Road to mining lease for Norwest’s Bulgera gold project now clear after securing key approval

Norwest Minerals’ State Deed for its Bulgera gold project has been approved by the Marputu Aboriginal Corporation
Approval expected to lead to formal grant of mining lease over the WA deposit
Mining proposal for Bulgera that minimises impacts on Aboriginal cultural heritage now being finalised

Special Report: Norwest Minerals has taken a big step forward in securing a mining lease over its Bulgera gold project in WA’s Eastern Gascoyne region after receiving a key approval.

The State Deed for Grant of Mining Tenement, which was approved by the Marputu Aboriginal Corporation representing the Gingirana native title holders, will now be submitted to the state’s Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety for execution by the Minister of Mines and Petroleum.

Once it is executed, Norwest Minerals (ASX:NWM) expects to be formally granted a mining lease over the project.

The company is now finalising its mining proposal, which will be negotiated with the Marputu AC to ensure activities at Bulgera are conducted in a way that minimises impacts on Aboriginal cultural heritage.

It will be followed by native title agreements that will have a strong focus on the protection of Aboriginal heritage and include effective safeguards for the care and protection of the lands and rights of the Gingirana native title holders.

“I would like to thank the Marputu AC and its representatives Central Desert Native Title Services for their continued support,” chief executive officer Charles Schaus said.

“The execution of the State Deed is a key milestone in advancing the development of the Bulgera gold project during a period when the strong gold price has potential to benefit all stakeholders.”

Bulgera project

When NWM last updated resources at Bulgera in April 2024, gold had been up ~16.5% over the year to the (then) high price of US$2382.80/oz, or about $3700/oz, enough to justify halving the cut-off grade from 0.6g/t to 0.3g/t and increasing contained resources from 200,000oz to 217,000oz.

The precious metal is now trading above $4600/oz on the back of geopolitical risk and safe haven investing that’s looking increasingly justified with the United States seemingly running headlong towards recession.

Welcome news for gold miners, with more previously uneconomic resources likely mineable at projects like Bulgera. NWM noted in its December 2024 quarterly report that it had lifted the value of wide-spread low grade, near surface oxide mineralisation identified by past Bulgera explorers.

NWM has planned and heritage cleared these near-mine targets for future drilling and resource definition.

More gold could come from waste dumps across the Bulgera mine site, estimated to host ~2.2Mt of oxide waste material according to an aerial survey conducted in mid-2024.

Historical records indicate that most of these dumps are composed of soft oxide rock and that all mined material grading less than 1g/t gold was allocated to these waste dumps until mining ceased in 2004.

While these grades were uneconomic at that time when gold was trading at about $500/oz, the current price means that even a fraction of a gram gold could be considered economic depending on the production strategy.

The company has received Program of Works approval from DEMIRS to drill test the oxide waste dumps using a SLRC track mounted rig this year to determine the average gold content of the oxide dumps and collect samples for metallurgical and specific gravity test work.

3D model image of the Bulgera resource showing oxide pits and six gold lodes. Pic: Norwest Minerals

NWM is also planning to test multiple gold lodes extending below the historic Bulgera oxide open cuts where potential exists to significantly increase resources.

This is thanks to the project being considered to be the northeast extension of the Plutonic Well mafic-ultramafic mine sequence, where past and present drilling has continually shown the highest gold drill intervals occur below 100 vertical metres.

Six gold lodes have been identified within the historical Bulgera mine site area, five of which were mined in the past for their soft, near surface gold-in-oxide ore.

That was first processed through the old Marymia plant from 1996 to 1998 and then blended with hard ore from the Plutonic underground mine from 2002 before processing at the Plutonic gold plant, currently being operated by $1bn capped Catalyst Metals (ASX:CYL).

Drilling by the company into the Bulgera gold lode, which currently has a resource of 1.38Mt at 2g/t for 89,000oz of contained gold, intersected notable assays such as 5m at 15.3g/t gold from 194m, 3m at 10g/t from 67m and 16m at 7.3g/t from 194m.

This defined the lode to more than 550m downdip where it remains open at depth.

Three 300m deep RC holes that were drilled in anticipation for testing the Bulgera lode at >700m downdip remain clear for future diamond drilling.

NWM also plans to drill holes to test for downdip extensions of the Mercury, Venus, Venus South, Price and Price South lodes to potentially deliver sizeable increases to the Bulgera resource.

This article was developed in collaboration with Norwest Minerals, 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.