ASX-listed Reach Resources has wrapped up a chunky infill and extensional drilling campaign at its Murchison South gold project near Payne’s Find in Western Australia.
The company said it has completed 48 reverse circulation (RC) holes for 5,281 metres across a suite of priority pit-scale targets, with the work aimed squarely at upgrading portions of its existing inferred resources into the indicated category. Assays are due in February, alongside results from associated metallurgical drilling.
The drilling campaign, which kicked off in mid-November, focused on areas within and immediately adjacent to four conceptual pit shells at Murchison South. The program was designed to close gaps in the current geological model, lift confidence in near-surface ounces and sharpen the inputs feeding into ongoing mine studies.
In parallel with the RC drilling, Reach has completed a broad rock-chip sampling program across multiple prospects, including Blue Heaven, Jacamar, Pansy, Shamrock, and East Daffodil. The sampling program, which collected up to 500 rock chip samples, stretched for up to one kilometre along strike from Blue Heaven and targeted mapped quartz veins, old workings and other structural features flagged by earlier geological and geophysical work.
Reach Resources chief executive officer Jeremy Bower said: “This drilling program was essential to increase resource confidence and close gaps in or near our conceptual pit shells. We have a busy start to the new year planned, with results from our metallurgical drilling and this RC and rock chip program, all likely to be available during February. We are excited about receiving these results as they will be the catalyst for definitive action at Murchison South in 2026 and provide crucial information defining next steps”.
The December drilling update follows a steady drumbeat of progress at Murchison South over recent months. Earlier this month, Reach secured a new mining lease over its Jacamar deposit, plugging another piece into the broader tenement puzzle at the project. The Jacamar lease sits neatly along strike from the company’s Blue Heaven deposit and immediately north of its Pansy Pit, effectively stitching together a continuous corridor of granted mining tenure beside the Great Northern Highway.
Blue Heaven and Pansy already carry a combined mineral resource of about 67,100 ounces of gold, defined across two shallow, near-surface deposits. Blue Heaven accounts for the lion’s share, with mineralisation beginning at surface and remaining open along strike and at depth, while Pansy’s resource is based on historical drilling to only 60 metres depth, leaving plenty of room for further work.
Notably, for any future development scenario, metallurgical test work completed earlier this year returned average gold recoveries of about 97 per cent, pointing to ore that appears amenable to conventional processing routes. Those results have since been rolled into a preliminary mine plan and pit optimisation work, which is going towards a scoping study.
The study has already triggered a series of long-lead technical and permitting work streams. Environmental and heritage surveys across the Murchison South tenure are now wrapped up with no material red flags. Meanwhile, hydrology, hydrogeology, and engineering design works have continued quietly in the background.
Geologically, South Murchison resembles other deposits in the region. Much of the mineralisation is associated with quartz veining developed along the Primrose Fault, a prominent structural feature that could offer resource expansion potential. Several targets along the fault sit under shallow cover or historic infrastructure - zones that were either poorly drilled or missed entirely by earlier operators.
With drilling now finished and samples in the lab, attention turns to February, when Reach expects to report a cluster of results covering RC drilling, rock chip assays and metallurgical work. Those datasets will feed directly into decisions around the scale and shape of any future development scenario at site.
For now, the priority work has been done in the paddock. The drill rigs have moved off-site, the gaps in the pit shells have been reduced and the geological picture should soon become clearer. If the incoming data does what it is supposed to do, Reach may find that the confidence gained from this program proves just as valuable as the metres drilled.
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