Classic gets green light for plant assembly, water search

Gold-focused explorer Classic Minerals is energised in its final run to production at its flagship Western Australian project after receiving approvals from the state regulator to assemble its gold processing plant and drill a water bore.

Its management says it has found water in the Forrestania area before and is confident it can get the water flowing for its Kat Gap project about 170 kilometres south of Southern Cross.

Classic sees the approval as an essential milestone toward the processing of gold ore, that is reliant on the water rights.

Conveniently, the proposed site of the bore is only 1km away from the processing facility, where the shed and process water tanks have already been erected and where a gold processing plant looks to be coming together.

Classic says the processing facility is about 7km from the mining area.

Management says it will complete and test one bore and only sink a second if required.

The junior explorer holds total mineral resources of 8.24 million tonnes grading 1.52 grams per tonne gold for 403,906 ounces of gold contained.

Notably, its Kat Gap project is the highest-grade contributor to the company’s gold inventory, with nearly 93,000 ounces of contained gold at a respectable grade of 2.96 grams per tonne gold.

To bolster its holdings in the Forrestania gold region, in January 2019 Classic exercised its option on Kat Gap from Sulphide Resources for a total consideration of $250,000 plus a 2 per cent net smelters royalty.

Back in 2003, legendary gold miner Sons of Gwalia had run the rule over Kat Gap with a scoping study to identify resources it could truck to its treatment plant at Marvel Loch 150km north-northwest. The extreme trucking distance combined with the low gold price of $800 an ounce at the time supposedly restricted the possibility of squeezing the most value out of the higher-grade resource.

Enter Classic in 2022 with its mobile processing plant and riding a strong gold price above US$1920 that appears to be simmering from the ongoing geopolitical tensions coming out of Ukraine.

Interestingly, the explorer’s Gekko gold processing plant is not just mobile, and modular in design, it is also incredibly versatile and can scale up an impressive 733 per cent from 30 tonnes per hour to 250 tph if needed – and it might just be.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au