Catalina Resources (ASX:CTN) independent review sharpens Beasley Creek orogenic gold focus

Catalina Resources has released the findings of an independent technical review of its 100% owned Beasley Creek Project in the Pilbara, with the assessment confirming strong prospectivity for shear hosted orogenic gold along the Mithgoondy Shear Zone and related structures and drawing together decades of fragmented work into a unified exploration model across both granted and pending tenements.

The outcomes provide a coherent basis for an initial, tightly focused exploration program, with clearly defined structural corridors, geochemical trends and drill ready targets positioned to support the next phase of work at the project.

Highlights

• Independent review confirms strong prospectivity for shear hosted orogenic gold across the project along the Mithgoondy Shear Zone and related structures.

• Flamingo identified as the standout drill ready target, defined by coincident soil anomalism, magnetic features, favourable lithologies and structural trends.

• Historical drilling recorded 4m @ 11.4 g/t Au from 20m to 24m in RRC15, with the mineralised zone remaining open to the north under updated structural interpretation.

• Regional setting is consistent with Paulsens style gold systems influenced by the northern Capricorn Orogen and mantle tapping structures including the Soda Fault.

• Pending tenements contain gold anomalous stream sediments, providing immediate secondary targets once granted.

The Beasley Creek Project sits within a broader district that hosts several established gold deposits, including the former Paulsens Gold Operation, which produced 907,344 oz at 7.3 g/t Au, averaging approximately 75koz per annum between 2005 and 2017.

The operation was later acquired by Black Cat Syndicate for remnant mining of the existing resource and returned to production with first gold poured in December 2024.

Beasley Creek occupies a geologically prospective and underexplored portion of this corridor, where historical work has been limited in scope and depth and has seen minimal application of modern geophysics or systematic geochemical testing.

Regionally, the project lies within the northern Capricorn Orogen, a belt characterised by multiple tectonothermal events and deep crustal structures that have repeatedly channelled hydrothermal fluids, with the major Soda and Nanjilgardy Fault systems interpreted to extend to the Moho and recognised as conduits for gold bearing fluids associated with deposits such as Paulsens.

At the project scale, the Mithgoondy Shear Zone forms a north dipping mylonitic corridor that marks the boundary between Archean granite greenstone terrain and Fortescue Group stratigraphy, focusing deformation, alteration and fluid movement along its length as it passes directly through the Beasley Creek tenement.

It represents the principal structural feature controlling lithological distribution and hydrothermal pathways and establishes an architecture capable of supporting orogenic gold deposition.

Within this structural framework, the Flamingo Target has been confirmed as Catalina’s highest ranked exploration priority, with surface geochemistry defining a linear, kilometre scale Au–Cu–As anomaly that tracks the Mithgoondy Shear Zone.

Reduced to pole magnetics highlight a discrete structural discontinuity coincident with sheared mafic and felsic host rocks.

The combined geochemical footprint, structural setting and lithological package are consistent with signatures described for shear hosted orogenic systems in the Capricorn Orogen, yet the target area has not been drill tested despite several generations of surface sampling, leaving Flamingo as an untested first order drill opportunity.

The independent review also revisits historical work at Beasley Central, where GSWA’s analysis of gold from alluvial workings confirms a hydrothermal origin with minimal transport, indicating a proximal vein related source rather than detrital or conglomerate hosted mineralisation and aligning with the structural model applied at Beasley Creek.

In this context the intersection of 4m @ 11.4 g/t Au in RRC15 at the contact between basal Fortescue conglomerate and underlying sheared greenstones is interpreted as part of a structurally controlled hydrothermal system, with the mineralised zone dipping to the north and the original vertical hole regarded as sub optimal.

The down dip extension remains untested, so a targeted confirmation hole is characterised in the review as a technically justified, low cost opportunity to determine continuity.

Management has framed the technical work in explicitly structural terms, with Executive Director Ross Cotton commenting that

“This review sharpens our understanding of the structural architecture at Beasley Creek and confirms the presence of a coherent shear-hosted gold system.”

The assessment also notes that multiple generations of soil and stream sediment sampling define a consistent Au–Cu–As geochemical signature aligned with the Mithgoondy corridor, including anomalies that extend onto pending tenements E47/5364 and E47/5366.

These anomalies indicate potential continuity of the mineralised system beyond the currently granted tenure and provide reliable vectors for both immediate drill targeting and early stage reconnaissance.

On the funding front, Catalina Resources intends to apply for co funding under the Western Australian Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme to support the initial drilling program at Beasley Creek, targeting the down dip continuation of the historical high grade intercept at RRC15 and the untested Flamingo structural corridor.

Planned next steps include soil infill and extension sampling at Flamingo and other locations along strike to refine drill collar positions, as well as reconnaissance across the pending tenements as soon as they are granted, preparation and submission of the EIS application and completion of heritage engagement and access planning.

The work program will then move to the commencement of drilling activities, including the RRC15 confirmation hole and first pass drilling along Flamingo.

Taken together, the independent review, the persistent multi element anomalism and the presence of an untested high grade intersection position Beasley Creek as a structurally coherent orogenic gold project in a district with an established production history.

Catalina is now moving toward drilling on the back of a consolidated geological model and a sequenced work program that is designed to test both immediate and regional scale targets.

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