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Drilling Commences at Mt Hope Project
Highlights:
- Inaugural drill program comprises ~4,800m of Reverse Circulation (“RC”) and Air Core (“AC”) drilling across four priority targets.
- Drill campaign includes high-confidence infill and extensional drilling at Mt Solitary, which boasts an Exploration Target range of 1.32 to 1.87Mt of 1.0 to 1.35 g/t Au for 42.5 to 81.4 Koz (Table 1).
- The new Blue Heeler prospect, hosting coincident MLTEM conductors, is located approximately 200m west of historical drill hole GCS-1, which included a historical intercept of 31m @ 0.42% Zn, 0.26% Pb, 117 ppm Cu and 4.8 ppm Ag from 56m
- The Mt Hope East and Black Hill prospects, hosting coincident geochemical and geophysical anomalies, have never been tested by drilling.
The inaugural drilling campaign will test four priority targets for a total of ~4,800m of Reverse Circulation (RC) and Air Core (AC) drilling, including the recently added Blue Heeler target (see ASX announcement, 15 July 2025 &22 August 2025).
Mount Hope Mining Managing Director & CEO Fergus Kiley commented:
“Mount Hope Mining is excited to commence its maiden drill program at the Mt Hope Project - a significant milestone in our journey towards unlocking the potential of the southern Cobar Basin.
“Each priority prospect represents a high conviction drill target, backed by high-quality geological science, and we look forward to exploring these areas further.
“We believe these four priority areas represent a good opportunity to create shareholder value via true greenfield exploration success or by delineating valuable ounces for future development.
“We look forward to keeping shareholders updated with strong news flow throughout the remainder of Q3 and into Q4 with the results from the exploration drilling, along with the metallurgical test work for Mt Solitary, and with our other early-stage exploration programs.”
Figure 1: RC Drill rig commences drilling the Mt Solitary Program
Mt Solitary Exploration Target
Table 1: Mt Solitary Exploration Target2
The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Target are conceptual in nature. As such, there has been insufficient exploration to estimate a Mineral Resource, and it is uncertain whether further exploration will result in a Mineral Resource. The Exploration Target has been prepared by the JORC Code 2012.
Maiden drilling campaign at the Mount Hope Project
The inaugural Mt Hope maiden drill program has commenced drilling, starting at the Mt Solitary prospect to convert the existing Gold Exploration Target (Table 1) to a JORC (2012) Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE).
The initial phase 1 RC program at Mt Solitary will consist of ~1,500m (Figure 2). The drill rig will then mobilise to test the greenfield polymetallic drill targets at Blue Heeler and Black Hill before finishing the program at Mt Hope East.
The Company has engaged ALS Laboratories in Orange, NSW, for analytical work. Samples from the maiden drilling campaign will be sent to Orange throughout the program, with sample preparation analysis to be completed at the same facility.
Click here for the full ASX Release
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OPINION — Goldenomics 104: Trump’s Tariffs and Gold
By Darren Brady Nelson
One of former President Ronald Reagan’s most famous quotes is “trust, but verify.” He made that remark on December 8, 1987, to then-Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev as the audience gathered on that historic day for a nuclear arms treaty.
In the wake of US President Donald Trump’s April “Liberation Day” tariffs, it is time once again to “trust, but verify.” That is, that the economy is still on track for a new “golden age of America.” And that we will continue in a “golden age,” pun intended, for investing in gold.
Source: the White House.
Tariffs are not inflation
Trump’s tariffs have added to uncertainty, but they are not inflationary per se. The famous Nobel Prize-winning monetary economist, Milton Friedman, summarized what he had learned from the most comprehensive empirical study ever undertaken on inflation in the following quote:
“Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output. A steady rate of monetary growth at a moderate level [may allow] little inflation and much growth.”
Another monetary economist of the 20th century, but not quite as famous as Friedman, was Ludwig von Mises. He agreed with the first half of the quote above, but not the second. He also supported a gold standard, as seen below, as protection from inflation and accompanying boom-bust cycles:
“All economic activity is based upon an uncertain future. It is therefore bound up with risk.” Thus: “There is no such thing as a safe investment.” But: “The…gold standard alone is a truly effective check on the power of the government to inflate the currency.”
Tariffs are just taxes
A student of Mises was Murray Rothbard. The latter wrote in Power and Market that the burden of a sales tax falls entirely on the supplier and supply chain, not the consumers, yet tariffs inexplicably do the opposite. The former is closer to the truth, depending on elasticities.
Media pundits often claim that businesses pass forward tax increases, like tariffs, to consumers. This is a half-truth. The other half of this half-truth is that businesses take a hit, so that they invest and hire less. This means foreign businesses, more than American consumers.
And rather than just a 50/50 split between supply and demand, as per the graph below, economics and history show it is more like an 80/20 situation. That 80 includes a pass backward in the supply chain. This means foreign supply chains, more than American supply chains.
Source: SlidePlayer.
Rationale for Trump’s tariffs
Trump’s tariffs have created extra uncertainty, but not nearly as much as the neoliberals, on the left or right, would suggest by their outrage and alarm. Firstly, imports and import elasticities are relatively low in the US.
Secondly, Trump’s strategy is consistent with the same three exceptions to free trade, and in the same order, as did the classical liberal, and godfather of free trade economics, Adam Smith.
The first exception is not only about directly decoupling from communist China, for targeted defense purposes, but also indirectly, for broader strategic purposes, by weakening the Communist Party of China to the point of regime change, as Reagan did to the USSR.
The second and third exceptions, of reciprocity and retaliation, are part of the “art of the deal.” This three-pronged strategy, despite the outcry as being anti-free trade, is not only trying to put America first, but also to restore genuine free trade. It is a well-calculated risk.
Impact of these tariffs
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in its press release of July 17: “Import prices ticked up 0.1% in June, following a decrease of 0.4% in May, and an advance of 0.1% in April.”
The BLS added that: “Prices for US imports fell 0.2% from June 2024 to June 2025, matching the 12- month decline for the year ended May 2025. Those were the largest annual decreases since the index fell 0.9% for the year ended February 2024.”
The BLS also provided an interactive chart of the Import Price Index (IPI). Highlights from the Trump 47 era for “all imports” include: IPI increased, but at a declining rate, by 1.7 percent in February, 0.8 percent in March and 0.1 percent in April; then decreased by -0.2 percent in May and -0.2 percent in June.
“Consumer goods” are also illuminating: IPI dropped from 1.2 percent in November 2024 to -0.8 percent in March 2025; then sunk further to -1.2 percent in May before rising to -0.6 percent in June, but still negative.
The story with “industrial supplies and materials” was that: IPI grew at 5.7 percent in February, then plunged to 1.9 percent in March; followed by shrinking down into negative territory of -2 percent in April, -3.6 percent in May and -3.2 percent in June.
Source: BLS.
Conclusion
Many Main Street investors, and even those on Wall Street, are aware that gold is a great hedge against both inflation and uncertainty; and it is. But few on either streets also know that it is a great investment that outperforms the S&P Index; and it does.
Gold is very rare indeed, and not just in terms of its physical scarcity, but in its unique ability to be both a safe-haven investment and a performance investment as well. The two charts at the end demonstrate gold’s protection and gold’s growth over the decades.
Therefore, for American investors it is still the right time to “trust” in gold growth to come, “but verify” through gold protection in the meantime. Thus, when one has gold, “heads” you win and “tails” you don’t lose.
About Darren Brady Nelson
Darren Brady Nelson is chief economist with Fisher Liberty Gold and policy advisor to The Heartland Institute. He previously was economic advisor to Australian Senator Malcolm Roberts. He authored the Ten Principles of Regulation and Reform, and the CPI-X approach to budget cuts.
Read the rest of the series: Goldenomics 101: Follow the Money, Goldenomics 102: The Shadow Price of Gold, Goldenomics 103: Gold Protects and Performs.
