Gold: Black Cat remains on the hunt after upgrading Bulong resource

While spot gold dipped 0.35 per cent to $US1,617.70 per ounce, which is still about $2,622.88 per ounce in Australian dollars, the precious metal remains on a bullish trend.

Kitco News quoted Scotiabank commodity strategist Nicky Shiels as saying that gold had found a bottom at $US1,450 and that it was seeing “a perfect storm” that could push prices to new record highs.

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That’s certainly music to the ears of companies like Black Cat Syndicate (ASX:BC8), which has just upgraded resources at its Bulong project near Kalgoorlie by 21 per cent to 3.5 million tonnes grading 2.6 grams per tonne (g/t), or 294,000 ounces of contained gold.

And there is likely to be further growth, with the company saying the Trump, Anomaly 38 and Strathfield resources are open in all directions.

“The strong growth in resource at Bulong is driven by a substantial increase at the existing Trump deposit and the inclusion of two new deposits (Anomaly 38 and Strathfield),” managing director Gareth Solly said.

“The Myhree feasibility study is advancing well in what remains a strong gold price environment.”

Black Cat has also started regional drilling programs over multiple early stage targets that have already returned results of 1m at 20g/t gold from 24m east of the Boundary resource and 1m at 13.2g/t gold at the Woodline target.

Hits above 5g/t are typically considered to be high-grade.

Meanwhile, Blackham Resources (ASX:BLK) has executed an agreement to sell the greater of 70 per cent of stage one expansion project concentrate production or 122,500 tonnes of gold concentrate for the first three years to Polymetal International.

The two companies also reached a strategic alliance that sees Polymetal appointed as an agent or principal for up to 100 per cent of the concentrate production from Blackham’s Wiluna stage two expansion.

Both companies will also investigate joint business development opportunities for gold concentrate production from other sulphide deposits in the Goldfields region of Western Australia.

Over in Victoria, drilling completed by Catalyst Metals (ASX:CYL) during the December 2019 quarter intersected a sulphide zone grading 13m at 4g/t gold, including 5m at 6.9g/t, within the Golden Camel project.

Additionally, the company has completed a review of historical data from the Toolleen zone that highlights the potential for high-grade shoots on the southwest plunge.

The results from Toolleen, which was mined underground up until 1957, include 7m at 10.7g/t gold, 26m at 8.3g/t and 30.8m at 1.75g/t.

Catalyst can earn up to a 50.1 per cent interest in the project by spending $650,000 on exploration over five years with an option to purchase the interest under certain conditions.

The company is also continuing its 2020 drilling programs at the Four Eagles and Tandarra projects.

Oklo Resources (ASX:OKU) has extended the SK1 North discovery at its flagship Dandoko project in West Mali over a 500m strike after step-out drilling intersected further wide zones of high-grade gold mineralisation.

Notable intersections were 38m at 5.65g/t gold from 159m, including 6m at 30.94g/t from 168m and 1m at 102.37g/t from 172m, 32m at 10.57g/t from 52m and 26m at 7.54g/t from 70m.

The company said drilling is ongoing both down dip and along strike to the north to accelerate the evaluation of this discovery for inclusion in the maiden resource estimate that is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2020.