko” gravity-processing plant at Kat Gap that is expected to recover more than 73 per cent of the precious metal from the ore. The Gekko Inline Pressure Jig and Gekko Spinner delivers more than 95 per cent of the liberated gold through a simple gravity process at a crush size of less than 2mm. The plant has a 100t per hour capacity.
The remaining 27 per cent of the gold will be retained in the tailings for reprocessing through a standard carbon-in-leach plant. Kat Gap is showing ore capable of high levels of gravity-extractable gold at low processing and establishment cost.
In December last year, Classic Minerals revealed it had secured funding of $20.1 million for the construction of its Kat Gap gold mine. The deal included a $15 million share put option facility and a $5.1 million convertible note issue through United States-based, LDA Capital. The funding followed final mine approval from the WA government the previous month.
Kat Gap is a shallow, previously unmined gold deposit that was first uncovered in the 1990s when the now-defunct Sons of Gwalia completed a resource estimate and scoping study at the site.
In January this year, Classic released RC drilling assays from Kat Gap that reported high-grade gold intercepts beneath existing shallower gold mineralisation. Highlight results included 10m at 9.26 g/t gold from 57m, including 3m going 28.30 g/t gold and 6m grading a more-than-decent 12.12 g/t gold from 70m. These results extend below known resources at depth, suggesting Kat Gap has plenty of potential to grow.
Classic has targeted expansion potential at the 80 per cent-owned, 59,700-ounce Lady Ada and 250,000-ounce Lady Magdalene deposits as it seeks to grow its Forrestania gold belt production. The use of a gravity-only circuit to produce gold at Kat Gap may prove to be a clever method of reducing early capital costs and help fund future expansion.
It should not be long before Classic is selling gold from Kat Gap and with the precious metal’s price on a roll, the timing could be exquisite.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
