Forrestania Resources has increased the British Hill JORC Mineral Resource Estimate by 21% to 212,400 ounces of gold, with higher-confidence Indicated ounces rising 37%. Drilling is continuing, but the project remains at the resource and study stage rather than production.
- 212,400-ounce British Hill resource at 1.60 g/t gold
- 37% increase in Indicated resources to 138,100 ounces
- 15 additional RC holes added 3,685 metres of drilling
- Further drilling, metallurgy and environmental studies remain underway
- Resource based on conceptual open-pit and A$6,000/oz assumptions
British Hill resource reaches 212,400 ounces
Forrestania Resources Limited (ASX:FRS) has added another 37,000 ounces to the British Hill gold resource, taking the deposit to 4.12 million tonnes at 1.60 grams per tonne for 212,400 ounces. The updated JORC estimate represents a 21% increase on the previous estimate, released only a month earlier.
The more consequential movement is in the confidence mix. Indicated resources rose 37% to 2.65 million tonnes at 1.62 g/t for 138,100 ounces, while Inferred resources total 1.47 million tonnes at 1.57 g/t for 74,300 ounces. Indicated material now accounts for more than half of the contained gold, although the estimate remains a Mineral Resource rather than an Ore Reserve.
15 RC holes expand the estimate
The update incorporates 15 additional reverse-circulation holes covering 3,685 metres. Forrestania said the broader 2026 program has completed 39 holes for 10,392.5 metres, including RC, diamond and RC holes with diamond tails, with 243 holes used in the resource estimate.
Drilling has not stopped at the new resource boundary. Three RC rigs and one diamond rig are continuing work aimed at extending mineralisation along strike and down dip. The company’s stated priorities also include converting Inferred resources into the Indicated category through infill drilling, while testing potential extensions below the current resource.
Open-pit potential remains conceptual
British Hill is reported within a conceptual open-pit shell, with the resource assessed against conventional truck-and-excavator mining. The reasonable-prospects assessment used a gold price of A$6,000 an ounce alongside conceptual mining, processing, haulage and administrative assumptions. That is evidence supporting resource reporting, not a development economics study or a production forecast.
Preliminary metallurgical work on two RC composite samples produced gold recoveries ranging from 83.9% to 88.7% for one composite and 90.1% to 91.4% for the other. Gravity-recoverable gold represented roughly 40% to 42% of total gold in the tests. Further work is underway to assess ore representativity, recovery, comminution, rheology and processing design.
Development hurdles remain ahead
The deposit is about 145 kilometres by road from the Edna May processing facility, and Forrestania says existing regional roads provide potential access to third-party processing facilities. No material access constraints were identified in desktop reviews, but approvals and operating conditions may apply.
The company also says baseline environmental studies have not identified a fatal constraint, while flagging further work on potentially acid-forming waste rock, water availability, groundwater management and priority flora. The resource has been internally reviewed but not externally audited, and parts of the historical drilling and sampling database carry less complete documentation than the newer Forrestania work.
Bottom Line?
The resource growth is tangible, but the next value test is whether ongoing drilling can convert more ounces into Indicated material while studies turn conceptual extraction and processing assumptions into a mineable plan.
Questions in the middle?
- How much of the 74,300-ounce Inferred component can be converted through the continuing infill program?
- Will further drilling extend the resource at grades that support the current open-pit concept?
- Can metallurgical, environmental and processing studies establish a credible pathway from resource growth to development?