Black Cat off and running with first gold at Paulsens

Black Cat has successfully reignited the Paulsens operation in Western Australia, pouring first gold from the restarted mine before Christmas.

The mine has returned to functional operations after the Paulsens team, combined with Maca Interquip, successfully refurbished the process plant, all completed on-time and within budget.

With the refurbishment now complete, commissioning of low-grade stockpiles has commenced and ramp up and circuit optimisation activities are ongoing throughout the processing plant.

“This is a significant milestone for Black Cat as we grow our gold production,” Black Cat managing director Gareth Solly said.

“Our Paulsens team combined with Maca Interquip should be immensely proud that they have successfully achieved our targets and poured first gold safely, on time and within budget.

“This is the perfect time to become a gold producer, and we are looking forward to targeting ~100,000 ounces from our operations by the end of 2025.”

Throughout December 2024, mobile mining equipment continued to arrive on-site at Paulsens, enabling the ramp up of mechanised mining from January 2025.

Black Cat has planned near-mine drilling at Paulsens and Kal East to begin 2025, with regional drilling to occur at Paulsens from March.

The company has been advancing Paulsens ever since it acquired the operation from Northern Star Resources in mid-2022.

The mine had been on care and maintenance since 2017 prior to that after producing nearly one million ounces of gold at 7.3 grams per tonne (g/t) since production began in 2005.

Black Cat also acquired the Coyote gold mine in its transaction with Northern Star, which has a resource of 645,000 ounces at 5.5g/t gold, including one of Australia’s highest-grade deposits in Coyote Central (430,000 ounces at 8.5g/t gold).

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