Classic Minerals to begin trial mining exercise at Kat Gap

Following the extraction of a bulk sample last year, Classic Minerals (ASX:CLZ) is set to begin a trial mining exercise at its Kat Gap gold project.

The trial mining will test the veracity of the recently announced indicated resource and provide Classic with data it needs to derive an ore reserve.

It will also aid in the calibration of mining and metallurgy parameters prior to full-scale mining and production.

Classic will likely trial mine a good portion of the oxide component of the indicated resource to a depth of 45m. The trial pit is expected to take around two months to complete.

The ore will be run through the Gekko gravity plant to give Classic the opportunity to fully test and refine the plant along with its mining methods.

Chief executive Dean Goodwin commented on the upcoming work.

“I’m so excited about getting those earthmoving machines back to work on the trial pit because in the next month or so we’ll finally get a good hard look at the high-grade portion of the main ore zone within the new indicated resource,” he said.

“It’s a proud moment for me and the rest of the team to see all that hard work that has gone into the drilling and resource work over these last few years come to fruition.”

Data from the trial pit will hopefully set the scene for a potentially much larger future stage two open pit.