Arika Resources has secured up to $211,213 in Western Australian government co-funding for two 600-metre diamond holes at its Pennyweight Point prospect. The drilling will test depth extensions to known gold mineralisation and a conceptual porphyry-style gold-copper system that remains untested at depth.
- Up to $211,213 in EIS co-funding for Yundamindra drilling
- Two planned 600-metre diamond holes at Pennyweight Point Deeps
- Targets sit about 400 metres below surface and 200 metres beneath previous deepest drilling
- Technical review identified a possible porphyry-style gold-copper system
- Drilling expected to begin in coming months, subject to approvals
Government Grant Targets Pennyweight Point Depth Extensions
Arika Resources Limited (ASX:ARI) has secured up to $211,213 from Western Australia’s Exploration Incentive Scheme to test one of the more ambitious geological ideas in its Yundamindra portfolio: that the high-grade Pennyweight Point prospect may sit above a deeper porphyry-style gold-copper system.
The grant will cover up to 50% of eligible direct drilling costs, capped at $206,213, plus up to $5,000 of mobilisation costs. It is reimbursement-based rather than a cash injection, meaning Arika will still need to fund its share of the campaign.
Two 600-Metre Holes Will Test the Deeps
Arika plans to drill two diamond holes, each to a depth of 600 metres, at the Pennyweight Point Deeps target. The holes are designed to intersect the Pennyweight Point tonalite porphyry roughly 400 metres below surface and about 200 metres down-dip from the deepest drilling completed so far.
The targets are modelled extensions of high-grade shoots already identified through drilling. The prospect has returned wide mineralised intervals, including 14 metres at 15.48 grams per tonne gold and 21 metres at 4.65 grams per tonne gold, alongside broader gold-copper intersections. Those results were reported previously and are not new assays from this announcement.
Independent Modelling Recasts the Geological Target
The targets emerged from an independent review by mining consultancy ERM, which combined historical and recent drilling, multielement soil and drillhole geochemistry, and three-dimensional geological modelling. The work identified Pennyweight Point as the strongest and most continuous gold-copper soil anomaly at Yundamindra, extending about 1,100 metres along strike and 350 metres across.
Arika’s interpretation is that an older porphyry-style gold-copper system may have been overprinted by a more typical Archaean orogenic gold system. The company points to similarities with deposits including Boddington, King of the Hills and Brightstar Resources’ Two Mile Hill project, while acknowledging that the deeper porphyry hypothesis has yet to be tested by drilling. Earlier work had reported 2.5km Yundamindra continuity across another mineralised area of the project.
Pennyweight Point Has Gold, Copper and Alteration Clues
The case for the deeper targets rests on more than gold grades alone. Arika says the mineralised zone includes disseminated pyrite and chalcopyrite, with anomalous copper, silver, bismuth and molybdenum, as well as epidote alteration and finely disseminated magnetite. Copper values at the prospect have reached as high as 9,100 parts per million in the company’s exploration data.
However, the deeper holes drilled to date have not located the quartz stockwork typically associated with a porphyry system. That makes the upcoming campaign a genuine test of the model rather than a routine extension of an established resource. A successful result would need to demonstrate continuity, grade and scale at depth; a negative result would leave the known near-surface gold mineralisation as the more established part of the story.
Drilling Depends on Approvals and Cost Sharing
Drilling is expected to start in the coming months, subject to statutory approvals, within the EIS funding period running from December 2026 to November 2027. Arika owns Yundamindra outright and is pursuing the program as part of its wider Western Australian exploration push, but the grant does not remove the technical risk attached to the untested targets or the company’s obligation to meet the remaining drilling costs.
Bottom Line?
The grant lowers the cost of a high-impact test, but the investment case now turns on whether two deep holes can validate the porphyry interpretation.
Questions in the middle?
- Will the two deep holes intersect a coherent porphyry-style gold-copper system or only peripheral alteration?
- Can mineralisation maintain meaningful grades and widths 200 metres below the current drilling envelope?
- How much of the drilling cost will Arika need to fund after the capped reimbursement is applied?