What lies beneath: Brightstar adds Fish as its second underground gold mine

• Brightstar Resources is advancing underground development at its Fish gold mine within the Laverton hub
• Ore from the mine will feed into the company’s Laverton hub ore purchase agreement with Genesis Minerals
• Surface drilling has also started to test for mineralisation under the current resource and planned mining

Special Report: Brightstar Resources will soon add a second source of high-grade gold to the ore processed under its Laverton Hub ore purchase agreement (OPA) with Genesis Minerals.

Underground development of the Fish mine by its owner-operator mining team is advancing on schedule with first ore production from stoping targeted in the September 2025 quarter.

According to the Jasper Hills scoping study released in March 2024, some 190,000t of ore with a head grade of 4.38g/t, or 26,497oz of contained gold, is expected to be mined from Fish.

Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) notes that site establishment is already complete with the initial 52-room camp construction done and key infrastructure installed for the larger Lord Byron open pit development.

Ore from Fish will feed into the Laverton OPA under which the company can deliver, sell and process up to 500,000t of ore to Genesis Minerals’ (ASX:GMD) Laverton mill over CY25 and Q1 CY26.

This is hedge free, allowing BTR to benefit from current high gold prices of more than US$3380 ($5220) per ounce.

Managing director Alex Rovira said the mining ramp-up is advancing well with first stope ore on delivery for schedule next quarter, a milestone that will make Fish the company’s second active underground operation in Laverton.

He described this as a “key production step towards our larger development and production strategy”.

Advancing gold exploration

In parallel with its mining operations, BTR is also stepping up exploration work with the start of an eight-hole surface drilling program targeting mine life extensions at depth and resource upgrades.

Five of these consist of a reverse circulation pre-collars with a diamond tail while the remaining three are RC-only holes.

One of the two key areas that this program will test consists of deeper extensional targets below the current resource including an area where previous drilling had returned a high-grade intersection of 2.9m at 8.2g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 455m – the deepest hole to date at Fish.

Infill and extensional drilling will also be carried out at an area to the south of the current Stage 1 mine plan that is immediately along strike from the proposed ore drive development.

Success here could contribute low-cost additional tonnes to the current mine plan and leverage existing installed mining infrastructure.

The company also plans to carry out underground diamond drilling early in the September 2025 quarter as a large-scale “drill-out” of the targeted Stage 2 mine plan at depth.

“The goal of drilling is simple – to grow the size and quality of the Fish Mineral Resource to support mine life extensions at depth,” Rovira said.

“With established site infrastructure and mining costs sunk, we have the opportunity to add high-grade ounces into the mine plan and expand on our investment at Fish.”

He added the results from the deepest hole at Fish was “extremely encouraging” as it indicates the mineralised system is open at depth.

Forward plan

BTR will provide updates from its Fish exploration program as results are received and processed.

This is expected to deliver a resource upgrade targeted for H2 2025.

Following completion of Fish drilling, both rigs will relocate to the Menzies hub to carry out further drilling at the Yunndaga deposit, which the company expects will become its third underground mine.

Watch: All for gold and gold for all – BTR’s Musketeer drills unearth Sandstone Hub riches

Exploration drilling is also continuing at the Sandstone gold project with a RC rig testing the Lord Henry deposit.

This article was developed in collaboration with Brightstar 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.