Broken Hill Gold has increased the Vertigo resource by 43% while drilling continues to reveal high-grade gold-copper sulphides beneath White Dam’s Icebreaker prospect. The company ended September with A$12.6 million in cash, but its proposed production restart still depends on further drilling, refurbishment and mine economics.
- Vertigo resource rises to 54,795oz of gold
- Icebreaker sulphide mineralisation remains open at depth and along strike
- White Dam exploration tenure doubles to more than 1,500km²
- Third gold pour delivers 95.66oz of gold after quarter end
- A$12.6 million cash balance equates to 2.66 quarters of reported funding
Vertigo Resource Adds Weight to Restart Case
Broken Hill Gold Ltd (ASX:BH6) used the September quarter to strengthen both sides of its White Dam strategy: a near-term attempt to restart heap-leach production and a deeper exploration push that could redefine the South Australian project. The Vertigo Mineral Resource rose to 2.3 million tonnes at 0.74g/t gold for 54,795oz, up approximately 16,500oz, or 43%, from the previous estimate.
The updated resource contains 44% Indicated and 56% Inferred material. Its shallow, heap-leachable Indicated component now stands at 24,300oz, with all of that material either outcropping or close to surface on an existing mining lease. Mine design and evaluation are under way, although the filing stops short of establishing that a restart will be economic.
The result builds on the Vertigo resource upgrade, which previously lifted White Dam’s overall resource to 118,496oz. The full project estimate now comprises Hannaford at 43,300oz, Vertigo at 54,795oz and Icebreaker at 20,400oz.
Icebreaker Drilling Extends Gold-Copper System
Icebreaker is the more speculative, and potentially more consequential, part of the quarter’s story. Drilling confirmed a zone of gold-copper sulphide mineralisation beneath the existing oxide resource, with notable results including 20m at 2.5g/t gold and 0.5% copper from 58m in WNRC006. Within that interval, 3m ran at 12.5g/t gold and 1.8% copper.
WNRC007 returned 25m at 1.5g/t gold and 0.5% copper from 58m, followed by 28m at 2.4g/t gold and 0.7% copper from 93m. The hole ended in mineralisation, as did WNRC009, and the company says the sulphide zone remains open in all directions and at depth. Those are exploration signals, not yet a resource or mine plan.
The results follow the Icebreaker drilling campaign, during which geophysical work was aimed at testing mineralisation beneath White Dam’s shallow oxide prospects. A subsequent IP survey outlined a chargeability feature covering about 1.5km², while ground magnetics identified a roughly 1km² high-intensity feature coincident with the Icebreaker and Rolling prospects. Broken Hill Gold has now commenced diamond drilling, with an initial 3,000m program intended to test the system’s depth and strike extensions.
Production Restart Moves Through Refurbishment
White Dam produced no gold during the September quarter, but the company completed its third gold pour after quarter end from re-crushed material on the existing heap-leach pad. The final Perth Mint outturn was 5.43kg of doré containing 95.66oz of gold and 73.43oz of silver.
That output is useful evidence that the existing circuit can still generate doré, but the restart remains a work in progress. Broken Hill Gold has built a replacement carbon-in-column tank, upgraded the gold room and begun relining collection and process ponds. Its proposed pad expansion would provide about 160,000m² of lined area and capacity for approximately 3.5 million tonnes of ore, subject to technical and financial evaluation.
A Larger Exploration Footprint, With More Capital to Deploy
The company also doubled its regional exploration tenure to more than 1,500km² after winning tenders for two exploration licence applications covering a combined 751km². The ground includes the historic Manna Hill and Waukaringa goldfields, but the filing makes clear that modern drilling is still needed to test their potential.
Funding for the enlarged program came partly from a A$13 million placement priced at A$0.15 a share. Broken Hill Gold ended September with A$12.671 million in cash after recording A$2.528 million of net operating outflows and A$2.138 million of investing outflows during the quarter. On the company’s Appendix 5B calculation, that represented 2.66 quarters of available funding based on the reported outgoings.
North Queensland Assets Shift to Manda
Broken Hill Gold has completed the demerger of its Alice River and St George assets into Manda Resources, receiving 64 million Manda shares valued at approximately A$16 million at the issue price, plus A$650,000 in cash payable on Manda’s ASX admission. The company intends to distribute the Manda shares in specie to eligible shareholders, subject to approval, with admission targeted for mid-December 2026.
The transaction narrows Broken Hill Gold’s operating focus to White Dam while leaving shareholders with a proposed interest in a separate North Queensland vehicle. The immediate test is whether White Dam can convert its growing resource base and exploration momentum into a financially supported restart before the exploration pipeline begins to draw more heavily on cash.
Bottom Line?
The next value test is operational rather than promotional: Icebreaker drilling must establish scale, while Vertigo studies and heap-leach refurbishment must show whether shallow ounces can support a restart within the company’s current funding window.
Questions in the middle?
- Will the 3,000m Icebreaker diamond program demonstrate a coherent sulphide system large enough to support a future resource?
- Can Vertigo’s shallow Indicated ounces translate into an economically viable heap-leach restart after refurbishment and pad expansion costs?
- How quickly will the reported 2.66 quarters of funding be consumed as drilling, production preparation and regional exploration accelerate?