Haranga Resources is shifting the Lincoln Gold Project from scoping work towards a Preliminary Feasibility Study, backed by a 402,000-ounce JORC resource and existing underground and processing infrastructure. The company is also testing whether drilling can lift resource confidence and expand the project beyond its current footprint.
- Lincoln resource of 2.46Mt at 5.1g/t gold for 402koz
- Phase 2 underground drilling underway through November
- Development focus elevated from scoping study to PFS
- South Spring Hill Exploration Target adds conceptual 202-308koz
- Long-term 100,000-ounce ambition remains non-binding
Lincoln moves from exploration narrative to development study
Haranga Resources Limited (ASX:HAR) is putting a more formal development framework around its Lincoln Gold Project in California, elevating the workstream from a scoping study to a Preliminary Feasibility Study. The shift matters because the company is no longer presenting Lincoln solely as a high-grade exploration story: it is now assembling the engineering, resource, metallurgical and economic work needed to test whether the historic operation can be redeveloped.
Lincoln currently carries a JORC Mineral Resource of 2.46 million tonnes at 5.1g/t gold for 402,000 ounces, using a 2.0g/t cut-off. The resource comprises 91,000 ounces in the Indicated category and 311,000 ounces Inferred, meaning most of the inventory still requires additional drilling before it can support higher-confidence mine planning. That drilling is already underway in the company's Phase 2 drilling campaign, which earlier produced a 32-metre interval grading 10.4g/t gold in the first reported hole.
Existing decline and plant form the redevelopment case
Haranga's pitch rests partly on what is already at site. The company controls about six kilometres of the Mother Lode Gold Belt, has a dewatered underground decline and drives, re-established electrical and ventilation systems, and holds a conditional use permit allowing gold production. The processing circuit has produced gold as recently as 2022, while the presentation says approximately A$90 million was historically spent on site facilities and associated infrastructure.
Those assets may reduce the capital and time required compared with a greenfield project, but Haranga does not present that outcome as settled. Equipment reuse, plant capacity, mining methods, operating readiness and project economics remain subject to further studies. Independent reviews identified deficiencies in the circa-2012 crushing, grinding and flotation equipment, prompting work on a redesign and the sourcing of higher-capacity replacement equipment. The proposed flowsheet uses physical recovery through a Knelson separator followed by flotation and does not require cyanide, although recovery assumptions remain subject to further testing and PFS confirmation.
Drilling is aimed at conversion as well as growth
The immediate drilling objective is to improve confidence in predominantly Inferred material, with the potential to support future conversion into Indicated Resources. Haranga also plans to test extensions to known mineralisation and nearby targets, including areas beneath and between existing resource zones. The company says Phase 2 began in September and is scheduled for completion in November, following the earlier underground access and services work reported in its Lincoln restart workstream.
South Spring Hill provides an additional growth narrative, but it is not yet a Mineral Resource. The conceptual Exploration Target ranges from 1.2 million to 1.6 million tonnes at 5.4g/t to 5.8g/t gold, equivalent to 202,000 to 308,000 ounces. Haranga cautions that insufficient exploration has been completed to estimate a resource and that further drilling may not achieve that conversion. The presentation also highlights deeper mineralisation and broader Mother Lode Belt potential, though those ambitions remain exploration propositions rather than mineable inventory.
Funding and feasibility remain the decisive tests
Haranga reported A$3.33 million in cash at 30 September 2026 and no debt in the capital-structure summary. Its presentation puts the market capitalisation at A$26.3 million, based on a 6 November share price of A$0.058. The company also describes its longer-term ambition as expanding to 100,000 ounces of annual gold production, but explicitly says that figure is neither a production target nor a financial forecast.
For now, the next meaningful tests are practical: whether Phase 2 drilling upgrades enough of the resource to support mine planning, whether the redesigned plant can deliver the assumed recovery and throughput, and what capital the PFS ultimately requires. Haranga is also reviewing strategic options for its Ibel South gold and Saraya uranium assets in Senegal, but the presentation discloses no transaction, funding arrangement or timetable. Lincoln therefore has a clearer route towards a feasibility decision, while the commercial case still depends on studies that have yet to be completed.
Bottom Line?
The PFS pathway gives Lincoln a sharper development test, but resource conversion, plant redesign and funding requirements will determine whether the existing infrastructure becomes a genuine advantage.
Questions in the middle?
- How much of Lincoln's Inferred Resource can Phase 2 drilling upgrade for mine planning?
- What capital cost and operating assumptions will emerge from the redesigned processing circuit?
- Can Haranga fund the PFS and any subsequent restart without materially changing its capital structure?