Critical mass established
2.16Moz @ 1.21g/t
Supports a stand-alone gold operation >100kozpa
Upgraded Resource
Large Exploration Program
Project Infrastructure
Gold ounces increased 17% to 2.16Moz (from 1.84Moz)
Importantly, M+| resource over 1.78Moz
Low discovery cost ~$11 per resource oz
Recent high-impact drilling program focused on the Central Zone, returned high-grade results, including:
- 28m @ 11.3 g/t from 90m
- 20m @ 10.5 g/t from 10m
- 26m @ 6.6 g/ t from 117m
- 20m @ 7.6 g/ t from 96m
- 13m @ 11.3 g/t from 7m
- 28m @ 4.8 g/ t from 49m
- 20m @ 6.5 g/ t from 93m
- 20m @ 15.6 g/t from 97m
+4,000km2 landholding covering 130km strike length
Excellent infrastructure with:
- Access to grid power
- Sealed roads
- Nearby towns
- Resource on granted mining licences
Tenements on freehold land, not subject to Native Title
Upgraded Resource
Gold ounces increased 28% to 1.54moz (from 1.20moz)
Gold grade increased 14% to 1.25g/t (from 1.1g/t)
Importantly, IVI+| resource grew by 73% to over 1moz @ 1.26g/t
Low discovery cost $15 per resource oz
Further resource upgrade planned by end CY2021
Large Exploration Program
Recent high-impact drilling program focused on the Central Zone, returned high-grade results, including:
- 28m @ 11.3 g/t from 90m
- 20m @ 10.5 g/t from 10m
- 26m @ 6.6 g/ t from 117m
- 20m @ 7.6 g/ t from 96m
- 13m @ 11.3 g/t from 7m
- 28m @ 4.8 g/ t from 49m
- 20m @ 6.5 g/ t from 93m
- 20m @ 15.6 g/t from 97m
Project Infrastructure
+4,000km2 landholding covering 130km strike length
Excellent infrastructure with:
- Access to grid power
- Sealed roads
- Nearby towns
- Resource on granted mining licences
Tenements on freehold land, not subject to Native Title
Potential for Larger Scale
Ausgold has identified a number of opportunities to grow the resource.
New Untested Zones
Resource Extensions
and New High-Grade Targets
Underground Potential
below 150m
Introduction
The 100% owned Katanning Gold Project (KGP) is located 275km south-east of Perth and approximately 40km north-east of the town of Katanning in southwest Western Australia. The tenements cover over 4,000km2 of the Katanning Greenstone Belt in the south-west corner of the Yilgarn Craton, which hosts some of Australia’s largest gold deposits.
Gold mineralisation has been identified over 20 kilometres of strike at the KGP and the project contains a JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate of 56 million tonnes at 1.21g/t gold for 2,160,000 ounces, of which 1,784,000 ounces are in the Measured and Indicated categories.
A 40,000m high-impact drilling program was recently completed which focused on the Central Zone, and returned high-grade results, including:
- 28m @ 11.3 g/t from 90m
- 20m @ 10.5 g/t from 10m
- 26m @ 6.6 g/ t from 117m
- 20m @ 7.6 g/ t from 96m
- 13m @ 11.3 g/t from 7m
- 28m @ 4.8 g/ t from 49m
- 20m @ 6.5 g/ t from 93m
- 20m @ 15.6 g/t from 97m
Figure 1
Katanning Gold Project (KGP)
The KGP represents a 17km-long mineralised trend with significant potential across three key zones (Figure 1):
- Northern Zone – Datatine
- Central Zone – Jackson, Olympia, Jinkas, and Jinkas South
- Southern Zone – Rifle Range, Dingo, and Lukin
The Company is pursuing the potential for a larger scale resource at the KGP, having already established a critical mass of 2.16Moz Resource (ASX Announcement 25 May 2022).
An improved geological model has identified numerous high-grade targets in untested exploration areas along 17km strike.
The Company is currently targeting multiple areas, focused on large scale Resource growth, which is supported by a number of outstanding exploration opportunities within and outside existing Resources areas.
Central Zone
Critical Mass Established, with further upside potential
A 40,000m drilling program has identified a large gold system in the Central Zone.
Ausgold announced an upgraded Resource in May 2022 of:
- 2.16Moz @ 1.21g/t
This Resource has established a critical mass which supports a stand alone gold operation of over 100kozpa, and was achieved with a very low discovery cost of ~$11 per Resource oz. Importantly, the Company increased the Measured and Indicated category to 1.78Moz.
Significant high-grade results from the Central Zone include:
- 28m @ 11.3 g/t from 90m
- 20m @ 10.5 g/t from 10m
- 26m @ 6.6 g/ t from 117m
- 20m @ 7.6 g/ t from 96m
- 13m @ 11.3 g/t from 7m
- 28m @ 4.8 g/ t from 49m
- 20m @ 6.5 g/ t from 93m
- 20m @ 15.6 g/t from 97m
Central Zone
Significant Results and Regional Maps
Southern Zone
Potential for Larger Scale, that can materially change the scale of Katanning
The southern extent of the Katanning Gold Project covers a largely untested 7.5km strike length, almost double that of the Central Zone.
Ausgold is currently undertaking drilling programs focused on the Rifle Range, Dingo and Lukin prospects.
Initial results have been promising with the Company confirming extensive and wide zones of mineralisation of the same repeats of mineralised structures from Central Zone. Importantly, the 2.5km untested Rifle Range area is mineralized which is important in the context of linking the Central to the Southern Zone.
First results from the Southern Zone include:
- 10m @ 2.89 g/t Au from 84m including 3m @ 8.35 g/t Au in BSRC1231
- 6m @ 4.5 g/t Au from 32m including 2m @ 12.75 g/t Au in BSRC1168
- 9m @ 2.52 g/t Au from 85m including 5m @ 4.09 g/t Au in BSRC1200
- 18m @ 1.23 g/t Au from 83m in BSRC1230
- 10m @ 2.01 g/t Au from 66m in BSRC1226
Further exploration activities continue with new and follow-up drilling, electromagnetic surveying, along with metallurgical test work and geotechnical studies.
Underground Potential
The Company reported, for the first time, a high-grade underground Resource. The new geological model highlights clear extensions of gold mineralisation which remain open at depth. There has been limited drilling below a depth of 250m which provides meaningful potential to further expand the underground potential Resource.
The current underground Resource is 0.56 Mt @ 3.25 g/t for 59Koz. Down plunge extensions of high-grade Jinkas and Jinkas South lodes have been identified to further add Resource ounces.
JORC Mineral Resource
On 25 May 2022, Ausgold released a resource upgrade for its 100% owned Katanning Gold Project (KGP) in WA, increasing the resource to 2.16moz @
1.21g/t, representing a 17% increase in ounces. More importantly, the higher confidence M+I resource grew by 33% to 1.78moz. The Company believes that it has critical mass for a stand-alone 100kozpa gold project.
The Mineral Resource comprises 56Mt @ 1.21 g/t Au for 2.16 million ounces of gold using a cut-off grade of 0.6 g/t. Details of the Mineral Resource estimate are provided in Table 1.
- 1.78Moz in Measured and Indicated Resource categories
- 0.56Mt at 3.25 g/t Au for 59,000 ounces in Jinkas Underground Resource
- Open below 150 m depth
| Resource Category | Tonnes (Mt) |
Gold (g/t Au) |
Contained Gold (oz) |
| Measured | 19.0 | 1.31 | 800,000 |
| Indicated | 26.8 | 1.14 | 984,000 |
| Inferred | 9.5 | 1.03 | 370,000 |
| TOTAL | 56.0 | 1.21 | 2,160,000 |
Table 1
Notes to Table 1:
Resource is reported at a lower cut-off grade of 0.6 g/t Au and above 150m RL (approximately 220m depth), the underground Resource is reported at 1.8 g/t Au beneath 150m RL.
Competent Persons Statement
The information in this statement that relates to the Mineral Resource Estimates is based on work carried out by Dr Michael Cunningham of Sonny Consulting Services Pty Ltd, Mr Daniel Guibal of Condor Geostats Services and Dr Matthew Greentree of Ausgold Limited in 2021 and 2022.
Dr Greentree is Managing Director and is a Shareholder in Ausgold Limited. Dr Greentree takes responsibility for the integrity of the Exploration Results, including sampling, assaying, QA/QC, the preparation of the geological interpretations and Exploration Targets. Dr Michael Cunningham is an option holder in Ausgold and takes responsibility for the Mineral Resource Estimate for the Jackson, Olympia, Dingo and Datatine deposits and Mr Daniel Guibal takes responsibility for the Jinkas and White Dam Resources.
Dr Cunningham, Mr Guibal and Dr Greentree are Members of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and have sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration, and to the activity they are undertaking, to qualify as Competent Persons in terms of The Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (JORC Code, 2012 edition).
The Competent Persons consent to the inclusion of such information in this report in the form and context in which it appears.
