Catalyst Metals Limited provided an updated Mineral Resource & Ore Reserve statement for its Plutonic Gold Mine, and an updated Mineral Resource for the Trident deposit. Importantly, the updates presented in this release relate to the Plutonic Main and Trident deposits only. The Plutonic Gold Belt hosts numerous open pit and underground deposits that have previously been estimated by other competent persons.

Those deposits are yet to be re-estimated. The updated Trident Resource estimate is different than expected. It now reflects what Catalyst believe is an improved approach to estimating such a deposit, updated drilling and a lower cut-off grade in this higher gold price environment.

This Resource will form the basis of the pending Trident Definitive Feasibility Study. That study is well progressed and the Company remains committed to its development as quickly as possible given its high grade and the latent mill capacity that currently exists at Plutonic. The Mineral Resource & Ore Reserve sit within the existing mining footprint and do not include virgin zones.

The previously reported NI 43-101 Ore Reserves and Mineral Resources for the Plutonic Operations included satellite deposits such as Plutonic East, Plutonic West, Hermes and Perch. These remain NI 43-101 compliant, but not JORC compliant. Catalyst will review these estimates in due course.

The Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves for the Plutonic Underground Mine and Mineral Resources for the Trident deposit have been estimated for the first time by Catalyst following the acquisition of Superior Gold and Vango Mining. Catalyst undertook a comprehensive re-estimation and classification of the entire Plutonic Main deposit Mineral Resources. This included the Plutonic Main underground and open pit areas.

The previously reported Plutonic Main open pit Mineral Resources have now been incorporated into the Plutonic underground Mineral Resource inventory. Further work is planned to re-evaluate the Plutonic Main open pit potential. The re-estimation and classification of the Plutonic Mineral Resources followed an extensive review of the geological and geostatistical behaviour of the Plutonic mineralisation together with mine production reconciliation.

Catalyst has implemented a resource modelling technique that is well suited to estimating highly variable gold mineralisation. The modelling parameters were optimised so that the final Mineral Resource was well aligned with recent and historic production reconciliation performance. The Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for Plutonic Underground has been undertaken with a focus on delineating areas of the MRE with Reaonable Prospects for Eventual Economic Extraction (RPEEE).

Catalyst has applied a approach to historic mining depletion to ensure that the inclusion of potential 'un-mineable' remnants has been minimised. In addition, an underground Shape Optimiser (SO) evaluation has been applied to ensure that only cohesive groups of blocks that satisfy RPEEE are included in the MRE. The previous combined Measured, Indicated and Inferred NI 43-101 MRE as at 31 December 2021 for the Plutonic Main underground and open pit contained 4.97Moz.

Mine production depletion to 30 November 2023 accounts for 123Koz whilst changed modelling methodology, resource classification, historic depletion and RPEEE considerations has accounted for a reduction of 3.2Moz. A high proportion of the resource reduction is due to a grade reduction from 4.6g/t Au (Measured and Indicated) and 5.2g/t (Inferred) to the current 2.9g/t Au (and 2.6g/t Au for Inferred). Following is a summary of the Plutonic Underground Mineral Resources, as at 30 November 2023.

The Trident deposit sits approximately 25km to the north-east of the Plutonic Gold Mine and the planned development in 2024 has been made possible by the recently completed consolidation of the Plutonic Gold Belt. The estimation approach for the updated Trident MRE was primarily based on domains defined by geological, structural and mineralisation characteristics. This differs from the previous MRE approach where the continuity and volume of estimation domains were largely subjected to pseudo economic and mining criteria at an elevated cut-off grade.

The Catalyst estimation approach has allowed the full grade-tonnage distribution of the mineralised domains, including additional lower grade material, to be incorporated into the MRE. The Trident MRE has been undertaken with a focus on delineating areas of the MRE with Reasonable Prospects for Eventual Economic Extraction (RPEEE). An underground Shape Optimiser (SO) evaluation has been applied to ensure that only cohesive groups of blocks that satisfy RPEEE are included in the MRE.