On Leonora’s northern shoulder, Augustus Minerals has stitched together ground where the rocks already blink with visible gold. And, with heritage clearances progressing and a chief executive officer who has already sold a gold story out of the prolific Western Australian goldfields district, the next headline belongs to the drill.
Adding to the story, the company today announced it is “second-in-time” to develop the highly prospective Mt Kare gold project in Papua New Guinea, where historical exploration has identified five separate areas of mineralisation, some high-grade intercepts and “bonanza zones”.
Add the two together and it’s clear Augustus is a straight-up gold play. With the yellow metal at fresh price records and central banks stuffing their vaults, the company is lining up its activities and priorities with an eye on what’s hot.
It has virgin structures in its crosshairs at its Music Well project near Leonora in Western Australia, which have already produced multi-ounce rock chips, including a fresh vein visibly studded with the stuff. Bringing in a drill rig, as the next step, is right on cue.
Augustus controls a belt-scale land position under its Music Well banner. The neighbourhood reads like a roll call, with the Darlot gold mine up the road, the King of the Hills and Thunderbox mines out west, and the Leonora camp southwest. The company’s first season has mapped coherent mineralised corridors through the granites and greenstone rafts that stitch the district together.
The fieldwork so far has had moments that make geologists reach for the hand lens. Earlier this year at the Dodd’s prospect, which sits neatly within Music Well, subcropping ferruginous quartz over several hundred metres of strike produced rock chips grading a stellar 122.8 grams per tonne (g/t) alongside 29.0g/t and 13.4g/t, with grains of visible gold noted.
Not long after that, the team peeled off 27.82g/t and 5.05g/t at Black Cat East – another target within Music Well – where mapping tracked a quartz vein for roughly half a kilometre. At Teutonic East, in the same camp, sampling from a pyritic quartz vein ran at 62.2g/t. More recent follow-up added a 23.6g/t hit from a pyritic quartz vein displaying visible gold.
It’s the sort of early-stage dataset that tells you the plumbing is live.
Augustus has divided these gold hits into corridors that make structural sense: a central belt running off the Wonder-Great Western-Celtic trend into Music Well, a northwest-trending Black Cat-Bulls Head zone, a Dodd’s-Redcliffe West corridor hugging the Mertondale-Mt Redcliffe shear near Genesis’ Hub and a northern Jindardie NE zone. But it’s the kind of model you drill, not just map.
The cultural and statutory pathway also appears to be unlocked. A heritage protection agreement with the Watarra Aboriginal Corporation - the prescribed body corporate for the Darlot traditional owners - has been signed, clearing the way for heritage surveys across Clifton East, St Patrick’s, Dodd’s and Black Cat. Those surveys kicked off only a couple of weeks ago, the company expects to soon receive the report, then maiden drilling will follow.
As Augustus Mining chief executive officer James Warren says: “To have the chance to be the first to drill test high-grade, gold-bearing structures, which strike up to one kilometre, will be an exciting time for the company and we’re looking forward to the opportunity that lies ahead.”
Warren, who was only appointed to the leadership role in the past month, arrives with a playbook built for this postcode. He helped grow Echo Resources from 350,000 ounces to more than 1.8 million ounces before Northern Star wrote a $240 million cheque for the story. Executive chairman Brian Rodan’s view is straightforward: Warren brings “technical excellence and strategic vision” with a track record of unlocking value. It’s the kind of fuel you want in the tank when you’re pointing a reverse circulation drill rig into virgin structures.
The macro wind is finally at Augustus’ and other explorers’ backs. Gold has been tearing up the charts to record highs in 2025 on a mix of rate-cut expectations and delivery, safe-haven bids and persistent central-bank appetite. The spot price has vaulted past and is now holding above $5000 per ounce.
The World Gold Council’s latest read shows central banks are still adding to their reserves and investment demand is surging as ETFs and bar and coin buyers return to the fray. For a greenfields explorer and pure gold play about to drill-test outcropping veins with visible gold, a buoyant bullion price doesn’t just help sentiment, it opens equity windows and fattens the risk-reward calculus.
Augustus is “second-in-time” to develop the highly prospective Mt Kare gold project in Papua New Guinea, where historical exploration has identified five separate areas of mineralisation, some high-grade intercepts and “bonanza zones”. Credit: File.
There’s also a strategic kicker beyond the WA heartland. Augustus has completed its purchase of its PNG vehicle, ACMPNG, through which it has also acquired an exploration licence application for the Mt Kare project in PNG.
The company is now “second-in-time” for the licence after the original first-in-time applicant, Global Mining Group, was rejected by PNG’s regulatory authorities. The country’s Mineral Resource Authority and Mining Advisory Council assess licence applications in the order they are received. Private company Tribune Mt Kare Gold Limited currently holds the cards in the first-in-time position.
Augustus says it intends to actively pursue the application and granting of an exploration licence at Mt Kare, which may include objecting to other licence applications or negotiating to consolidate other applications to expedite the grant process.
According to the company, PNG’s mining licensing authorities expect successful applicants to hit the ground running with a tangible work program, sound technical backing and a healthy financial standing to advance Mt Kare through pre-feasibility and definitive studies to mine development within a minimum five years.
Rodman will be key to the process. The Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy fellow has more than 48 years of mining experience, over a decade of involvement in PNG and an international track record of developing open-pit and underground mines. Non-executive director Darren Holden and general manager Andrew Ford will contribute their significant technical and geological chops, while CEO Warren has a PhD in intrusives, which should come in handy as the company prepares to chase intrusive-related gold in Mt Kare’s orogenic setting.
“I was managing director of ACMPNG in 2012-13 when it was awarded a contract to carry out the stage 1 underground exploration drilling and mine development at the Mt Kare gold project,” Rodman says.
“ACMPNG was responsible for assisting with the mine design and provided equipment and expertise to construct the Mt Kare portal and underground mine.
“Augustus has positioned itself as an applicant for the Mt Kare project through the purchase of ACMPNG, which holds a second-in-time exploration licence application, and thus holds an opportunity to potentially secure future access to the Mt Kare gold project.”
Historic work at Mt Kare, lodged under the old 2004 JORC code, points to 43 million tonnes at 1.5g/t for 2.1 million ounces of gold in the ground sitting about 15 kilometres southwest of the giant Porgera mine in the same mineralised province. It’s a well-worn hunting ground for ounces and a useful option if tenure falls the company’s way.
And it’s worth noting, Mt Kare isn’t just a dot on a map - it’s folklore in PNG gold circles. The place erupted into a full-blown gold rush in 1988–90 as thousands of local miners descended on rich alluvial clays, a scene that echoed the nineteenth-century rushes. The geology mirrors Porgera, and the district’s long memory of alluvial and hard-rock production underlines why Mt Kare continues to command attention decades after the first nuggets sparked the stampede.
Indochine Mining, now Summit Gold, bought Mt Kare in 2011 for about $27 million - 37 per cent payable in cash and 64 per cent in shares - with plans to progress the project to a bankable feasibility study within 18 months. It was discovered in 1987 by Conzinc Riotinto and has had about $75 million of exploration expenditure, including at least 350 drill holes.
While Augustus works through the regulatory and planning challenges in PNG, back in Leonora, the near-term script is clear. Finish the heritage process, run soils where outcrop fades, then send the rig into the obvious: Clifton East, St Patrick’s and Dodd’s first, with Black Cat East and Redcliffe West waiting their turn. Augustus isn’t confusing chips for ounces. But when you’ve got visible gold at surface, multi-ounce grades across hundreds of metres of strike, fertile intrusions lighting up the maps and a team that’s already grown and sold ounces in the postcode, momentum starts to look less like luck and more like a plan.
And that’s Augustus right now: a fresh CEO, big ground in Australia’s gold heartland, heritage ticks in the rear view mirror and targets itching for a first pass. If the first RC sings for this sub-$10 million market cap company while bullion is howling, Music Well could go from rehearsal to headline very quickly - and Mt Kare offers a whole new stage if the curtain lifts.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Bill McConnell
