Catalyst Metals Limited (ASX: CYL) has revealed an initial JORC 2012 compliant Ore Reserve Estimate of 983,000t at 3.6g/t for 115,000oz at its Henty Gold Mine in Tasmania.
This Reserve is key strategic milestone for Henty because it underpins our growth plan and highlights the project’s increasingly strong future,” Managing Director and CEO, James Champion de Crespigny, said.
“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 five years using a mine plan which incorporates the increased production rates being targeted in coming years.”
This maiden Reserve follows the recently released Mineral Resource Estimate which showed that after accounting for the Financial Year 2022 production, there was an increase of 10% in the operation’s Mineral Resource and a 20% increase in Resources since Catalyst acquired Henty in January 2021.
The 2022 Reserve has been derived from the Mineral Resource models using ore classified in the Indicated category. Individual stopes may contain up to 20% Inferred ore, and in total these comprise less than 1% of the ORE. Stopes designed within the Life of Mine plan that contain insufficient Indicated Resource will be targeted for upgrade drilling.
This is important because these represent areas where Catalyst can target relatively low cost conversion from Inferred to Indicated Resource, and provide additional material to be assessed in future Reserve estimates.
The ORE has been developed from the Life of Mine Plan. The ORE is the subsection of the Life of Mine plan being in the Indicated Resource category. The Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) on which the ORE is based was prepared by consultants CSA Global based on drill hole data as of June 30, 2022.
Henty Gold Mine
The Henty Gold Mine is located 23 kilometres from the town of Queenstown in north western Tasmania, consisting of an underground mine and a nameplate capacity 300,000tpa conventional CIL processing plant.
Catalyst acquired 100% of the Henty Gold Mine and regional exploration tenements, in January 2021. Since acquisition, Catalyst has been pursuing a strategy to increase mining inventory to support higher gold production and lower costs. Catalyst has invested heavily in exploration and recent updates to its Reserve and Resource estimates will inform a life of mine plan to support this strategy.
In the FY22 June quarter production at Henty was 6,397oz at an AISC of A$2,100oz. Production for FY22 was 25,199oz and Catalyst is targeting an annualised gold production rate of 35,000oz by the end of FY23.
