BPM starts testing a major untested gold anomaly
BPM Minerals has secured the final approvals for a maiden approximately 10,000-metre RC drilling campaign at its untested Bonnie and Clyde prospect in Western Australia. Drilling is expected to begin within 5-10 days, putting a more than 6-kilometre gold-in-soil anomaly to its first meaningful test.
- Final consent and Program of Work approvals secured
- Approximately 10,000m of RC drilling planned across 65 holes
- Gold-in-soil anomalies extend across more than 6km
- Peak soil results reach 594ppb gold at Clyde
- Beachcomber drilling reaches approximately 5,500m with assays pending
BPM Minerals Limited (ASX:BPM) has removed the last regulatory obstacle to drilling one of its largest untested gold targets, with a 10,000-metre reverse-circulation program at Bonnie and Clyde set to begin within the next 5-10 days. The campaign will test a more than 6-kilometre gold-in-soil anomaly in the Forelands Gold Project, where several coherent zones exceed 100 parts per billion gold.
The approval package includes ministerial consent to explore the Coonana Reserve and a Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration Program of Work permitting up to 70 RC holes. BPM’s current plan calls for approximately 65 holes across 13 traverses, targeting both weathered and fresh rock beneath the surface anomalies. The distinction matters: the approval sets the permitted ceiling, while the detailed program may change as drilling progresses.
Bonnie and Clyde targets four priority anomalies
Recent work has sharpened the target rather than delivered a new discovery. About 1,500 ultrafine-fraction soil samples collected on a 50-metre by 50-metre grid broadly reconfirmed historical sampling by Fortescue Metals Group, while a 30-metre-line airborne magnetic survey helped identify structural features for drill testing.
The four named zones carry substantial surface footprints. Clyde presents a 750-metre by 450-metre anomaly with a peak result of 594ppb gold; Bonnie 1 covers 700 metres by 250 metres and peaks at 408ppb; Bonnie 2 extends 400 metres by 200 metres with a peak of 235ppb; and Bonnie 3 spans 650 metres by 200 metres with a peak of 571ppb. Those numbers are soil results, not drill intercepts, and they establish exploration targets rather than a mineral resource.
BPM links the prospect’s setting to the Tropicana-style gold system, pointing to the intersection of the Yellow Dam and Houtanui shear zones, the Northern Forelands tectonic setting and nearby Dragonfly mineralisation. Historical Dragonfly drilling along strike produced broad intercepts including 8 metres at 1.15 grams per tonne gold, 17 metres at 0.81g/t and 17 metres at 0.75g/t. The company also compares Bonnie and Clyde’s soil anomaly with those associated with Tropicana, Gruyere, Karlawinda and Rebecca, but those comparisons remain geological analogies until drilling supplies evidence from beneath the surface.
Beachcomber drilling continues ahead of assays
The same rig is currently working at Beachcomber, where BPM says approximately 5,500 metres across 35 RC holes have been completed. Around 3,000 metres of samples have been sent to the laboratory, with results expected progressively from the fourth quarter of 2026 into the first quarter of 2027. The company says geological observations have confirmed the main high-grade quartz vein in multiple holes, although assay results will determine the significance of those observations.
The planned sequence gives BPM two separate tests of the Forelands story: Bonnie and Clyde will provide first-pass evidence on a large, untested geochemical system, while Beachcomber is being advanced towards a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate targeted for the first half of 2027. The key uncertainty is no longer whether Bonnie and Clyde can be accessed, but whether its impressive surface footprint survives the transition into bedrock drilling.
Bottom Line?
Bonnie and Clyde now moves from geological promise to evidence, with the first drill results likely to determine whether the large soil anomaly has depth and grade continuity.
Questions in the middle?
- Will drilling intersect bedrock mineralisation beneath the strongest soil anomalies?
- How will the 65-hole field program compare with the 70-hole approval once drilling begins?
- Can Beachcomber assays support the planned maiden resource estimate in the first half of 2027?
