Brightstar Resources and Cazaly Resources have kicked into gear their earn-in joint-venture at the Goongarrie gold project, 30 kilometres south of Menzies in the Western Australian Goldfields.
Cazaly has elected to exercise its option over the project after the junior goldie finished its technical and legal due diligence.
The agreement, revealed to the market in February, provides Cazaly with the right to earn up to an 80 per cent interest in Brightstar’s Goongarrie project by sole funding up to $3 million of exploration over four years.
Brightstar will retain a free-carried interest and exposure to any exploration upside and form a joint venture when Cazaly earns an interest in the project by meeting its exploration commitments.
Cazaly has sprinted off the mark and has begun reprocessing geophysical data across the project ground to gain a greater understanding of the regional structures controlling the gold mineralisation.
It has also prioritised reverse circulation drill plans for the project’s Hastings and Duke of York gold prospects.
The gold project is 90km north of Kalgoorlie and covers a 70 square-kilometre stretch of the Kalgoorlie greenstone terrain, including a 12km strike of the Bardoc Tectonic Zone.
Bardoc is a northern extension of the Boulder-Lefroy Shear Zone that hosts some of WA’s largest gold deposits.
This joint venture enables Brightstar to retain meaningful exposure to exploration success at Goongarrie while directing our resources toward ongoing mining operations at Second Fortune, the development of the Fish underground mine and advancing the Laverton-Menzies definitive feasibility study.
With the Goongarrie earn-in, Brightstar can remain focussed on its core gold assets at its Laverton, Sandstone and Menzies hubs.
The company’s exploration strategy is to grow the existing resources for projects with granted mining leases and potentially cash in on the extraordinary high gold price, which is sitting at record levels of more than US$3000 (A$4770) per ounce.
Brightstar revealed last week it had become WA’s latest gold producer after successfully completing a maiden gold pour at its processing partner Genesis Minerals’ nearby Laverton mill.
The pour yielded more than 100 kilograms of gold doré from about 56,000 tonnes of ore processed at a blended grade exceeding 2 grams per tonne (g/t).
Management last year originated an ore purchase agreement with Genesis, allowing for up to 500,000t of ore to be processed this year and in the first three months of 2026.
Ore will be sourced from the run-of-mine from Brightstar’s operating Second Fortune underground mine, existing mined stockpiles from its Lord Byron open pit operation at Jasper Hills, along with ore anticipated to be mined in the next few months from its Fish underground project, where the firing of the access portal is expected shortly.
The company expects to deliver regular ore parcels to the mill for processing throughout the term of the ore purchase agreement. It estimates the continual cash flow received across the next 12 months will support Brightstar’s aggressive development and exploration plans across its hubs.
Management has big plans for its exploration activities, including peppering more than 100,000 metres with a reverse circulation drill rig at its Sandstone hub and with a further rig at its Cork Tree Well prospect.
Brightstar has nearly finished a definitive feasibility study for its wider Laverton-Menzies development, which should outline the company’s multi-mine development strategy to grow production in the near term.
It remains in the envious position of remaining both hedge-free and debt-free and is ideally placed to reap the rewards of a rampant gold price with every tonne it can squeeze through the nearby mill.
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https://thewest.com.au/business/bulls-n-bears/cazaly-earn-in-frees-brightstar-to-grow-goldfields-exploration-c-18155459
