Black Cat Syndicate Ltd. has unveiled its growth plan at the Coyote gold operation in Western Australia’s Tanami region.
The company will invest AU$11 million to deliver 35,000 metres of reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling, more than a tripling of the scale of any prior drilling undertaken by Black Cat since it acquired the project, which has been under care and maintenance since 2013.
The drilling program will run through to November 2026, targeting four primary operational objectives to significantly expand the project’s current 645,000-ounce resource.
Key to the program is extensional drilling at Coyote Central. Diamond drills will test the high-grade underground deposit down to a depth of 850 metres, effectively doubling the known resource depth and targeting areas where historical drilling previously intersected grades of up to 70.55 grams per tonne of gold.
In addition, 10,500 metres of infill drilling will target Coyote Central’s existing underground resource, which boasts an exceptionally high average grade of 14.6 grams per tonne, aiming to convert the resource into higher-confidence classifications.
The miner will also undertake specialised metallurgical drilling at the nearby Sandpiper deposit. Fresh and transitional mineralisation at Sandpiper was excluded from a 2024 scoping study due to a lack of processing data; the upcoming core samples aim to unlock synergies with the main Coyote processing facility to extend the overall life of the mine.
Black Cat is also planning to complete 15,000 metres of RC drilling, targeting four prospects, Pebbles East, Coyote NE, Lewis Granite, Track Syncline, all within 30 kilometres of the processing facility.
Black Cat Managing Director James Bruce said: “This discovery program is one of the largest drilling investments in Coyote’s history and will build on the successful high-grade discoveries at Coyote over 25 years ago.
“Coupled with existing surface infrastructure and the extremely high-grade nature of the orebody, this discovery program will better define the opportunity to develop a modern efficient underground operation at a scale that creates value for BlackCat.”
