Mount Hope’s Mt Solitary drilling sets up a December assay catalyst

Phase 3 drilling puts assays at the centre of the December quarter

Mount Hope Mining Limited (ASX:MHM) has finished the latest test of its Mt Solitary gold system, drilling 10 reverse-circulation holes for 2,919 metres across southern, northern and western extensions. The program also tested a highly resistive CSAMT feature south of the prospect. All samples are now with the laboratory, with results expected early in the December 2026 quarter.

The completed campaign is the immediate geological catalyst for an explorer still working towards its first JORC Mineral Resource Estimate. The company says the holes were designed to extend mineralisation beyond previous drilling, while its broader program remains focused on validating and refining the conceptual Mt Solitary Exploration Target. That target spans 1.32 million to 1.87 million tonnes at 1.0 to 1.35 grams per tonne gold, or 42,500 to 81,400 ounces, but remains conceptual and is not a Mineral Resource.

The drilling campaign follows the earlier Phase 3 drilling program, which had been reported as targeting resource definition after high-grade results from the first two phases. The pending assays will therefore do more than add another set of intercepts: they will help determine how convincingly the system extends along strike and at depth.

Metallurgy points to conventional processing, with important qualifications

Mount Hope also highlighted maiden Phase 1 metallurgical testwork by ALS Metallurgy that produced an indicative combined gold recovery of 98.4%. The result came from an approximately 158-kilogram master composite made from RC samples with a head grade of 21.4 grams per tonne gold. The testwork found 70.4% of gold was gravity-recoverable, while cyanide solubility of the gravity tailings reached 94.6%.

The company describes the mineralisation as coarse and free-milling, with native gold dominant and negligible gold locked in silicates. It says the findings support further assessment of conventional gravity and carbon-in-leach processing, including possible toll-treatment or ore-purchase pathways given operating processing facilities in the Cobar Basin. That is a potential development route, not a development decision: variability testing, additional comminution work and scoping-level flowsheet studies are still planned.

The strong headline recovery should also be read in the confines of the test. It was generated from one master composite rather than a defined production reserve or a full range of mineralisation types, oxidation states and grades. Mount Hope previously reported 98% gold recovery metallurgy, and the new quarterly report says the latest work builds on earlier cyanide-solubility testing, but neither result establishes plant-scale recovery.

Ronin-backed placement leaves Mount Hope funded for the next phase

Mount Hope received $1.718 million from an issue of 11.85 million shares at 14.5 cents each, with no broker fees. Ronin Metals provided a $1.03 million cornerstone commitment and now holds a 12.0% interest, while Simon Lawson’s disclosed interest is 13.16% including that holding. Ronin and its directors retain the right to nominate a suitably qualified board member while their combined holding remains at least 10%.

Of the placement, 689,655 shares worth $100,000 are earmarked for directors and remain subject to shareholder approval at the 9 November annual general meeting. The company ended the quarter with $3.487 million in cash, reported quarterly exploration expenditure of $820,000 and no debt or financing facilities. On the Appendix 5B calculation, that cash represented 3.5 quarters of funding at the quarter’s relevant cash-outflow rate.

That funding position gives Mount Hope room to pursue the next work program, which includes Phase 4 drilling, regional exploration along the MS2 corridor, a GAIP survey and continued work towards the maiden resource estimate. Environmental baseline work is also moving from planning into field activity, with flora and fauna studies scheduled to begin in late October alongside waste-rock, acid-rock-drainage, hydrogeological and stakeholder programs.