OVERVIEW
Our 100% owned Paulsens Gold Operation is located in the Ashburton Basin in the Eastern Pilbara region. Since first production in 2005, the high-grade Paulsens underground mine has recovered 907,344oz @ 7.3 g/t Au for an average of ~75kozpa. Paulsens was placed on care and maintenance in 2017 and acquired by Black Cat in 2022.
Preliminary studies have identified opportunities for remnant mining within the current Resource. Further detailed studies will be ongoing while we simultaneously conduct an aggressive campaign of exploration to expand the Resource and identify further opportunities. A decision to restart operation is currently expected in 2024. The operation has all the infrastructure required for a low-risk restart of operations with minimal capital needed, including a 450ktpa processing plant, a +128 person camp and all associated supporting infrastructure. The underground mine is dry and decline access has been maintained to the lower levels, facilitating access for underground drill rigs.
Paulsens is an orogenic gold region with camp scale potential. Over the last two decades the area has had limited systematic regional exploration, with the focus on the immediate extension of mine life at Paulsens underground. The Paulsens Gold Operation is the only gold processing facility in the Ashburton region and is strategically well positioned to be involved with third party proximal discoveries.
Current JORC 2012 Mineral Resource totals 4.4mt @ 3.9 g/t au for 549,000 oz.
The project sits on the southwestern margin of the Pilbara Craton in a classic orogenic gold system: dominated by the crustal scale Nanjilgardy fault zone with multi-million ounce gold deposits hosted off splays, including Mt Olympus (1.65Moz Au) and Karlawinda (2.1Moz Au).
GEOLOGY
The project is located within the Wyloo Dome, with the major crustal scale Nanjilgardy Fault system terminating in the area. The dome is cut by multiple secondary splays off the main fault and these are the likely conduits for mineralising fluids. This structural setting is a classical orogenic setting similar to Boulder-Lefroy Fault system in the Eastern Goldfields that hosts the Kalgoorlie Super Pit and St Ives gold camps off splays of this major fault. Paulsens occurs where a gabbro sill transects a shale-bearing metasedimentary unit, producing a significant rheological anomaly adjacent to a strong WNW-NW structural corridor, which represents a splay from the regional Nanjilgardy fault zone.
The Paulsens deposit is of a similar age to that of the Karlawinda gold camp along the same margin. A second mineralising event along the corridor occurred which reactivated and remobilised gold mineralisation at Paulsens, along with depositing the Belvedere and Mt Olympus gold lodes.
DISCOVERY OPPORTUNITIES – NEAR MINE AND REGIONAL
Multiple near mine targets have been identified with the assistance of a $2 million 3D seismic survey completed in 2018. Limited follow up drilling has been undertaken since the survey was conducted and the targets will be systematically tested from underground and surface drill positions by Black Cat Syndicate.
Regionally, it is highly unlikely that Paulsens is the only significant deposit within the area. Paulsens has seen very little drilling on a regional scale. Within our ~1,650km² of highly prospective tenements, there are a number of structural targets and gold in soil anomalies that have been identified for follow-up drilling.
