The WA Government has approved the underground mining proposal for Catalyst Metals’ Trident gold project in Western Australia.
Now the company is just waiting on its open pit mining proposal, which has been submitted to the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry, Regulation and Safety, before it can commence mining at Trident.
Located 30km north-east of the Plutonic processing plant, Trident is a gold deposit with resources of 524,000 ounces (oz) at 3.6 grams per tonne (g/t) and reserves of 188,000oz at 4.4g/t gold.
Catalyst managing director and chief executive director James Champion de Crespigny explained the company’s growth strategy.
“Catalyst’s three-year organic growth plan will require three new mines to be developed over the next 12 months. Trident is the largest of these,” he said.
“The development remains on track. Receiving this approval is another step forward.”
The other two deposits within this growth plan, Plutonic East and K2, already have approved mining proposals, allowing mining activities to commence, with Plutonic East’s development well underway.
A drill rig has been mobilised to begin grade control drilling at the Trident open pit., which, as the largest of the three Catalyst mines in the area, will be key to the company achieving its production goal of 200,000oz per annum (ozpa).
“The Trident resource is currently 524,000oz of gold,” Champion de Crespigny said. “With no real exploration on the deposit since the 1990s, we don’t know its potential. Step out and resource development drilling will test this.”
With an initial five-year mine plan to produce an average of 37,000ozpa of gold from Trident, Catalyst intends to conduct infill drilling to target conversion of the 251,000oz of inferred material, which could extend the mine life beyond its initial five years.
In May 2024, high-grade mineralisation was identified near the surface through drilling above the Trident orebody. This mineralisation enabled Catalyst to refine its development plan to include a small open pit from which the underground portal will be established.
The open pit also lowers the execution risk and better positions the mine for future grade control, drilling, ventilation, haulage, in-mine resource development and exploration for Catalyst.
Catalyst hopes to achieve first ore from Trident in the second half of 2025.
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