Catalyst Metals has announced that it has achieved first stoping ore from Plutonic East Gold, located just off the Great Northern Highway about 950 kilometres from Perth, Western Australia.
Plutonic East, a pre-existing underground mine situated near the existing Plutonic processing plant, first began redevelopment activities in April 2024. Ore from the operation will be processed via the currently underutilised Plutonic facility.
According to the miner, the reasoning behind re-opening Plutonic East was two-fold.
“Firstly, Plutonic’s main ore source is the Plutonic underground mine; at present it is predominantly a remnant mine and by opening up Plutonic East, our operational team will have more ore sources, more mining fronts and therefore lower operating risk,” officials said.
“Secondly, the Plutonic Gold Belt has several new mines it plans to open; as a newly formed team, Plutonic East presents a lower risk development proposition and, therefore, attractive training ground for these other mines.”
Bringing Plutonic East online is Catalyst’s first step in demonstrating its ability to develop the Plutonic Gold Belt, it added.
Catalyst Metals first acquired the Plutonic Gold Belt 20 months ago. It is now executing on a belt wide 320,000 metre exploration program and has now brought its first of three new mines into operation. It will next turn its attention to the development of the two more projects, K2 and Trident.
Source: catalystmetals.com.au