Evergold Minerals will acquire the Rabbit Warren tenements near Leonora for $50,000 cash and $150,000 in shares, gaining access to a historic gold discovery with an untested 1982 intercept of 3 metres at 23 g/t. The opportunity is inexpensive, but the geological evidence remains largely historical and unverified.
- 192-hectare Rabbit Warren package to join Evergold’s Leonora Goldfields Project
- 1982 diamond hole returned 3m at 23 g/t gold, including 1m at 47.8 g/t
- Consideration comprises $50,000 cash and 4,838,709 shares
- Modern RC or diamond drilling has not tested the historic high-grade position
- RC drilling is planned for the first half of 2027, subject to approvals
Historic Leonora gold discovery adds a low-cost exploration target
Evergold Minerals Limited (ASX:EG1) is paying $50,000 cash and issuing $150,000 worth of shares to acquire the Rabbit Warren tenements near Leonora, Western Australia. The 192-hectare package covers a gold discovery where prospectors recovered coarse visible gold in 1980 and where a later diamond hole intersected 3 metres at 23 g/t gold, including 1 metre at 47.8 g/t.
The transaction would add two contiguous prospecting licences, P37/9163 and P37/9178, to Evergold’s Leonora Goldfields Project. The ground follows a north-northwest trending structure for about 4 kilometres, with the historic Rabbit Warren workings and other registered gold workings along the package. Evergold recently defined several early-stage targets across its Leonora portfolio through soil sampling and drone magnetics, but Rabbit Warren brings a different proposition: a specific historic high-grade hit beneath a shallow discovery pit.
1982 drilling left the key high-grade zone untested
The central geological question is whether the coarse gold found near surface represents an isolated pocket or part of a larger mineralised system. In 1982, Rabbit Warren Joint Venture drilling beneath the discovery pit produced the 3-metre intercept in hole DDH3, roughly 30 metres below the base of the shallow workings. Evergold says it has found no evidence that RC or diamond drilling has tested that position, its depth extensions or the broader strike since then.
Historical drilling to the north also provides a possible second target, although the limitations are substantial. Rabbit Warren North sits immediately west of the northern part of the tenements and produced shallow RAB results including 2 metres at 2.09 g/t gold and 2 metres at 1.91 g/t. The company has not independently verified those results, true widths are unknown, and the historical collar locations, sampling controls and assay procedures are incomplete.
Acquisition remains conditional and includes vendor rights
Completion is subject to financial, legal and technical due diligence and any required regulatory approvals within six months of signing. The consideration shares will be issued at a deemed price of $0.031 each and escrowed for six months. The vendor will retain co-exclusive rights to prospect for alluvial gold down to 3 metres, subordinate to Evergold’s operations, as well as a first right of refusal if the tenements are later offered for sale.
The low upfront price limits the immediate acquisition commitment, but it does not make the exploration risk disappear. The company has no Mineral Resource Estimate at Rabbit Warren, and it cautions that the historical production figure of 84 ounces from approximately 80 tonnes of material has not been independently verified. Any investment case rests on whether modern work can validate the old results and establish continuity beyond the original pocket.
Mapping and 2027 drilling set the next tests
Evergold plans a site mapping trip next month, followed by a 3D geological model built from the historical information. Programme of Work applications are due before the end of the year, with geological mapping, geophysics and surface geochemistry planned across the tenements in 2027. RC drilling is scheduled for the first half of 2027, subject to approvals, targeting beneath and along strike of DDH3 and the Rabbit Warren North trend.
That timetable gives the acquisition a clear technical sequence, but the first meaningful test is likely to be validation rather than discovery. The next market signal will come from whether Evergold can locate and reinterpret the historic drilling, demonstrate a coherent structural target and obtain approvals to put modern holes into the ground.
Bottom Line?
Rabbit Warren offers Evergold a modest-cost route to a potentially valuable drill target, but the 2027 program must first turn incomplete historical evidence into repeatable modern data.
Questions in the middle?
- Can Evergold validate the location, sampling and assay quality of the 1982 high-grade intercept?
- Does the mineralisation continue along the 4-kilometre structural trend or remain concentrated around the historic pit?
- Will due diligence, heritage work and approvals allow RC drilling to begin in the first half of 2027?