Earthworks clear way for Classic 2023 gold production

ASX-listed gold company Classic Minerals is forging ahead with earthworks for its tailings storage facility after the company’s flagship Kat Gap project in the Goldfields received the green light from the State regulator earlier this month.

The regulator’s final approvals bring the company a step closer to its goal of evolving from explorer to producer and Classic is going full-steam ahead for a prompt completion of that journey. The company says it expects to produce a gold doré within 12 weeks and have it refined at the Perth Mint to begin generating cash flow.

Until then, there is the less glamorous work to wrap up. That includes constructing the tailings facility, re-assembling the processing plant and getting processed water plumbed into the facility.

The company has opted for a Gekko on-site processing plant – an Australian-made processing system that Classic says is perfectly suited to the Kat Gap mineralisation. It is scalable and delivered in a transportable modular design and is expected to be ready for commissioning in February.

Process water for the plant is being plumbed into the Classic’s first production water bore a kilometre away and adjacent to the main access haul road to Kat Gap’s mining operation. Water will be pumped into large storage tanks located next to the plant.

Classic has engaged Resource Engineering Consultants to design, engineer and deliver the tailings facility whose boundaries have been demarcated and topsoil is now being pushed back.

The company intends to take a staged approach to mining at Kat Gap as it aims to reduce early overhead costs and mitigate risk to the operation.

Classic has a bulk sample ore stockpile of 6500 tonnes at 6g per tonne ready to be processed as soon as the Gekko plant has been reassembled.

The company holds approximately 578 square kilometres of tenements across two major regional exploration areas in WA with reputations for high-grade gold and base metal targets – the Kat Gap project and the Forrestania gold project, which comprises Lady Magdalene and Lady Ada.

Kat Gap is some 170km south of Southern Cross and approximately 50km south of Forrestania. It 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.

The company says with strong grades and near-surface mineralisation – plus the prospect of new mineralisation zones outside the original drilling perimeters – when production does kick off it will not take long to attain full-scale production.

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