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“The beauty of Kat Gap is that it is close to surface – less than
4m – which allows us to get in and start mining so it won’t be
an expensive exercise,” Goodwin says. “The average grade is
3-4 g/t but at surface we see a supergene effect with the gold Classic Minerals Ltd (ASX: CLZ)
concentrated in oxides, increasing grades to 7-8 g/t. That allows
us to mine near-surface high-grade material and get cashflow Market cap: $24 million
quickly.” Address 71 Furniss Road, Landsdale, WA 6065
Sons of Gwalia had defined a resource of 440,000t @ 2.9 g/t Telephone: +61 (8) 6305 0221
for 42,000oz gold but it was widely accepted that its drilling had Email: contact@classicminerals.com.au
failed to sufficiently test the 5km-long gold-in-soil anomaly. A Twitter: @Classic_CLZ
2003 report accepted that RAB drilling had been ineffective, LinkedIn: Classic Minerals
failing to penetrate far enough to properly test the granite-
greenstone contact. Key people:
Classic set about rectifying the situation and by April 2020 was Dean Goodwin (managing director)
able to produce a JORC 2012-compliant resource of 1mt @ 3 g/t John Lester (non-executive chairman)
for 93,000oz gold. Mineralisation remains open in all directions Madhukar Bhalla (company secretary)
but the allure of quick, low-cost gold production has seen the
focus shift to development.
While the opportunity for rapid development is in its sights, There is little doubt Classic Minerals
Classic will not sacrifice quality for haste. managing director Dean Goodwin is a
In August, the company began a bulk sampling campaign at hands-on leader. Here he investigates
Kat Gap which will see the company excavate up to 49,000t core from drilling at Kat Gap
of material for 3-5,000t of ore expected to grade 4-6 g/t gold.
Goodwin says the bulk sample will provide valuable geological,
engineering and metallurgical data prior to the company starting
full-scale mining in 2022.
“If you are aiming for quick development you must be certain
about the orebody and we don’t want to get caught out not
understanding the orebody before we ramp up,” he says.
“The bulk sample will allow us to see if the orientation is right
and the block model is correct. It will also provide information on
the engineering – perhaps saving money – and the metallurgy
because we will be able to test reasonable amounts of material.”
Metallurgy could be key to achieving strong margins at Kat Gap. “There has been hardly any gold exploration at all in that
Studies in 2020 showed around 75% of the gold could be southern half,” Goodwin says. “Given more than 1.7 moz gold
recovered by traditional gravity separation techniques. has been found north of the road, the potential to expand our
“It is mainly free gold, so gravity is ideal,” Goodwin says. resource base is huge.”
In July, the company announced it had purchased a Gekko Exploration has shown that primary gold mineralisation is
on-site mobile processing plant. The Australian-made Gekko associated with quartz veining developed in granitic rocks
processing system is a transportable modular design that is at or close to the western granite-greenstone contact of the
scalable and is perfectly suited to the Kat Gap mineralisation. Forrestania greenstone belt, and extends into the overlying
“The Gekko mobile plant is particularly suited to high gravity oxidised zone.
recovery orebodies. That will crush the ore and we then use “This is a unique orebody because north of the Hyden road
gravity separation for 70-75% recoveries, all without the need the gold is hosted in BIFs and dolerite,” Goodwin says. “And,
for cyanide.” normally gold-in-granite in WA is low-grade, which makes Kat
Classic plans to start full-scale operations in 2022 but Goodwin Gap even more peculiar. I think there are structural, not chemical,
said the company would continue with the same steady reasons for this. There is a bit of a buckle in the contact and at
approach as more geological information came to hand. that point all the high-grade material seems to be dropping out
“We want to derisk the operation by doing it in stages and where the geology bends.
building up our knowledge as we go,” he says. “We will start “We are still trying to understand what is going on deeper and
with a Stage 1 open pit of around 100,000t then move onto we are having success.”
Stage 2 when we know where the structure is heading because An 11-hole RC programme completed in July returned numerous
we haven’t yet joined all the dots on the high-grade quartz veins encouraging hits at depth, including 6m @ 8.94 g/t from 142m,
we are hitting.” 3m @ 15.66 g/t from 151m, 5m @ 3.57 g/t and 2m @ 4.87 g/t.
Putting together the wider geological picture at Kat Gap remains “I also expect to get more structural information about some of
a priority for Classic. the parallel quartz veins we are finding from the bulk sample,”
The Southern Cross-Forrestania district has what is tantamount Goodwin says.
to split personality in exploration terms. North of the road to Goodwin’s enthusiasm for extensions demonstrates the wider
Hyden was always considered gold country – with more than opportunity that still lays in wait at Kat Gap.
1.7 moz mined – while the ground to the south has been the After years of being passed over in favour of nickel, it could be
domain of nickel explorers. that Forrestania’s gold is about to deliver a Classic exploration
Classic is the first gold explorer to dedicate itself to the southern success story.
end of the belt.