The Katanning Gold Project (KGP) is a new open pit gold mine located in Western Australia. The project is being developed by Ausgold.
In June 2025, the company announced the completion of a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for Katanning.
The DFS outlined a ten-year mining operation at the site with an average annual gold production of 140,000oz in the first four years of the mine life.
It projected a pre-production capital of A$355m ($231m) including contingencies.
Ausgold is carrying out a series of works to take a final investment decision (FID) for the KGP. This includes environmental work, land access activities, community engagement and early engineering works.
Katanning Gold Project Location
The Katanning Gold Project, currently a care and maintenance site, is located in Western Australia, around 275km south-east of Perth.
Ausgold holds granted Mining Leases more than 649ha including the KGP.
Overall, the company holds nearly 3,500km² of the Katanning Greenstone Belt in the south-west of the Yilgarn Craton, which hosts some of Australia’s largest gold deposits.
The mining areas are divided into the Central Zone and the Southern Zone. The Central Zone includes the large Jinkas pit, the Jackson pits and the Olympia pits, while the Southern Zone comprising the two Dingo pits.
Katanning Gold Project Mineralisation
The KGP’s gold mineralisation is concentrated along a NNW-striking thrust fault, extending over 17km.
Thrust faults also define KGP’s internal boundaries, localising gold zones within the Central and Southern Zones. The mineralised lodes are Jinkas, White Dam, and Jackson–Dingo.
In the Central Zone, Jinkas and White Dam lodes are folded around a quartz monzonite sill, with Jinkas in the hanging wall and White Dam in the footwall, forming a significant synform over a 5,000m strike length.
The Jackson lode lies near the footwall granite, west of Jinkas-White Dam. In the Southern Zone, the Dingo lode, near a footwall granite, is seen as the Jackson lode’s continuation.
The Northern Zone’s Datatine lodes differ by striking ENE, reoriented along an ENE thrust fault, near a footwall granite. High-grade zones focus in fold hinges, with different plunges in each zone.
All KGP lodes align with gneissic foliation, showing strong continuity.
Katanning Gold Project Reserves
KGP’s measured Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) is 41.6Mt at 1.14g/t, containing 1.531 million ounces of gold. Indicated MRE is 21.2 million tonnes at 1.02g/t, while inferred MRE stands at 68.6 million tonnes at 1.11g/t.
The project contains ore reserves of 35.2Mt at 1.11g/t Au, containing 1.25 million ounces.
Mining and Processing
The Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) outlines an open pit mining plan with a conventional load and haul setup for KGP, typical for this type of gold deposit.
The mining method and grade control practices will focus on selective ore zone extraction using backhoe-configured excavators on a 2.5m flitch to minimise dilution and ore loss.
A qualified and experienced mining contractor will handle the operations, while Ausgold will oversee mine geology, planning, and production engineering.
Waste dumps will be situated on the existing Mining Lease around the pits, with the main dump southeast of the Jinkas pit.
Most mine support infrastructure, including the ore processing facility and Tailings Storage Facility (TSF), will be located south of the Jinkas pits and east of the Rifle Range Reserve. Haul roads will connect the Jinkas and Dingo pits to the processing facility and stockpiling areas.
Mine-related offices and workshops will be positioned southwest of the Jinkas pit.
The KGP processing facility will be designed to handle 3.6 million tonnes of fresh open pit ore annually. The plant will aim for a nominal treatment rate of 450 dry tonnes per hour with a grinding circuit utilisation rate of 91.3%.
The processing will begin with single-stage crushing using a primary jaw crusher. This will be followed by two stages of grinding in a primary semi-autogenous grind (SAG) mill, which includes oversize pebble crushing and a secondary ball mill closed with hydro-cyclones, achieving 80% of the product passing 75µm.
A partial hydro-cyclone underflow stream will be treated by centrifugal gravity concentration, followed by batch intensive leaching of the gravity concentrate and electrowinning of the resulting pregnant solution. The leaching and adsorption will be conducted in a hybrid carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuit, comprising two leach tanks and six CIL adsorption tanks.
Loaded carbon will undergo acid washing and elution in a split AARL elution circuit, with thermal regeneration of barren carbon before it returns to the CIL circuit. The cathode sludge from electrowinning will be smelted to produce a final product of gold doré.
The facility will thicken the final tailings and detoxify cyanide using the INCO Air/SO2 method, pumping the tailings to the Tailings Storage Facility (TSF).
Contractors Involved
The Feasibility Study (FS) for the gold project was compiled by Minescope Services. Several firms also contributed.
Ausgold provided expertise in geology, project execution, approvals, environment and heritage, and strategy and operations management. SRK Consulting contributed to mineral resources, while 3rd Rock Consulting focused on mine geotechnical aspects.
Orelogy Consulting was responsible for mine planning and ore reserve evaluation. GR Engineering Services, ECG Engineering, WSP and Rockwater were also associated.
