Torque Metals has reported a 351,000-ounce Mineral Resource Estimate for its Ritz Gold Project, alongside a string of high-grade drilling results including 11 metres at 456 grams per tonne gold. An A$25 million institutional placement completed after quarter-end gives the explorer funding to pursue further growth, but the resource remains partly based on older estimates and the million-ounce ambition is explicitly aspirational.
- Ritz Gold Project resource rises to 351,000oz at 3.1g/t gold
- HHH returns 11m at 456g/t gold, including 1m at 3,625g/t
- Observation drilling identifies mineralisation beyond the existing resource envelope
- A$25m placement issued 131.6m shares at A$0.19 each
- Quarter-end cash was A$7.7m before the placement
Ritz resource reaches 351,000 ounces
Torque Metals Limited (ASX:TOR) is putting A$25 million behind a gold resource that is still being built. The company’s September quarter report confirms a Ritz Gold Project Mineral Resource Estimate of 3.47 million tonnes at 3.1 grams per tonne gold for 351,000 ounces, with the company highlighting a 40% increase and a higher-confidence Indicated component now accounting for 42% of the estimate, up from 25% previously.
The largest contributor is Paris, where the resource stands at 2.01 million tonnes at 3.8g/t gold for 253,000 ounces. HHH contributes 73,000 ounces and Observation 25,000 ounces. The updated figure incorporates the Paris resource work completed using drilling through 22 June 2026, while the HHH and Observation estimates remain unchanged from 2024. That distinction matters: the headline resource is larger, but not every deposit has been refreshed by the latest drilling.
The resource update formed the foundation for Torque’s Ritz resource expansion and its Project RPM strategy, which aims to establish a one-million-ounce South Kalgoorlie gold camp. Torque cautions that the objective is aspirational, not a forecast or exploration target, and depends on exploration success.
HHH drilling delivers exceptional grades
The quarter’s most striking result came from HHH, where hole 26HRC135 returned 11.0 metres at 456.00g/t gold from 122 metres, including a one-metre interval at 3,625.00g/t. The company also reported multiple mineralised shear zones in the hole, including two metres at 8.06g/t gold from 282 metres.
High grades were not confined to one hole. Diamond tail 26HRCDD151 returned 8.9 metres at 17.50g/t gold from 344 metres, including three metres at 28.40g/t, making it the deepest HHH intercept reported to date. Torque said the hole sits more than 115 metres down-plunge from the 2024 resource and about 300 metres below surface. Follow-up drilling is underway, while assays from two other holes remain pending.
The result extends the same HHH thread that produced the 11m HHH gold intercept, but the company also flags a technical caveat. Hole 26HRCDD150, drilled 60 metres up-plunge, returned 8.2 metres at 0.84g/t and is undergoing further quality-control checks because of possible grade variability linked to the nugget effect. Visual gold observations are preliminary and are not a substitute for laboratory results.
Observation and regional targets add to the drilling pipeline
Observation, whose 25,000-ounce resource has not been updated since 2024, also produced results beyond the existing resource envelope. Diamond hole 26ODD004 returned 2.7 metres at 5.20g/t gold from 201.2 metres, including 0.4 metres at 29.97g/t, while RC hole 26OBRC011 returned three metres at 8.82g/t from 151 metres. Further drilling is planned along the high-grade plunge and trend.
At Maynards Dam, maiden drilling returned four metres at 0.67g/t and two metres at 2.70g/t gold, with additional assays from Maynards and Koolie expected during the December quarter. Torque also plans more DHEM surveys and drilling at HHH and Observation, regional drilling at Strauss and a review of its lithium-prospective Western Australian tenements.
A$25m placement changes the funding equation
Torque completed a targeted institutional placement after quarter-end, issuing about 131.6 million shares at A$0.19 each to raise A$25 million before costs. The new shares represent approximately 21% of the pre-placement share count. Combined with A$7.7 million in cash at 30 September, the funding is intended to support extensional and infill drilling, regional exploration, DHEM surveys, infrastructure and working capital.
The capital raise followed a quarter in which Torque spent A$5.3 million on exploration and evaluation, out of total net operating and investing outflows of A$5.9 million. On the pre-placement figures, the Appendix 5B showed about 1.4 quarters of available funding, but the company said the post-quarter-end placement should provide sufficient funds to meet its business objectives. That gives Torque room to keep drilling; it does not remove the geological risk attached to converting promising intersections into a larger, higher-confidence resource.
Bottom Line?
Torque now has the cash to test whether HHH and Observation can turn spectacular intersections into durable resource growth. The next resource updates, pending assays and evidence of repeatability will matter more than any single bonanza-grade interval.
Questions in the middle?
- How much of the HHH down-plunge mineralisation can be converted into Indicated resources after follow-up drilling?
- Will the nugget effect produce materially different grades when the broader HHH zone is assessed?
- Can Torque deploy the A$25 million placement quickly enough to generate regional discoveries without diluting focus on Ritz?