Catalyst Metals has reported a 370 per cent surge in the mineral resource for its Cinnamon deposit on Western Australia’s Plutonic Gold Belt, paving the way for a maiden underground ore reserve and a 7.5-year life of mine.
The updated resource at Cinnamon now stands at 6.9 million tonnes at 2.5 grams per tonne of gold for 541,000 ounces. This total incorporates a maiden underground resource of four million tonnes at 3.4 grams per tonne for 434,000 ounces, alongside an open pit resource of 2.9 million tonnes at 1.2 grams per tonne for 108,000 ounces.
Within the underground domain, Catalyst has declared a maiden underground ore reserve of 232,000 ounces at 3 grams per tonne. Delivered within just 12 months of initial discovery, the underground reserve underpins a production target reaching a steady-state annual output of 40,000 to 50,000 ounces, with all-in sustaining costs estimated at AU$2,357 per ounce.
Upfront capital development costs are projected at AU$35 million, leveraging existing haulage roads and camp infrastructure.
Cinnamon represents the sixth ore source in Catalyst’s strategy to scale overall production along the Plutonic Gold Belt towards 200,000 ounces per annum.
Ore will be transported 25 kilometres to the centrally located two-million-tonne-per-annum Plutonic processing plant, where metallurgical testing indicates recoveries of up to 90 per cent for underground ore and 92 per cent for open pit material.
Catalyst CEO James Champion de Crespigny praised the execution speed of the exploration team, noting that group reserves have expanded from 500,000 ounces to over 1.5 million ounces in two years.
“Cinnamon will be a sixth ore source for the Plutonic mill. The width, and continuous nature of the orebody will lend itself to efficient mining of bulk stopes,” the CEO added.
Mineralisation at Cinnamon remains open, with recent drilling intersecting promising repeat zones in stacked conglomerate units outside the current resource model. Catalyst plans follow-up drilling in the coming months to test these parallel structures and grow the deposit further.
