Aurumin Resources has kicked off a 7,400-metre multi-rig drilling blitz at its Central Sandstone gold project in WA’s Mid West, targeting resource upgrades and new ounces across the high-grade Shillington-Two Mile Hill complex and nearby McIntyre and Old Town Well deposits.
The program comprises 30 reverse-circulation (RC) holes for 5,000m and 10 diamond holes for 2,400m, focused squarely on building confidence in the company’s 886,000-ounce gold inventory while feeding Brightstar Resources’ pre-feasibility study (PFS) for a consolidated Sandstone gold operation slated for mid-2026.
Managing director Daniel Raihani said the campaign was about converting ounces and de-risking the project.
“This drilling program is a great opportunity to fast-track the advancement of the Sandstone development story by applying the funds from the sale of non-core assets into the ground,” he said.
“This program targets mineral resource growth and enables the collection of important geotechnical and waste-rock characterisation data. All of this will feed into the planned Brightstar Pre-Feasibility Study in mid-2026 and move the combined Sandstone resource towards development. It is an excellent outcome for both Aurumin and Brightstar shareholders to be a part of this great regional gold."
The campaign follows the completion of a string of non-core asset sales that have delivered $6 million in proceeds – including $3.5 million from the sale of the Johnson Range and Mt Dimer projects and $1 million from divesting Sandstone’s non-gold rights to Newcam Minerals. Those funds are now being channelled directly into the ground at Sandstone rather than through the market, allowing Aurumin to advance exploration without share dilution.
At the heart of the campaign lies the Shillington-Two Mile Hill complex — already hosting more than 750,000 ounces of gold from both open-pit and underground resources. Shillington itself is a banded-iron formation (BIF)-hosted system, where broad zones of “nuggety” gold have been recorded within intersecting shallow-dipping vein sets. Drilling is designed to tighten grade continuity within those vein planes and extend mineralisation along the hanging- and footwall contacts — all of it feeding data straight into the PFS model.
Just two kilometres to the south-south-east, the McIntyre deposit — modest so far at just over 20,000 ounces — will see its first Aurumin holes. The work aims to extend the known mineralised envelope and shift the current resource from Inferred to Indicated classification. Old Town Well, about two kilometres west, is also getting its first Aurumin drill-holes. The shallow 10,000-ounce deposit sits in weathered basalt and quartz veins and will be tested mainly for infill and confirmation drilling to underpin its place in the consolidated Sandstone mine plan.
Two Mile Hill remains the engine room of Aurumin’s Sandstone ambitions — 2.1 million tonnes at 1.3 grams per tonne gold in open-pit resources and 10.8 million tonnes at 1.6 g/t underground for a combined ~664,000 ounces. Much of the planned diamond work will collect geotechnical and metallurgical samples from this area to support mine design and waste-rock characterisation studies, while RC drilling will focus on grade definition in the tonalite and BIF units.
The Central Sandstone project already benefits from existing infrastructure, including a 500,000 tonne-per-annum carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant, permitted tailings storage, camp, bore field and access roads — giving Aurumin a head-start most juniors would envy. The project sits 520 kilometres north-east of Perth, in a region laced with operating gold plants and sealed-road logistics to Geraldton Port.
In early 2025, Aurumin lifted the Plum Pudding resource by 33 per cent to 18,700 ounces following infill drilling, while Brightstar continued its own exploration north of town — confirmation that the district-scale consolidation strategy is already working.
The latest program represents a full-circle moment for Aurumin, which spent much of the past year cleaning up its balance sheet, selling iron-ore and peripheral gold assets and positioning itself purely as a Sandstone play. The company now holds three granted mining licences covering the core deposits and a growing exploration footprint to the north at Birrigrin, where rock-chip samples have returned grades up to 196 g/t gold.
Birrigrin’s early-1900s workings remain largely untested by modern drilling and could become a satellite feed source once the Sandstone hub is operational — a potential longer-term kicker that Brightstar’s PFS will no doubt examine.
With gold still holding close to US$4000 an ounce this week (A$6000oz), the timing couldn’t be better for a company that now finds itself funded, drilling and aligned with a near-term producer in Brightstar.
Aurumin’s lean capital structure — about 510 million shares on issue — gives it leverage to any discovery or resource lift. And with three rigs already turning across the region, the Sandstone consolidation play is quickly shifting from paperwork to drill chips.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
