Katanning deep drilling: resource growth and pit design notes for mine planners
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Ausgold has extended gold mineralisation beyond the current Mineral Resource at its Katanning gold project in Western Australia, with new extensional and in-fill drilling in the Central Zone feeding into an updated Mineral Resource Estimate planned for Q4 2026. Deep drilling is targeting down-dip and along-strike extensions of existing lodes, with a growing backlog of assay results indicating continuity outside the present pit-constrained model. For mine planning and geotechnical teams, the expanded dataset will refine pit shell geometry, rock mass characterisation and potential underground transition options.
Technical Brief
- Updated Mineral Resource timing in Q4 2026 effectively sets the window for next major mine design revisions.
Our Take
Within our 1247 Mining stories, Western Australian gold projects like Katanning that are still in the resource‑growth phase often use deep drilling campaigns to reposition themselves from marginal to potentially development‑ready assets, which can materially change how financiers and contractors view project risk.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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