Barton Gold’s final Tunkillia assays add weight to a larger starter pit

Final drilling delivers high-grade starter pit intersections

The last batch of assays from Barton Gold Holdings Limited (ASX:BGD) has put some eye-catching numbers around the shallow, high-grade zones that the company hopes will shape the early years of its Tunkillia project in South Australia.

The strongest new intersections include 26 metres at 2.79 grams per tonne gold from 126 metres, including 1 metre at 53.5g/t; 21 metres at 4.13g/t from 61 metres, including 2 metres at 29.9g/t; and 53 metres at 2.51g/t from 60 metres, including 2 metres at 18.25g/t. Another hole returned 14 metres at 3.80g/t from 67 metres.

These results complete Barton’s Phase 2 reverse-circulation program, which covered 38,760 metres across 311 holes. Including Phase 1, the company has drilled 57,653 metres across 520 reverse-circulation and diamond holes. The latest results were concentrated in the S1 and S2 starter pits within the main Area 223 open pit, while also adding information around Area 51 and Area 223 North.

Resource remodelling is now the key test

The immediate significance is not simply the headline grades. Barton says the drilling has filled in the highest-value mineralisation and supports the possibility of additional shallow zones around weathered margins of a large mafic dyke. In Area 51, the company has also identified a thick, higher-grade shoot that remains open to the south and west.

The announcement follows September shallow drilling results, which reported broad high-grade zones while the final Phase 2 assays were still outstanding. With those assays now received, Barton has begun remodelling all Tunkillia gold mineralisation and expects to publish an updated gold JORC Mineral Resource Estimate in the near term.

That remodelling matters because the drilling may alter both the grade profile and the interpretation of continuity within the weathered zone. Barton says Area 223 North contains mineralisation at, or beyond, the limits of the previous model and pit profile, requiring further work before its scale can be assessed. The company has not yet published the updated tonnes, grades, classifications or contained metal.

PFS and permitting work move alongside the assays

Barton’s May 2025 Optimised Scoping Study modelled the S1 and S2 pits as producing 365,000 ounces of gold and 923,000 ounces of silver during their first roughly 27 months, at an average cash cost of A$1,429 per ounce of gold. Those figures are study outputs rather than a reserve or production decision, and remain dependent on further modelling, studies, approvals, financing and commodity prices.

The company has commenced its Tunkillia pre-feasibility study and is targeting publication in Q1 CY27. The work includes environmental, heritage, water, tailings, non-process infrastructure, camp and renewable-energy studies. Barton recently secured approval for the environmental scope governing the development process, while Tunkillia development funding was part of a broader capital and drilling push that included A$40.9 million raised through two institutional placements.

There is a technical caveat beneath the excitement. Reported intervals are downhole lengths, not true widths, and the company flags low confidence in certain TKB0728 results because of wet samples or poor recoveries; those intervals are due to be resampled. The next Resource statement, rather than another isolated spectacular intercept, will show whether the high-grade results have materially changed the mineable shape of Tunkillia.