Artemis appoints Julian Hanna to lead Pilbara gold and copper discoveries

Artemis Resources promotes senior technical advisor Julian Hanna to managing director
Hanna helped shape Artemis’ 2025 exploration strategy and will lead a drill campaign at its Karratha gold project early this year
The Pilbara region is once again a hot spot for gold, fueled by Northern Star’s recent $5b deal for De Grey

Special Report: Artemis Resources has appointed experienced geologist and mining executive Julian Hanna as managing director to lead the company’s upcoming drill campaign at its Karratha gold project in WA’s Pilbara.

Previously the company’s senior technical advisor, Hanna boasts extensive experience leading companies such as Western Areas and MOD Resources to significant discoveries and long-life mines.

At Western Areas, Hanna founded and led the firm over its first 12 years, setting the stage for a company that eventually would net its shareholders a $1.3 billion cash takeover. MOD was a similar story, making the landmark Motheo discovery in Botswana’s Kalahari copper belt before its $167 million takeover by Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR).

Hanna is set to play a key role at Artemis Resources (ASX: ARV), looking to uncover undiscovered gold deposits at Carlow, which the company believes has the ingredients to mirror the success of De Grey’s Hemi project.

The 11.5Moz Hemi turned De Grey from a microcap into the ASX’s biggest pre-development gold stock and a $5bn takeover target for industry giant Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST).

With Hanna now in the hotseat, Artemis is setting itself up with the kind of leadership that could deliver a similarly transformational discovery.

Pilbara play

Artemis holds a 200km2 land package in the Pilbara, targeting multiple gold prospects and aiming to expand the initial resource at Carlow.

The Carlow Castle project hosts an inferred resource of 374,000 ounces of gold and 64,000 tonnes of copper, with plans for expansion through upcoming drilling or a 704,000oz gold equivalent resource at 2.5g/t AuEq.

Artemis also benefits from having the 100% owned Radio Hill processing plant at its disposal.

The fully permitted facility, capable of processing 450,000tpa, would significantly reduce development timelines and capital costs for a future mine.

“Artemis has a tremendous portfolio of highly prospective assets, particularly at the Karratha Gold Project,” Hanna said.

“I look forward to working with the board and management team in this next phase, building on the exceptional groundwork completed in 2024.”

Julian Hanna and the Artemis’ Radio Hill mining processing plant in the background. Source: Artemis

Upcoming drilling

The company recently raised $4 million to support its ambitious 2025 drilling campaign, focusing on high-priority targets.

“The upcoming drilling program will target key prospects, including the Carlow deposit extensions, the Marillion EM anomaly, and the Titan gold veins, all of which hold exciting potential for transformative discoveries,” Hanna said.

Among the targets are:

Carlow Extensions: Testing for significant high-grade gold and copper at depth
Marillion: Drilling a large, highly conductive EM anomaly near the Carlow deposit
Titan: Drilling high-grade gold targets identified from promising surface samples; and
Europa and Thorpe: Testing new zones with strong structural and geophysical indicators.

Priority Pilbara

Northern Star’s acquisition of De Grey Mining has solidified the Pilbara’s position as a priority gold province.

For Artemis, exploration efforts thus far have defined a 704,000oz gold equivalent resource at 2.5g/t AuEq.

But outgoing executive director George Ventouras spoke with Stockhead recently and believes there could be more Carlows under the surface.

“We’ve decided to take the exploration pathway a little differently than before,” he said.

“Rather than look at the Carlow resource and say ‘how big can we get it’ and build on it, we’re asking ‘how many Carlows can we find in that same area’ because our neighbour across the road – De Grey – has not one big pit, but a series of smaller pits which total more than 12 million ounces of gold.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Artemis Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.