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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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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.
Advancing the Alice River Gold Project in Northern Queensland with Tier 1 discovery potential
What Does the GDX Index Change Mean for Gold Investors?
It’s been a long time coming, but it seems gold-mining stocks are finally responding to record gold prices.
The VanEck Gold Miners ETF (ARCA:GDX), whose holdings include the biggest global gold-mining companies, was up by 103.54 percent year-to-date as of Thursday (September 18).
The GDX has tracked the price and yield performance of the NYSE ARCA Gold Miners Index since its inception in May 2006. That came to an end on Friday (September 19) as it switched to the MarketVector Global Gold Miners index.
What does the GDX index change mean for gold investors?
It may seem counterintuitive for global investment management firm VanEck to make a change to the index for the popular US$20.5 billion GDX, but there are plenty of good reasons.
The switch was planned a few months ago in conjunction with housekeeping that’s a routine component of exchange-traded fund (ETF) management. The move to the MarketVector Global Gold Miners Index is happening at the same time that the firm would normally rebalance the weight of its positions in GDX's underlying securities.
And the move makes sense. Not only is MarketVector a subsidiary of VanEck, but it is based on free-float market-cap-weighted methodology that many major stock indexes now use.
“By focusing only on shares available for public trading, excluding those held by insiders or restricted from the market, this method offers a more accurate reflection of market dynamics than the full-market capitalization method,” explains Investopedia, noting that this approach is used by indexes like the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX).
It seems VanEck is joining the rest of the global financial community, which has transitioned away from full market-cap-weighting methodologies like that used by NYSE ARCA Gold Miners Index.
So what can GDX investors expect from this change?
They probably won’t see much difference right away besides slight adjustments to how some stocks are weighted in the fund, or which stock listing is used for companies with multiple stock listings.
For example, major miner Newmont (TSX:NEM,NYSE:NEM,ASX:NEM) — which is among the ETF’s top five holdings — will be weighted at 6.95 percent from 12.99 percent.
Chart via VanEck.
Over the long term, however, GDX may see a boost in performance, including less volatility and better liquidity, as the dead weight is cut away and the largest companies are no longer concentrated at the top. This could represent a major growth opportunity for GDX investors, especially if this bull run on gold and gold-mining stocks continues.
Don't forget to follow us @INN_Resource for real-time updates!
Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Lahontan Gold Corp.
Investor Insight
Lahontan Gold is on track to become a leading gold developer in Nevada’s Walker Lane district, presenting a compelling investment opportunity by combining a high-quality resource base with a clear path to production in Nevada’s premier mining jurisdiction — all in a rising gold price environment.
Overview
Lahontan Gold (TSXV:LG,OTCQB:LGCXF) is focused on advancing its portfolio of high-quality gold and silver projects in Nevada. The company’s flagship Santa Fe mine was a past producer that operated from 1988 to 1992, yielding 356,000 ounces of gold and 784,000 ounces of silver. Lahontan aims to unlock the mine’s full potential by expanding its resources and pushing forward on permitting.
The company recently completed a robust preliminary economic assessment (PEA) outlining a clear pathway to production. Permitting efforts are progressing with the Bureau of Land Management, and Lahontan anticipates being in a position to break ground by 2026.
Additionally, strategic drilling campaigns are planned to further expand the existing resource base.
The company's strategy to unlock shareholder value is to advance the Santa Fe mine toward production by derisking the project through permitting and feasibility studies, while optimizing heap leach processing for maximum recoveries and economic efficiency. Concurrently, it is unlocking value from satellite deposits, including West Santa Fe, which has high-grade oxide potential, and Moho, an early-stage project with promising historic gold and silver intercepts.
Positioned as a low-cost developer in a top-tier jurisdiction, the company maintains strong institutional support with minimal dilution risk, ensuring capital efficiency and sustainable growth.
Company Highlights
- Flagship Santa Fe Project: 100 percent owned, past-producing open-pit heap leach mine with an updated resource estimate of 1.54 million ounces indicated and 0.41 million ounces inferred pit constrained resource
- Strategic Nevada Location: Situated in Walker Lane, one of the world’s best mining jurisdictions, with excellent infrastructure, water access, and a mining-friendly regulatory environment.
- Strong Resource Growth Potential: The Santa Fe Mine and its satellite projects, West Santa Fe and Moho, offer exploration upside, with further drilling planned to expand resources.
- Advancing Toward Production: With a positive Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) completed in late 2024, Lahontan is aggressively moving toward permitting and development.
- Experienced Leadership: The company is led by an experienced management team with a proven track record in mine development, permitting, and value creation for investors.
Key Projects
Santa Fe Mine
The Santa Fe mine, located in Mineral County, Nevada, spans 26.4 sq km and represents Lahontan Gold’s flagship development project. With an updated mineral resource estimate of 1.95 Moz gold equivalent, the project hosts multiple oxide and sulfide zones that remain open for expansion.
Historical production from the Santa Fe mine yielded 356,000 oz gold and 784,000 oz silver from an open-pit heap leach operation. Modern exploration and metallurgical testing have identified additional high-grade mineralization that could support an expanded operation.
The recently completed PEA indicates strong economic potential, with favorable heap leach recoveries and low operating costs. Lahontan is actively working with the Bureau of Land Management to advance the permitting process, with the goal of achieving production readiness by 2026.
Lahontan has received confirmation from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that its Santa Fe Exploration Plan of Operations (POO) is now complete, paving the way for the project to enter the full environmental assessment (EA) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The completion marks over two years of baseline studies, including biological, cultural, and historical assessments, and covers more than 12 sq km of the Santa Fe project with provision for over 700 drill sites. With this milestone, Lahontan expects to secure final POO approval in Q4 2025, enabling an expanded and robust drilling campaign in 2026.
West Santa Fe
The West Santa Fe project, situated just 13 km from the Santa Fe mine, is a highly prospective satellite project that could serve as an extension of the main operation. Historic drill data suggest the presence of a shallow oxide deposit, with early resource modeling indicating a potential gold equivalent resource of 0.5 to 1 Moz.
West Santa Fe’s excellent resource growth potential
Lahontan is preparing for an extensive drill program in 2025 to validate and expand this resource. Geophysical surveys and geochemical sampling have identified strong structural controls on mineralization, further supporting the potential for economic extraction. Given its proximity to Santa Fe, West Santa Fe offers a compelling low-cost, high-margin opportunity for future production.
Moho Project
The Moho project is another 100 percent owned asset within the Walker Lane district in Nevada, presenting a longer-term growth opportunity for Lahontan. The project is characterized by historic high-grade gold and silver intercepts from past drilling, with reported grades exceeding 20 g/t gold and 300 g/t silver. Initial exploration has confirmed the presence of oxidized tertiary epithermal vein systems, which are ideal for conventional heap leach processing. Core drilling in 2019 further validated the high-grade nature of Moho’s mineralization, with significant intercepts occurring at relatively shallow depths. Lahontan plans to conduct additional exploration drilling to refine resource estimates and assess potential economic viability.
Management Team
Kimberly Ann – Founder, Executive Chair, President and CEO
Kimberly Ann is a seasoned mining executive who has founded multiple junior mining companies and held senior roles, including CEO, president, CFO, and board member. Over the past 12 years, she has raised more than $210 million in project financing and participated in three junior mining M&A transactions. At Prodigy Gold, she led corporate communications, equity financings, and analyst engagement, playing a key role in the company’s $340 million acquisition by Argonaut Gold. As CFO and VP corporate development at PPX Mining, she successfully advanced the high-grade Callanquitas gold-silver underground mine into production in Northern Peru. In 2017, Kimberly founded Latin America Resource Group, transforming Jasperoide from two small concessions into a 57 sq km copper-gold project in Peru’s most prolific mineralized belt. Following LARG’s 2020 merger with Carube Copper to form C3 Metals, she positioned the company for significant portfolio growth and value creation.
Brian Maher – Founder and Vice-president of Exploration
Brian Maher is an economic geologist with over 45 years of experience in the international mining and exploration industry. Prior to Lahontan, Maher was the president, CEO and director of Prodigy Gold, where he guided the company through a period of expansive growth, exploring and developing the 6.6 Moz Magino gold deposit in northern Ontario, culminating in the $341 million acquisition of Prodigy Gold by Argonaut Gold in 2012. In 1982, he began a 16-year career with ASARCO, exploring for gold and copper deposits in a variety of geologic environments throughout North and South America. From 1998 and 2004, he was project manager for Metallic Ventures Gold, supervising underground and surface exploration, mine development and operations at an underground gold mine in Nevada.
John McNeice – CFO
John McNeice is a chartered professional accountant registered in Ontario, Canada, with over 30 years of experience in public company reporting, financial management, accounting and audit. Currently McNeice is the CFO of Gold79 Mines (TSXV:AUU), C3 Metals (TSXV:CCCM) and Northern Graphite (TSXV:NGC), where he is responsible for financial and regulatory reporting as well as day-to-day financial management. He has held CFO roles in seven public resource companies over the past 17 years and has overseen IPOs, RTOs and many quarterly, annual and periodic public company filings. From 2004 to 2007, McNeice was CFO of Ur-Energy, a uranium exploration and development company now a US-based producer of uranium. During his tenure, Ur-Energy raised an aggregate of $150 million in a series of private placements, the IPO and several significant secondary financings.
Josh Serfass – Independent Director
Josh Serfass is the executive vice-president of corporate development and investor relations at Integra Resources. Previously, he was the manager of corporate communications at Integra Gold. He was a key member of the team at Integra Gold that grew, developed and sold the past producing Lamaque mine in Val-dOr, Québec to Eldorado Gold for C$590 million in 2017. Committed to thinking differently about mining, Serfass worked with the team at Integra Gold to host the 2016 Integra Gold Rush Challenge and the 2017 #DisruptMining Challenge, initiatives that encouraged innovation and technology disruption in the mining industry.
Shane Williams - Independent Director
Shane Williams is president, CEO, and director of West Red Lake Gold Mines, leading the restart of the Madsen Gold Mine. He was previously COO of Skeena Resources, advancing Eskay Creek, and VP of Operations and Capital Projects at Eldorado Gold, where he brought the Lamaque Gold Mine from PEA to production in just 18 months. As project director, he also oversaw Eldorado’s Skouries and Olympias projects with a combined US$1 billion capex, and earlier led development of Sweden’s Kaunis Iron open-pit mine from exploration to operation in 3.5 years. Williams holds a B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering and an M.Sc. in Project Management.
Evan Pelletier - Independent Director
Evan Pelletier is a mining executive with over 30 years of underground mining experience in North America, Mongolia, Argentina, and Africa. He is currently the interim general manager of the Galena Mine with Americas Gold & Silver, and previously served as VP of Mining at Kirkland Lake (2020–2022) and mine manager at the Macassa Mine (2016–2020). At Kirkland Lake, he helped grow the company from $400 million in 2016 to $13 billion in 2022, including oversight of a nearly 2,000-metre shaft with a $450 milliom budget, delivered on time and on budget.
Max Pluss - Independent Director
Max Pluss is an investment professional with experience across hedge funds, private equity, and venture capital. He is the Founder of Rhea Capital Management, backing and incubating mission-driven companies. Previously, he was an analyst at Extract Capital, a hedge fund focused on natural resource investments, and earlier advised public company CEOs on corporate development and market positioning. pluss holds a B.A. from Colorado College and M.B.A. degrees from Columbia University and London Business School.
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