An updated mineral resource for the Coyote Central deposit has owner Black Cat Syndicate believing it is one of the highest-grade deposits in Australia.
The underground resource at Coyote Central increased to 356,000 ounces at 14.6 grams per tonne (g/t), with 51 per cent of the resource in the indicated category.
This resulted in Coyote Central’s total resource, which also includes an open pit resource, increasing 59 per cent from 267,000 ounces at 10.4g/t to 424,000 ounces at 8.8g/t.
This has seen the total resource for the wider Coyote gold project, located in the Tanami desert in Western Australia, increase 32 per cent from 488,000 ounces of gold at 5.1g/t gold to 645,000 ounces at 5.5g/t.
Indicated resources jumped 105 per cent from 150,000 ounces of gold at 3.8g/t gold to 307,000 ounces at 5.3g/t. Other deposits at Coyote include Bald Hill and Pebbles.
“With our new geology model and just five months of drilling, we have demonstrated that Coyote Central is one of the highest-grade underground deposits in Australia,” Black Cat managing director Gareth Solly said.
Coyote Central’s total resource extends over 1200m strike and to 400m below surface and remains open. Solly said there is known mineralisation down to 700m.
This marks Coyote Central’s first combined resource estimation since 2008, with previously reported resources based on the consolidation and conversion to JORC 2012 of JORC 2004 estimates originally published by Tanami Gold and subsequently by Northern Star Resources.
Black Cat acquired the Coyote and Paulsens gold projects from Northern Star in June 2022, involving the payment of $39.5 million across several phases.
Both on care and maintenance, Coyote and Paulsens have been key gold producers in the past and will return to action within a few years under Black Cat’s restart plans.
Since beginning production in 2006, the Coyote open-pit and underground mines have produced 211,220 recovered ounces of gold at 4.9g/t at an average of approximately 35,000 ounces per annum.