Miramar Resources has secured A$1.25 million to fund drilling and early development work at its 80%-owned Gidji JV Gold Project near Kalgoorlie. The raise will target resource growth at Marylebone and Highway while testing deeper bedrock prospects at Marylebone and Lake.
- A$1.25 million placement priced at A$0.00175 a share
- RC drilling planned at Marylebone and Lake in late 2026
- Gidji’s maiden Inferred Resource totals 39,764 ounces
- Larger block model contains an estimated 116,561 ounces
- Director participation and Taurus options require shareholder approval
A$1.25 Million Raise Targets Gidji Drilling
Miramar Resources Limited (ASX:M2R) is putting fresh capital behind its Gidji gold story, securing firm commitments for a A$1.25 million placement to fund drilling and early development work at the project, 15 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie. The money will support resource infill and extension drilling at Marylebone and Highway, alongside reverse-circulation drilling at the Marylebone and Lake prospects in the fourth quarter of 2026.
The funding arrives soon after Miramar outlined a maiden Inferred Mineral Resource of 1 million tonnes at 1.20 grams per tonne gold for 39,764 ounces, constrained within optimised pit shells. A wider block model contains an estimated 4.98 million tonnes at 0.73 grams per tonne for 116,561 ounces, but that larger figure is not a Mineral Resource and has not met the company’s stated criteria for reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction.
Placement Brings Discounted Capital and New Shares
The placement is priced at A$0.00175 per share, a 12.5% discount to both Miramar’s last traded price on 11 September and its 15-day volume-weighted average price of A$0.002. It will issue approximately 714.3 million new shares, making the capital injection meaningful but also adding a substantial new parcel of equity to the register.
Professional and sophisticated investors will provide about A$1 million. Directors have committed a further A$250,000, although that portion requires shareholder approval at the anticipated November annual general meeting. The first tranche, comprising approximately 527.4 million shares and about A$920,000, will use existing placement capacity.
Taurus Capital Group, which acted as sole lead manager and bookrunner, will receive fees of 6% on capital it raises and 4% on the directors’ participation. It is also due 60 million unlisted options, subject to shareholder approval, with an exercise price of A$0.003 and a three-year expiry from issue.
Marylebone, Highway and Lake Form the Drill Programme
Marylebone is the immediate bedrock and resource-growth focus. The prospect sits within the Boorara Shear Zone and hosts shallow high-grade intersections over 1.2 kilometres of strike, with three optimised open pits containing more than 12,000 ounces. Miramar plans to test a dolerite-associated area where aircore drilling has returned elevated end-of-hole gold, alteration and pathfinder anomalism.
Highway contains more than 10,000 ounces in the company’s current resources and is the largest contiguous area outlined so far. Infill and extensional drilling will examine a structurally complex margin where recent RC drilling encountered sulphides and widespread alteration. At Lake, approximately 1.5 kilometres from the historic 30,000-ounce Gidji Dam deposit, Miramar plans its first RC drilling in more than 20 years to follow up historical gold intersections and an arsenic anomaly.
Development Ambition Still Depends on Exploration
Miramar says it is investigating early development options for Gidji’s shallow gold, while also planning a Mining Lease application and discussions with potential development partners. The company’s longer-term thesis is more ambitious: it believes the shallow supergene mineralisation may have one or more nearby primary bedrock sources.
That remains an exploration proposition rather than an established development case. The company says average drilling depth across the project is less than 60 metres, and its 125,000- to 325,000-ounce Exploration Target is conceptual. The next set of results will need to show whether drilling can convert more of the wider block model into a compliant resource, or reveal the deeper mineralisation Miramar is seeking.
Bottom Line?
The placement gives Miramar room to test its strongest Gidji targets, but the investment case now turns on whether late-2026 drilling converts geological potential into additional compliant resources.
Questions in the middle?
- Will infill drilling bring a meaningful portion of the 116,561-ounce block model into the Mineral Resource?
- Can the Lake and Marylebone RC programmes identify primary bedrock mineralisation beneath the shallow gold?
- Will shareholders approve the director funding and Taurus options at the November annual general meeting?