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Brightstar Resources Investor Kit
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Brightstar Resources
Investor Insight
With multiple catalysts ahead, including resource upgrades, expanded production, and further development of its Laverton, Menzies, and Sandstone hubs, Brightstar Resources presents a compelling investment case in a rising gold market.
Overview
Gold has continued to demonstrate its resilience as a store of value, with prices peaking at US$3,500.05 per ounce, its all-time high. Amid ongoing global economic uncertainty, including inflationary pressures, rising geopolitical tensions, and volatile interest rate environments, investors have turned to gold as both a safe haven asset and a hedge against macroeconomic instability.
Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) is strategically positioned to capitalize on this environment as a low-cost, multi-asset gold developer with near-term production potential. The company controls over 1,500 square kilometers of highly prospective ground across three of Western Australia’s most prolific gold belts: the Laverton Tectonic Zone, the Menzies Shear Zone, and the Sandstone Greenstone Belt.
Unlike many junior exploration companies, Brightstar has a key differentiator: it owns a fully permitted, strategically located processing facility near Laverton. This existing infrastructure offers the company a critical advantage, enabling a low-capex restart scenario and faster time to cash flow compared to peers who must first secure permits and fund costly plant construction. This plant is subject of a DFS due for announcement in June 2025.
Through a focused multi-hub strategy, Brightstar has built a robust pipeline of development-ready and resource-growth projects, supported by:
- Over 3 million ounces of gold resources across Laverton, Menzies, and Sandstone;
- Ongoing high-grade drilling success in 2024 and 2025, including intercepts of up to 10m @ 43.8 g/t gold;
- A track record of low-cost, value-accretive acquisitions, such as Linden Gold Alliance and Alto Metals;
- A dedicated, in-house technical team executing on aggressive exploration, fast-tracked studies, and staged development.
With global gold demand remaining strong, Brightstar is well-positioned to deliver material shareholder value through its integrated production plan, supported by scalable infrastructure, a growing resource base, and access to capital. The company’s strategic approach includes combining brownfields development, organic exploration, and corporate M&A, placing it at the forefront of a new generation of Australian gold producers.
Company Highlights
- ASX-listed gold exploration and development company with a consolidated mineral endowment of 3 Moz of gold across Laverton, Menzies, and Sandstone hubs in Western Australia.
- Owns and operates 100 percent of project areas: 300 sq km in Laverton Tectonic Zone, 80 sq km in Menzies Shear Zone, and 1,200 sq km in Sandstone Greenstone Belt.
- Gold processing operations at the Laverton facility have commenced under an Ore Purchase Agreement (OPA) with Genesis Minerals Ltd (ASX:GMD), marking a significant milestone in transitioning from exploration to production.
- Recent drilling campaigns have yielded strong high-grade results, including:
- 16m @ 8.0 g/t gold at Second Fortune (Laverton)
- 10m @ 43.8 g/t gold at Musketeer (Sandstone)
- 16m @ 8.0 g/t gold at Yunndaga (Menzies)
- Following the successful Linden Gold Alliance acquisition, Brightstar has commenced a DFS for the wider development of its Laverton and Menzies assets which is due for release imminently in June 2025.
- Ongoing Sandstone drilling continues to return high-grade intercepts, further supporting project advancement and MRE conversion.
- In 2024, Brightstar signed a $4 million drill-for-equity deal with Topdrill to fast-track exploration at Sandstone.
- The company has successfully executed a US$11.5 million (AU$18 million) revolving stockpile finance facility with Ocean Partners Australia.
Key Projects
Laverton Hub
Brightstar’s Laverton hub is comprised of the Cork Tree Well, Jasper Hills, Second Fortune, Beta and Alpha project areas.
Highlights:
- Combined, the Laverton Hub JORC mineral resource estimate is 15.7 Mt @ 1.7 g/t gold for 848 koz (49 percent measured and indicated category). All mineral resources are on granted mining leases
- Cork Tree Well (6.4 Mt at 1.4 g/t gold for 292 koz gold)
- Alpha (1.4 Mt at 2.3 g/t gold for 106 koz gold)
- Beta (1.9 Mt at 1.7 g/t gold for 102 koz gold)
- Lord Byron (5.2 Mt at 1.5 g/t gold for 251 koz gold)
- Fish (376 kt at 4.0 g/t gold for 49 koz gold)
- Second Fortune (92 kt at 13.4 g/t gold for 40 koz gold)
- Gilt Key (168 kt at 1.3 g/t gold for 8 koz gold)
- Main project area Cork Tree Well is open at depth and along strike with recent drilling results of 34.4 meters at 7.94 g/t gold from 43.5 meters (CTWMET004) and 27.6 meters at 17.8 g/t gold from 51 m (CTWMET003)
- Second Fortune has a mineral resource estimate head grade of ~11g/t gold with an average ore body width of 0.6 meters.
- Jasper Hills is located 50 km from Brightstar’s existing processing facility along a wholly-owned private haul road, allowing unimpeded, direct access to both projects
- Permitted, previously mined and production-ready
- Last mined by current owners in 2020 with 23,000 oz gold mined
- Growth Drivers:
- Second Fortune: Consistent, stable production and cash generation through 2025
- Fish: Mining activities have commenced and site establishment is continuing.
- First ore production targeted in June
- Open pits development: Large scale production opportunities through mining Lord Byron and Cork Tree Well as multi-year base load ore sources
- DFS: due for delivery in June 2025, including design and costs for expansion of BTR-owned processing infrastructure to 1Mtpa.
Menzies Hub
The Menzies Hub comprises a tenement holding of a contiguous land package of granted mining leases over a strike length of more than 20 km. The majority of deposits hosted along the Menzies Shear Zone are located adjacent to the Goldfields Highway in Menzies (130km north of Kalgoorlie).
Highlights:
- Total Current Resource: 12.7 Mt at 1.4 g/t gold for 589 koz gold (37 percent measured and indicated)
- DFS: due for delivery in June 2025, including design and costs for open pit and underground mining for toll processing/ore sales to a regional Kalgoorlie-Menzies mill.
- Growth Drivers:
- Lady Shenton Open Pit: Proposed multi-year consistent open pit production to provide cash generation. Targeting approvals received and ‘mine ready’ in 2025
- Yunndaga Underground: Planned infill drilling targeting conversion of Inferred Mineral Resources to M+I to support inclusion in future mining operations – recent results from this program include 16m @ 8.0 g/t gold
- Development: Advancing discussions with regional mills for 3rd party processing capacity in the Kalgoorlie-Menzies region, targeting a mining decision.
Sandstone Hub
The consolidated Sandstone project is over 100 km from existing third-party milling operations in the Murchison. This third processing hub boasts Alto’s Sandstone project with a mineral resource of 1.05 Moz at 1.4 g/t gold and Gateway’s Montague gold project with a mineral resource of 0.5 Moz @ 1.6 g/t gold.
Growth Drivers:
- Sandstone: Upgrade the Lords, Vanguard, Indomitable and Havilah camps to Indicated classification (40,000m RC+DD)
- Montague: Infill Montague and Whistler to Indicated classification (5,000m RC and 1,200m DD) – RC
- Greenfields: Follow up drilling of priority prospects across Sandstone Hub (West Hacks, Hancocks, Bulchina, Lords Corridor, Duplex) – recent drilling success includes exceptional intercepts at the Musketeer prospect yielding 10m @ 43.8 g/t gold
- Pre-Feasibility Study: Incorporation of 2025 drilling results into MRE upgrades to then factor into 1H 2026 Sandstone PFS
Management Team
Alex Rovira - Managing Director
Alex Rovira is a qualified geologist and an experienced investment banker having focused on the metals and mining sector since 2013. Rovira has experience in ASX equity capital markets activities, including capital raisings, IPOs and merger and acquisitions.
Richard Crookes - Non-executive Chairman
Richard Crookes has over 35 years’ experience in the resources and investments industries. He is a geologist by training having previously worked as the chief geologist and mining manager of Ernest Henry Mining in Australia.
Crookes is managing partner of Lionhead Resources, a critical minerals investment fund and formerly an investment director at EMR Capital. Prior to that he was an executive director in Macquarie Bank’s Metals Energy Capital (MEC) division where he managed all aspects of the bank’s principal investments in mining and metals companies.
Andrew Rich - Executive Director
Andrew Rich is a degree qualified mining engineer from the WA School of Mines and has obtained a WA First Class Mine Managers Certificate. Rich has a strong background in underground gold mining with experience predominantly in the development of underground mines at Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) and Westgold Resources (ASX:WGX).
Ashley Fraser - Non-executive Director
Ashley Fraser is an accomplished mining professional with over 30 years experience across gold and bulk commodities. Fraser was a founder of Orionstone (which merged with Emeco in a $660-million consolidation) and is a founder/owner of Blue Cap Mining and Blue Cap Equities.
Jonathan Downes - Non-executive Director
Jonathan Downes has over 30 years’ experience in the minerals industry and has worked in various geological and corporate capacities. Experienced with gold and base metals, he has been intimately involved with the exploration process through to production. Downes is currently the managing director of Kaiser Reef, a high grade gold producer, and non-executive director of Cazaly Resources.
Dean Vallve – Chief Development Officer
Dean Vallve holds technical qualifications in geology & mining engineering from the WA School of Mines, an MBA, and a WA First Class Mine Managers Certificate. Vallve was previously in senior mining and study roles at ASX listed mid-cap resources companies Hot Chili (ASX:HCH) and Calidus Resources (ASX:CAI).
Nicky Martin – Chief Financial Officer
Nicky Martin is an experienced finance and accounting professional holding tertiary qualifications in accounting and finance and is a qualified CPA. Martin was previously the Head of Finance at Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) where she oversaw and was actively involved in a rapidly growing mining success story.
Emerging gold producer and district-scale resource developer in Western Australia
Sranan Gold
Investor Insight
Sranan Gold offers early-stage exposure to a high-impact gold discovery in Suriname’s Guiana Shield, one of the world’s most underexplored gold belts. Backed by the same technical team behind some of the region’s largest gold discoveries, Sranan is a high-leverage discovery story in a mining-friendly jurisdiction.
Overview
Sranan Gold (CSE:SRAN,FSE:P84) is a junior explorer operating in Suriname, a South American nation producing more than 600,000 oz of gold per year. Sranan’s main asset is within Suriname’s prolific Guiana Shield, one of the world’s most underexplored gold belts.
Sample collected from the Tapanahony project’s Poeketi pit.
The company’s flagship asset, the 29,000-hectare Tapanahony gold project, overlays a historic mining belt with strong geochemical and structural indicators. Sranan’s objective is straightforward: convert local knowledge, legacy drill data and modern tools into an inaugural gold resource over a 4.5 km mineralized corridor.
Backed by one of the most credentialed gold discovery teams in Suriname, credited for the Merian, Rosebel and Saramacca deposits, the company is targeting hard-rock gold potential beneath proven saprolite zones with plans to fast-track drilling, build community partnerships and expand its concession footprint.
Company Highlights
- District-scale land position: The 29,000-hectare Tapanahony project covers one of Suriname’s oldest and most productive artisanal mining districts, offering untested hard-rock upside within the Guiana Shield, home to numerous multi-million-ounce gold deposits.
- Immediate drill targets: A 10,000-metre diamond drilling program is set to kick off in 2025 across the 4.5 km Poeketi-Randy trend, targeting high-grade shear zones validated by historic IAMGOLD drilling.
- World-class discovery pedigree: The technical team has led or co-led discoveries at Merian (7 Moz, Newmont), Rosebel (13.7 Moz, now Zijin) and Saramacca (1.5 Moz).
- Deep in-country knowledge: Geologists are locally trained at Anton de Kom University and have decades of experience in Suriname’s regolith-dominated terrain.
Key Project
Tapanahony Gold Project
The Tapanahony gold project is Sranan’s flagship asset, covering a 29,000-hectare land package in southeastern Suriname. The project lies within the Guiana Shield, a well-endowed Paleoproterozoic terrane that hosts multiple Tier-1 gold systems. The property sits at the intersection of regional NW-striking structures, the large NE-SW Tapanahony structure and older NE-SW fabric, forming a favorable setting for orogenic gold emplacement. These structural fabrics, crenulated by later deformation events, are visible in recent LiDAR and magnetic datasets and provide excellent ground preparation for high-grade shear-hosted deposits.
Local miners have long exploited the saprolite horizons here, especially around the Poeketi-Randy zone, and Sranan’s exploration strategy is to transition that surface gold production into a defined, hard-rock resource. The project has seen more than US$10 million in historical exploration, including geochemical soil surveys, auger and panning programs by the UN and Golden Star, and 4,000 metres of diamond drilling by IAMGOLD. They have confirmed the presence of extensive mineralization, including intercepts such as 4.2 grams per ton (g/t) gold over 13.5 m and 39.3 g/t gold over 2 m at the Randy pit. These results suggest steeply dipping, fault-controlled mineralization within a metavolcanic host package, drawing parallels to the structurally hosted gold at the Saramacca, Antino, Merian and Rosebel mines.
The 2025 Phase 1 program is targeting this trend with 10,000 metres of diamond drilling. It will infill and extend the 4.5 km mineralized corridor and test additional parallel shear zones revealed by LiDAR and soil geochemistry in the western lobe of the concession. Sranan plans to reprocess historical drill data, conduct soil/silt sampling, trenching and trench mapping, with field teams prioritizing locations where artisanal mining is ongoing but remains underexplored by modern methods.
Geophysical interpretation highlights a property-scale NW shear zone crosscutting a penetrative NE-SW fabric, which has led to localized folding and thickened mineralized zones. Commonly described by the team as the “double folded” system, they extend across eastern Suriname into Guyana and French Guiana. This orogenic system is thought to be analogous to the geology that underpins other major discoveries in the belt.
Sranan’s Phase 1 campaign also aims to generate new targets through high-resolution LiDAR imaging, which has already revealed three parallel mineralized corridors and topographic inversions associated with lateritic terraces, a common concealment mechanism for mineralization in this region. Pending early success, the company plans to expand drilling into the western lobe, pursue adjoining concessions, and delineate a resource.
Management Team
Oscar Louzada – CEO and Director
Fluent in Dutch and active in Suriname for over a decade, Oscar Louzada has taken two Suriname-based exploration companies to IPO (Sela Kriki and Nassau, now Miata Metals). With 25+ years’ experience in natural resources finance (Canaccord, Investec), he brings capital markets depth and local execution credibility.
John Williamson – Chairman
Geologist and co-founder of Founders Metals, John Williamson is credited with >10 Moz in gold discoveries and nearly $1 billion raised. He was an early believer in Tapanahony’s potential and a key seed investor.
Dennis LaPoint – EVP, Exploration and Corporate Development
Dennis LaPoint is a veteran geologist with 35+ years’ experience. LaPoint discovered Merian (Newmont, 7 Moz) and oversaw major exploration programs at Rosebel and Omai. He leads strategy and resource targeting, and sits on multiple boards, including ASBOG. He also teaches geology at Anton de Kom University in Paramaribo in Suriname.
Rayiez Bhoelan – VP, Exploration
A Surinamese national and key member of the Saramacca discovery team (IAMGOLD, 1.5 Moz), Rayiez Bhoelan specializes in regolith geology and shear zone mapping. He has worked across the Guiana Shield at Omai and Founders Metals, and lectures locally on geochemistry.
Mario Stifano – Director and Audit Chair
Mario Stifano is a CPA and seasoned mining executive with prior leadership roles at Cordoba Minerals, Lake Shore Gold and Galantas Gold. He led the 2020 acquisition and re-listing of Omai Gold Mines in Guyana.
Brightstar Resources Investor Kit
- Corporate info
- Insights
- Growth strategies
- Upcoming projects