Following the receipt of mining approval Classic is targeting a bulk sample between 3000-5000 tonnes of ore grading between 4-6 grams per tonne gold for 350-1000 contained ounces of gold.

This is a portion of Kat Gap's 93,000 ounce resource, with Classic approved to excavate up to 49,000t under the terms of its exploration licence.

The sample feed will be processed through Kat Gap's 30 tonne per hour Gekko Systems processing plant that arrived on-site in late May.

According to Classic chairman John Lester the Gekko plant represented a cost-effective entry to onsite processing at Kat Gap and was ideally suited to the free-milling ores found in the deposit.

"The company's current unit also has the advantage of scalability and can be matched with Gekko's Python process circuit to upgrade production throughput to more than 250 tonnes per hour [which is] more than ample capacity to process the open pit and potential underground ores from the deposit," he said.

The bulk sample is expected to yield about 1000oz of gold.

Lester said with earthmoving equipment recently mobilised Classic's team was delighted to have been on site to witness the first turning of soil, which would serve to further de-risk the project and give the company and its investors increased confidence in executing the greater mining operation.

He said mining was on-track to start in the first quarter of 2022.