Catalyst Metals (ASX:CYL) reports it has finalised an ore reserve estimate which has the potential to lay the foundation for growing the mine life and production rate of the Henty Gold Mine in Tasmania.
The company says the initial JORC 2012 compliant ore reserve estimate (ORE) for the project is 983,000 tonnes @ 3.6g/t for 115,000oz gold, and the maiden ore reserve follows the recently reported mineral resource estimate (MRE) which demonstrated a 10% increase in the operation’s mineral resource and a 20% increase in resources since Catalyst acquired the project in January 2021.
Catalyst reports the 2022 reserve has been derived from the mineral resource models using ore classified in the indicated category, and individual stopes may contain up to 20% inferred ore, and in total comprise less than 1% of the ORE and stopes designed within the life of mine plan that contain insufficient indicated resources will be targeted for upgrade drilling.
This is important according to the company as it represents an area where they can target low cost conversion from inferred to indicated resource, and provide additional material to be assessed for future reserve estimate.
Catalyst Managing Director and CEO James Champion de Crespigny said this reserve is a key strategic milestone for Henty because it underpins the company’s growth plan and highlights the project’s increasingly strong future.
“This is shown by the fact that we have been able to convert 55% of the indicated resource to ore reserve. Importantly, the anticipated Henty mine life now extends beyond 5 years using a mine plan which incorporates the increased production rates being targeted in coming years.”
“Importantly, the anticipated Henty mine life now extends beyond 5 years using a mine plan which incorporates the increased production rates being targeted in coming years”
The company also says the ORE has been developed from the life of mine plan, and the ORE is the subsection of the Life of Mine plan being in the indicated resource category, and the MRE which the ORE is based was prepared by CSA Global based on drillhole data as of June 30 2022.
The Henty Gold Mine is located 23km from Queenstown in northwestern Tasmania, and consists of an underground mine and a nameplate capacity 300,000 tonnes per annum conventional CIL processing plant.
Catalyst acquired the project in January 2021, and since then the company has been pursuing a strategy to increase mining inventory to support higher gold production and lower costs, investing ‘heavily’ in exploration and recent updates to its reserve and resource estimates to inform a mine life plan to support this strategy.
The company reports in the FY22 June quarter, production at Henty was 6,397oz at an AISC of $2,100oz, and production for FY22 was 25,199oz.
Catalyst is targeting an annualised gold production rate of 35,000oz by the end of FY23.
For the ORE, the company says a probable ore reserve is the economically mineable part of an indicated mineral resource and the confidence in the modifying factors applying to a probable ore reserves is lower than that applying to a proved ore reserve.
A provided ore reserve represents the ‘highest’ confidence category of reserve estimation and implies a ‘high’ degree of confidence in geological and grade continuity, and the consideration of the modifying factors and all reserves in the 2022 ore are classified as probable.
Catalyst also reports the Henty Mine uses bench and flatback mining as the principle means of ore extraction, and in selected places where development allows, a modified Avoca method has been used with success.
Each orebody has a unique characteristic and where conditions permit, benching provides the most cost-effective method of extraction, and in bench stoping, heights are limited to 12m to 15m.
The company says in order to convert inferred mineral resources to higher classification categories, further infill drilling is required in parts of the deposit, and CSA Global have recommended infill drilling to a spacing of 10m to 15m (E) by 10m to 15m (RL) along the main mineralised structures to support the delineation of the indicated material.
Catalyst Metals is an Australian mineral exploration company with assets across Victoria and Tasmania including the Whitelaw Gold Belt Project, the Tandarra Gold Project, the Raydarra Project, the Four Eagles Project, the Macorna Bore Project, the Sebastian Project and the Henty Gold Mine.
Images: Catalyst Metals Ltd
