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High Purity Alumina (HPA) at greater than 99.99% (4N) purity has been produced from the metallurgical processing of lake clays from Impact Minerals Limited’s (ASX:IPT) Lake Hope Project, located 500 km east of Perth in Western Australia (Figure 1). Impact can earn an 80% interest in Playa One Pty Limited, which owns the Lake Hope project, by completing a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) on the project which is in progress (ASX Release March 21st 2023 and November 9th 2023).
- Better than 99.99% (4N+) High Purity Alumina (Al2O3) produced from Lake Hope mud via the proprietary and patented Playa One Sulphate Process.
- The Sulphate Process underpins the recent Scoping Study, which demonstrated an NPV8 of A$1.3 billion for the project and an estimated operating cost to produce 4N HPA up to 50% lower than anyone else globally at less than US$4,000 per tonne.
- Production of larger quantities of HPA can now commence using the now-optimized Sulphate Process to demonstrate consistent quality to potential customers.
- Preliminary discussions with potential customers indicate very strong demand for 4N HPA.
- Other possible process routes to produce HPA from Lake Hope may be possible, with initial results due shortly.
- The Pre-Feasibility is on schedule to be completed in late 2024.
Impact Minerals Limited’s Managing Director, Dr Mike Jones, said, “The production of 4N HPA is a major milestone and exciting result for Impact and its shareholders as we have now shown that we can produce this high-value product, which commands prices of US$20,000 per tonne or more, from the mud in the top two metres of Lake Hope. It underpins the results of the Scoping Study, which showed an NPV8 of A$1.3 billion for the project and, at less than US$4,000 per tonne, possibly the lowest cost of production of HPA globally by a significant margin of up to 50%.
We have also optimized the Playa One Sulphate Process and have already started batch production of HPA to demonstrate consistent quality to our potential customers. We have discovered from our marketing that there is very strong demand for this high-value product, so we will continue progressing the Pre-Feasibility Study as quickly as possible. In addition, we recently uncovered two other possible process routes to produce HPA from these remarkable clays, which may offer yet further reductions in operating cost and capital expenditure if our initial test work is positive, and we are looking forward to getting those results soon,” Dr Jones said.
The 4N HPA was produced via a proprietary and patented metallurgical process called the ‘Sulphate Process’ which is owned by Playa One. The replication and optimization of this process for Lake Hope has been the key focus of Impact’s Pre-Feasibility Study to date, and therefore, these new results are a key milestone in the development of the project (ASX Releases March 21st 2023 and October 18th 2023).
The clays at Lake Hope occur in the top two metres of two small salt lakes on E63/2086 in a deposit containing about 880,000 tonnes of alumina (Al2O3) in various minerals. The deposit comprises Indicated (88%) and Inferred Resources (12%) of 3.5 million tonnes at an average grade of 25.1% alumina (see the Resource Estimate below and ASX Release 19th June 2023).
The lake clays contain a unique combination of naturally extremely fine-grained minerals, which delivers significant cost advantages to the mining and processing of the ore to produce HPA. The clays are free- digging and require no crushing, screening or other on-site preparation, and it is envisaged that the clay will be trucked offsite to a pre-permitted industrial site, most likely either in Kalgoorlie or Perth (Figure 1 and ASX Release March 21st 2023 and November 9th 2023).
Figure 1. Location of the Lake Hope Project.
The Playa One Sulphate Process is straightforward and comprises five stages based around very modest amounts of sulphuric acid (Figure 2): Stage 1 Wash circuit, Stage 2 Sulphuric acid leach and roast circuit, Stage 3 Intermediate alumina salt production, Stage 4 purification by conventional hydrochloric acid gas sparging and Stage 5 calcining to produce HPA. Results from the optimization of the first three Stages of the Process were reported to the ASX on October 18th 2023.
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Impact Minerals, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
IPT:AU
Pacgold: Advancing the Alice River Gold Project in Northern Queensland with Tier 1 Discovery Potential
Pacgold (ASX:PGO) is an Australian gold exploration company advancing the high-potential Alice River Gold Project in Northern Queensland. Led by a technically driven and experienced team with proven success across exploration, resource development, and capital markets, Pacgold is applying a systematic, discovery-focused approach to unlock the project’s value.
The company holds a dominant 377 sq km land package, including eight mining leases, along the highly prospective Alice River Fault Zone (ARFZ) — a major structural corridor interpreted to host an intrusion-related gold system analogous to globally significant deposits such as Fort Knox (USA) and Hemi (WA).
The Alice River Gold Project is a large-scale, greenstone-hosted gold system located in Northern Queensland, centered along the regionally significant Alice River Fault Zone (ARFZ). The project covers 377 sq km of contiguous tenure, including eight granted mining leases.
Pacgold controls over 30 km of strike length along the ARFZ — a major crustal-scale structure that has only recently been the focus of systematic exploration using modern techniques, offering significant untapped discovery potential.
Company Highlights
- District-scale Discovery Potential: Pacgold controls more than 377 sq km of tenure and more than 30 km of strike length across the Alice River Fault Zone (ARFZ), a fertile, underexplored structural corridor in Northern Queensland.
- Maiden Resource: In May 2025, the company published a 474,000 oz gold mineral resource estimate (MRE), covering just five percent of the total strike, confirming high-grade mineralization and strong potential for expansion.
- Aggressive Exploration Strategy: More than 10,000 metres of RC drilling campaign is underway, complemented by air-core and diamond programs, aimed at growing the Central Zone resource and testing multiple regional targets.
- Attractive Valuation Entry: With a market capitalization of just ~AU$10 million and an EV of AU$8.5 million (as of Q1 2025), Pacgold provides a low-cost entry into a potentially Tier 1 gold system.
- Experienced Leadership: The board includes proven mine developers and discovery geologists with prior success at Chalice, AngloGold Ashanti, BHP and Sibanye-Stillwater.
This Pacgold profile is part of a paid investor education campaign.*
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High-Grade Gold Discovery in First 8 Mile Drill Hole
- First RC hole at 8 Mile discovers high-grade gold and ends in mineralisation
- 8 Mile gold mineralisation extends 75m north of tenement boundary
The 8 Mile target is located within the Gidji JV Project (“Gidji” or “the Project”), approximately 15 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie and surrounded by multiple gold mining and processing operations, including Northern Star Resources Limited’s (“NST”) Kalgoorlie gold operations (Figure 1).
The 8 Mile Target is located immediately adjacent to NST’s “8-Mile Dam” gold deposit which, according to the most recent publicly available data, contains an estimated 7Mt @ 1.4g/t Au for 313,977 ounces1.
A limited number of fast-tracked results from the first RC hole, GJRC029, show a wide zone of gold mineralisation with a similar tenor to 8 Mile Dam (18m @ 0.94g/t Au from 480m including 1m @ 6.04g/t Au), approximately 75m north of the tenement boundary, and ended in mineralisation (3m @ 0.52g/t Au).
The Company is awaiting assay results from the remainder of the hole which are expected in 2-3 weeks.
Miramar’s Executive Chairman, Mr Allan Kelly, said the Company was excited to see gold mineralisation continuing onto Miramar’s ground for a significant distance.
“This is the first time we have discovered significant gold mineralisation on our side of the fence, even though the drill hole didn’t end up exactly where we planned it to. The flip side of this is that we have extended the strike of gold mineralisation for over 100m on to our tenements,” he said.
“We’ve also demonstrated a relationship between the IP anomalism and gold mineralisation, which makes the other IP anomalies we have outlined at Gidji even more prospective,” he said.
Figure 1. The Gidji JV Project and 8-Mile Dam in relation to Kalgoorlie and surrounding deposits.
GJRC029 aimed to test an Induced Polarisation (IP) anomaly on the tenement boundary interpreted to represent the sulphide-rich gold mineralisation seen at the neighbouring 8 Mile Dam Deposit.
GJRC029 was collared approximately 10m north of the tenement boundary and mirrored MPGD008, a diamond hole drilled down-dip approximately 40m south of the tenement boundary by KCGM in 2013 and which intersected significant gold mineralisation related to the 8 Mile mafic unit.
Unfortunately, GJRC029 deviated significantly from the planned azimuth and, as a result, by the time the hole was terminated at the target depth of 504m, the drill trace ended up approximately 75m north of the tenement boundary (Figure 2). Despite this, the hole intersected a thick section of the steep westerly- dipping and highly altered 8 Mile mafic unit with widespread sulphide mineralisation, including disseminated magnetite and coarse-grained arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite, similar to the 8 Mile Dam Deposit (Figure 3).
Based on visual logging of RC drill chips, handheld portable XRF results and magnetic susceptibility measurements, samples from the bottom 56m of the hole were sent for priority analysis by fire assay at Bureau Veritas in Kalgoorlie.
The results from these initial samples confirm the relationship between the gold mineralisation and sulphides, and a relationship between the best gold mineralisation and coincident magnetic anomalism and elevated Arsenic as measured by handheld portable XRF. The first results also confirm that the IP anomaly is associated with potentially significant gold mineralisation, whilst the significant deviation of GJRC029 away from the planned target increases the potential strike length of gold mineralisation on Miramar’s ground.
Significant results are listed in Table 1, with assay results from the remainder of the hole expected in coming weeks.
The initial RC drilling programme, which also tested two other IP targets, is nearing completion and results will be reported once received and compiled.
Once all assays are received, the Company will plan further RC and/or diamond drill holes including to test the dip and strike extent of the mineralisation intersected in GJRC029.
The Company advises that the WA Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration (DMPE) has extended the main Gidji JV tenement, E26/214, for a further five years, and will now expire in March 2030.
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Miramar Resources Limited, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
Pacgold
Investor Insight
Pacgold is one of Australia’s most compelling gold exploration opportunities, backed by a strong technical team, offering investors exposure to a large-scale, underexplored gold system with significant resource growth potential.
Overview
Pacgold (ASX:PGO) is an Australian gold exploration company focused on the systematic advancement of the Alice River gold project in Northern Queensland. The company is led by a technically driven and highly experienced team of geologists and mining professionals, with demonstrated success in exploration, resource development and capital markets.
Pacgold team on site at Alice River gold project
With a dominant land position in the region, Pacgold holds 377 sq km of exploration permits and eight mining leases across the prospective Alice River Fault Zone (ARFZ). This structure is interpreted as part of a large-scale intrusion-related gold system, with characteristics analogous to major global deposits such as Fort Knox (USA) and Hemi (Western Australia).
The company has validated its model through drilling success at the Central Zone, culminating in a maiden mineral resource of 474,000 oz of gold. This comprises both open pit and underground components, with resource grades averaging 1.2 grams per ton (g/t) gold, and zones open in all directions. Less than five percent of the strike length has been tested, and much of the prospective corridor is obscured by thin sand cover, highlighting strong potential for blind discoveries.
With extensive infrastructure already in place, including an airstrip, accommodation camp and road access within 100 km, Pacgold is positioned to rapidly scale exploration and accelerate resource growth. The 2025 campaign, which includes more than 10,000 metres of RC drilling and new IP surveys, aims to unlock the full regional potential of the ARFZ.
Company Highlights
- District-scale Discovery Potential: Pacgold controls more than 377 sq km of tenure and more than 30 km of strike length across the Alice River Fault Zone (ARFZ), a fertile, underexplored structural corridor in Northern Queensland.
- Maiden Resource: In May 2025, the company published a 474,000 oz gold mineral resource estimate (MRE), covering just five percent of the total strike, confirming high-grade mineralization and strong potential for expansion.
- Aggressive Exploration Strategy: More than 10,000 metres of RC drilling campaign is underway, complemented by air-core and diamond programs, aimed at growing the Central Zone resource and testing multiple regional targets.
- Attractive Valuation Entry: With a market capitalization of just ~AU$10 million and an EV of AU$8.5 million (as of Q1 2025), Pacgold provides a low-cost entry into a potentially Tier 1 gold system.
- Experienced Leadership: The board includes proven mine developers and discovery geologists with prior success at Chalice, AngloGold Ashanti, BHP and Sibanye-Stillwater.
Key Project
Alice River Gold Project
The Alice River gold project is a large-scale, greenstone-hosted gold system centred on the regional ARFZ, located in Northern Queensland. The project area comprises 377 sq km of contiguous tenure, including eight granted mining leases. Pacgold controls over 30 km of strike length along the ARFZ, a major crustal-scale structure that has only recently been systematically explored with modern techniques.
The deposit style is interpreted as an intrusion-related gold system, a highly attractive deposit type known for hosting long-life, large-tonnage gold mines. Examples include the Fort Knox gold mine in Alaska and the Hemi gold project in Western Australia. The Alice River system features sheeted quartz-sulfide veining, extensive sericite-altered zones, and strong IP chargeability responses coincident with surface gold anomalism.
Pacgold’s 2024 and 2025 drilling campaigns have focused on the Central Zone, which yielded the maiden MRE totaling 474,000 oz gold across both open pit and underground resources. The pit-constrained resource includes 10.6 Mt at 1.2 g/t gold (404,000 oz), with a further 1.5 Mt at 1.4 g/t gold (71,000 oz) defined for underground potential. High-grade zones remain open at depth and laterally, with drill spacing still relatively broad (~80 x 80 metres), leaving significant scope for resource expansion.
Beyond the Central Zone, the company has delineated multiple high-priority regional targets along the ARFZ. These include:
- White Lion: A compelling target with surface gold anomalism and a coincident IP chargeability anomaly. A gradient and dipole-dipole IP survey is being extended in Q2 2025, with drilling expected in Q4.
- Victoria and The Shadows: Emerging prospects to the south with limited historical drilling but strong geophysical responses.
- Posie and Southern Target Area: Additional areas along the southern ARFZ strike that exhibit strong structural preparation, geochemical responses and potential for concealed mineralization.
Drilling recommenced in April 2025, with RC drilling underway and air-core and diamond drilling scheduled through Q3 2025. The program aims to increase drill density in resource zones and test underexplored regional anomalies. Pacgold expects up to 15,000 metres of total drilling during the 2025 campaign, coupled with ongoing geophysical targeting, including IP and drone magnetics.
The project is fully permitted, with strong access and logistics, and is located in a low-risk jurisdiction with significant precedent for gold development. With limited historical exploration and clear mineralizing controls now defined, Alice River represents a transformative opportunity to uncover a Tier 1 discovery in an overlooked Australian belt.
Management Team
Matthew Boyes – Managing Director and CEO
Matthew Boyes is a geologist with over 28 years of international experience across mine geology, exploration, corporate leadership and capital markets. He has managed exploration teams and development projects across Western Australia, the Americas and Europe. His technical oversight and commercial strategy guide Pacgold’s resource growth and investor engagement.
Caoilin Chestnutt – Non-executive Chair
A former head of business development at BHP and currently head of technical services at Thiess, Caoilin Chestnutt brings nearly 30 years of experience in global exploration strategy, M&A and deal structuring across multiple commodities. She is also deputy chair of Critical Minerals at the Queensland Exploration Council.
Michael Pitt – Non-executive Director
Michael Pitt is the co-founder of New Century Resources (ASX:NCZ), and former VP of business development at Sibanye-Stillwater (JSE:SSW). He currently leads development at Broken Hill Mines. His expertise in mine redevelopment and business strategy supports Pacgold’s long-term operational execution.
Richard Hacker – Non-executive Director
Former CFO and GM commercial at Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN), Richard Hacker played a key role in the Julimar discovery. He has held leadership roles at Liontown Resources and DevEx. Hacker contributes deep experience in financial oversight and strategic planning for discovery-stage companies.
Bruce Kendall – Non-executive Director
Bruce Kendall is an award-winning exploration geologist with over 30 years in exploration management at AngloGold Ashanti, Chalice Mining, Jabiru Metals and IGO. He was a key contributor to the Tropicana, Julimar and Coyote discoveries, and brings essential geological insight to Pacgold’s targeting and evaluation.
Geoff Lowe – Exploration Manager
As a Competent Person and seasoned exploration geologist, Geoff Lowe is responsible for executing Pacgold’s field campaigns. He has played a central role in resource modeling, target generation and drill program design for the Alice River project.