It's Queensland's time to shine as gold prices soar

News.com.au

08-05-2025

Market volatility has pushed the gold price to A$5269/oz
Spotlight is on domestic gold plays in Queensland
QXR has 100,000ha of gold projects in the Drummond Basin
Market volatility has pushed the gold price to record highs in both US and Australian dollar terms, as investors pile into safe haven bullion.
The price is sitting at a pretty at US$3403/oz (or A$5269/oz at the time of writing) and is predicted to rise even further.
Goldman Sachs is firmly in the bull camp, forecasting US$3700/oz by year end and US$4000/oz by mid-2026.
JP Morgan even reckons it will blast past those predictions by the middle of next year.
And with rising recession risks, worsening US-China trade tensions, and a global economy that's starting to wobble under the weight of tariffs, they could be right.
Today we're bring the focus home to Australia, looking at domestic gold projects, particularly in Queensland. The Sunshine State is better known for its coal endowment, but is home to the Ravenswood mine, which produces around 200,000oz annually.
That operation is up for sale by Indonesia's Golden Energy and Owen Hegarty's EMR Capital for about $2bn, with Indonesia's United Tractors or ASX listed Regis Resources (ASX:RRL) regarded among the frontrunners according to The Australian's Dataroom section.
This has drawn the attention of investors and explorers alike to Queensland, where current gold prices and historic underinvestment in exploration has spurred a swathe of activity.
Key Queensland explorers and developers
QX Resources (ASX:QXR) holds 100,000 hectares of gold ground within the fertile Drummond Basin of Central Queensland.
Around 85,800ha are held 100% by the company with the remaining 11,500ha on a JV (QXR 70%) with Zamia Resources.
The region has 8.5Moz gold endowment and a long history of ongoing mining, with potential for epithermal gold-silver deposits.
So far, the Big Red project is looking the most promising, with trenching in the March quarter defining two gold anomalous zones over 650m and potentially up to 1200m long.
Best result included 9m at 5.9g/t gold, with a drill target ready to roll once the right weather conditions roll in. QXR believes Big Red may be similar to the nearby Twin Hills deposit, which hosts 1Moz (23.1Mt and 1.5g/t gold) and Lone Sister, which hosts 480,000oz (12.5Mt at 1.2g/t gold).
Not to mention, the company has two gold mines on its grounds which closed when bullion was fetching less than $500/oz. With prices more than 10 times higher there is plenty of motivation to explore for extensions that could help reopen those deposits in a more attractive economic environment.
Gold the perfect copper sidekick
With a gold price like that, it's no surprise that QMines (ASX:QML) jumped at the chance to acquire Mount Mackenzie, which contains 129,000oz gold and 862,000oz silver within shouting distance of its Develin Creek copper project.
QML is on its way to becoming a 10,000–20,000tpa copper equivalent producer with a pre-feasibility study last year indicating its flagship asset at Mount Chalmers near Rockhampton could be turned into a 10.4-year project costing $191m with a 1.8-year payback and NPV of $373m.
And metal prices are giving the company a tailwind, particularly for gold, with the plan now to incorporate Mount Mackenzie into the Mount Chalmers mine plan.
'There's two deposits, with quite a bit of drilling down to 150m and it's just wide open everywhere,' managing director Andrew Sparke said.
'There's been a lot of sunk capital, there's about 60,000m of historic drilling, scoping and pre-feasibility studies have been completed so it's quite advanced.'
But what really caught the company's eye is that the scoping study had been done at $2000/oz.
'At A$5200/oz we saw a really good opportunity to upgrade those studies and incorporate them into our existing Mount Chalmers mine plan,' Sparke said.
'We see a lot of upside potential extending the know deposits down plunge and along strike.'
A PFS with an updated resource is in the works, which along with Develin Creek will double the scale of the Mount Chalmers PFS.
'This will be a nationally significant scale copper and gold operation,' Sparke said.
'We're also very well priced, QMines really is the next copper and gold producer off the rank, and so there's tremendous leverage here from a really low entry point into cashflow in the short to medium term.
'I really think we're going to see outsized returns in this junior/mid-tier copper development space.
'I think in the medium term copper really is the value bet. Gold has run, and copper is generally the next off the rank.'
Cannindah Resources (ASX:CAE)
Another copper company on the gold train is Cannindah, which last month found high-grade gold at its Mt Cannindah copper-gold project – including a stunning near 97g/t intercept.
The company has emerged as one of the most intriguing pure-play copper explorers on the ASX in recent times – even Chile's State copper giant Codelco has been keeping tabs – but now has the added advantage of high grade gold and silver being present at the Sunshine State deposit.
Recent gold hits that piqued the company's interest ranged from around 3g/t to 96g/t in some drill holes.
While copper remains the key focus for Cannindah, the gold opportunity will be followed up – particularly with the precious metal trading at record highs. That could make project economics for the copper much more attractive, with the gold hits also pointing to the large scale potential of the broader system.
'The copper will remain the focus but it will certainly be something we look at in terms of the larger scale system at the project,' managing director Tom Pickett said.
'Typically, when you see these gold coming in with the copper, it can point to a larger scale porphyry system which is what we've always been suggesting is the case at Mt Cannindah.'
Porphyry systems usually occur in clusters, making eventual mining more feasible and cost-effective.
That would be another bonus for Mt Cannindah, which already holds a resource of 14.5Mt at 1.09% copper equivalent and is similar in mineralisation style to giant orebodies like Newmont's Cadia.
'It you're going to invest dollars in the ground and you're also seeing some gold coming into it, it just gives you a higher level of confidence,' Pickett said.
'I think the gold price is good for the industry because it will add a bit of momentum to exploration activity which hopefully translates into some more mining activity and good action in Queensland.'
Pacgold (ASX:PGO)
Just this week, PGO delivered a maiden resource for the Alice River project, consisting of 12.2Mt at 1.2g/t gold for 474,000oz gold at 0.5g/t Au cut-off within a global resource of 26.7Mt at 1.01g/t gold for 854,000oz gold.
Of that resource, 5.6Mt at 1.4g/t gold for 250,000oz is in the indicated category, demonstrating potential for significant upside and near-term resource expansion and consolidation.
'Having now confirmed the mineralisation style is robust, utilising an interpretation of broader more continuous gold zones, we have been able to demonstrate very large tonnages of gold mineralisation with approximately 500,000oz gold contained within the first 400m from surface making a bulk tonnage open pit operation an obvious first option,' MD Matthew Boyes said on Tuesday.
A 10,000m RC drilling program intended to covert inferred resources to a higher confidence category is ongoing.
It certainly looks promising, with this being the first full drill season for three years and only 5% of the mineralised strike drill tested to date.
Sunshine Metals (ASX:SHN)
The company has quietly built a resource in excess of 900,000oz on a gold equivalent basis at its Ravenswood Consolidated project in North Queensland, near the historic gold mining town of Charters Towers and on the doorstep of the multi-million ounce Ravenswood gold mine.
The company has caught the eye of Hedley Widdup's Lion Selection Group (ASX:LSX), and the innovative approach taken by its managing director Dr Damien Keys, who brings 'been there, done that' credibility after his involvement in Spectrum Metals' remarkable Penny West gold discovery in WA, the catalyst for a $208 million takeover by Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS).
Who else has gold in QLD?
Zenith Minerals (ASX:ZNC) has the Dulcie Far North (DFN) and Red Mountain projects, having sold their stake in the Kavaklitepe gold project in Türkiye last quarter to streamline the portfolio to focus on domestic gold opportunities.
A 40 hole RC drilling program just wrapped up at DFN aimed at expanding the resource with an upgrade to the existing 5.14Mt at 1.30g/t gold for 210,000 ounces of gold resource expected in H2 2025.
At Red Mountain, the company secured a $275,000 grant from the Queensland Government's Collaborative Exploration Initiative (CEI) for 400m of diamond drilling – aimed at unlocking the project's primary gold potential, with associated copper and molybdenum mineralisation at depth.
Ark Mines (ASX:AHK)
Ark has been focused on its Sandy Mitchell rare earths deposit in Queensland, but this week announced high-grade gold in rock chips from its Pluton project in North Queensland, where it's been exploring while the wet season restricts access to Sandy Mitchell.
Rock chip sampling returned grades up to 25g/t gold and 34g/t silver.
'What's not to love about 25 grams per tonne?' executive director Ben Emery said.
'Even the 3 gram per tonne sample average is very nice.
'There's a lot of work still to be done at Pluton and we don't want it to distract from Sandy Mitchell and the great story Ark is developing there, but Pluton has potential that we can't ignore and makes a good wet season field option.'
The company is focused on the Dittmer project, where it has successfully identified an extension to the historic high-grade orebody and is currently engaged in studies with the aim of re-opening the mine, which operated during from the 1930s to 1950s at a reported gold head grade of 151g/t gold.
Prior to 2020 when BMR acquired the tenements, the mine area had never been drill tested, and drilling by the company to date has recognised that the historically mined Duffer Lode has been displaced at depth with a repetition identified within 30m of the historic mine workings.
Ballymore is systematically applying modern exploration methods to test these historic gold fields with the aim of identifying extensions to the historic workings that provide bulk gold and copper targets.
Stage five underground drilling is underway, targeting infill as well as step-out drilling around the historic mine.
The company only picked up its QLD gold assets – Blackjack and Far Fanning projects – in November last year but has wasted no time accelerating plans to get into production.
Far Fanning has a resource of 2.3Mt at 1.84g/t gold for 138,000oz of gold, while the 340,000tpa Blackjack plant is on care and maintenance.
Refurbishment work is underway, with all components scheduled for delivery by May 2025. Mechanical completion of the Blackjack plant remains on schedule for Q2 2025, with commissioning activities to commence immediately after, keeping NMR on track to restart gold production in Q3 2025.
An honourable mention also goes to Antares Metals (ASX:AM5), which has also got copper-with-a-hint-of-gold at their Surprise project in Mt Isa, where up to 1.3g/t gold was returned in first phase drilling. 1500m of phase 2 RC drilling is now underway.
And, while primarily a silver explorer, Maronan Metals (ASX:MMA) also has copper and has reported hits of up to 1.85g/t gold at its namesake project in QLD.