Premier1 locks up hot property in WA gold land grab
Brought to you by BULLS AND BEARS
Andrew Todd
Plucky, ASX-listed junior gold Premier1 has locked in full ownership of one of the last remaining gold packets of the Yalgoo greenstone belt in Western Australia; This is not currently in the hands of a multi-billion dollar gold producer.
The company says regional managers have taken full control of 266 square kilometers of prime real estate at Yalgoo at a time when relentless WA gold consolidation continues and gold has jumped to a fearsome price of US$5500 (A$7800) an ounce.
The deal completes the final piece of Premier1’s evolving WA gold narrative and positions the company as the remaining independent player in the greenbelt tug-of-war between $9.7bn Ramelius Resources and $7.3bn Capricorn Metals.
The company and its high-grade Wadgingarra gold prospect are now well positioned, with an initial resource of 13,000 ounces grading 2.7 grams per tonne (g/t) gold at the upper end of the Yalgoo-Singleton greenstone belt.
‘These transactions simplify the ownership structure and give the Company full control.’
Premier1 managing director Simon Phillips
Ramelius retains most of the north wing after acquiring Spartan Resources for $2.4 billion in mid-2025; Capricorn, meanwhile, has expanded steadily southwards, thanks to the $188 million purchase of the Warriedar-Golden Range and the acquisition of Tempest’s lands in December last year.
Premier1 says its tenure is right in the middle of these two players, sharing the same shears and geological scars that make the underexplored region so valuable to all its neighbours.
Newly appointed Premier1 managing director Simon Phillips said: “The consolidation of 100% ownership of Yalgoo represents a significant strategic milestone for Premier1. These transactions simplify the ownership structure and provide the Company with full control over exploration, development and capital allocation decisions across a high-potential gold portfolio..”
Yalgoo is an area long known for its high-grade orogenic gold and copper potential. The project builds on the world-class Golden Grove base metals operation, which has been operating successfully for more than half a century, and more recent discoveries at Capricorn Metals’ Golden Range gold-antimony project to the south.
Premier1’s Yalgoo project is located just 10 kilometers south-east of Ramelius’ Melville and Applecross mines, which host resources of approximately 5.2 million tonnes at 1.4 g/t for 244,000 oz. This ground was the focus of much of Spartan Resources’ exploration and prospecting before the multi-million ounce discovery of Never Never at the Dalgaranga project stole the show in the Northeast. Needless to say, there is a lot of unfinished business in the northern reaches of Yalgoo-Singleton.
Premier1’s flagship Wadgingarra project at Yalgoo builds on the project where the 13,000oz maiden resource is contained within the conservative Whittle optimized pit shell prepared last year.
High-grade gold starts at the surface on the course and remains exposed both throughout the strike and at depth. The company says limited exploration has been done to identify its high-grade resource, with historic shallow drilling at an average depth of just 46 meters being conducted on the project, focusing only on oxide zones near older facilities.
Premier1’s initial reverse circulation program in early 2025 marked the first significant modern drilling at the field since the 1980s. This is a surprising amount of time considering high-grade near-surface catches of up to 5 meters at 5.1 g/t gold, 10 meters at 6.4 g/t gold and 2 meters at 20.8 g/t gold.
Last year’s new rod rotation not only confirmed the presence of gold, but also produced some of the strongest catches ever recorded on the project.
A hole in the Crescent zone to the north returned a staggering 3m strike at 31.5g/t gold from just 97m, including 1m at 91.9g/t gold, confirming good grade potential along the trend from historic high grade areas.
Drilling at the company’s southern Carlisle mine expanded the mineralization to the east with a hit level of 10 meters and obtained 3.1 g/t gold from 19 meters, 7 meters of which yielded 4.3 g/t gold.
A new area west of Olive Queen also intersected mineralization for the first time; There was 1m of 1.5g/t gold and pathfinder support within the larger anomalous intervals.
The results were a fantastic first step, building directly on Premier1’s systematic work. The structures identified from high-resolution magnetics and boulder sampling were filled with high-grade gold.
The company says it is keen to return to the field and repeatedly test litho-structural targets, including the rapidly developing Mt Kersey prospect in the East.
The work at Kersey Mountain revealed a ground anomaly that led miles across, coinciding with double-digit gold grades from rock fragments that the company said were a complex structural environment associated with quartz-dolerite and gabbro rocks similar to regional gold systems.
Premier1 has approximately 25km of proven slip at Wadgingarra; here drift trends are under cover many kilometers to the south, providing regional air core and magnetic field to track previously overlooked region-scale extensions.
But the company is far from a one-trick pony. Its second major project – Abbotts North – is located up the road from perhaps one of WA’s most active gold districts along the Meekathara-Murchison greenstone belt.
The project is the second major pillar of the company’s portfolio and is located in the Abbotts greenstones, just 35km north of Meekatharra.
It is also just 20 kilometers away from the Crown Prince deposit of ASX favorite New Murchison Gold; This deposit took the company’s market capitalization to AU$800 million after making the high-grade discovery just 2 years ago.
Rochefort, Abbotts North’s flagship prospect, lies along the strike from New Murchison and has emerged as a priority walk target thanks to a 350 meter by 350 meter gold anomaly over dolerite bedrock.
Legacy permits are progressing for a planned regional airbase drilling program and ultrafine soil sampling campaign later in the year; Both are backed by an existing $180,000 EIS government grant and a $180,000 drilling loan with Strike Drilling, all waiting in Premier1’s back pocket.
With veteran goldman Simon Phillips taking the reins, the company’s foundation is now matched by renewed corporate thrust. With a career spanning exploration to development, his promotion comes with a $650,000 raise to continue his exploration momentum through 2026.
Joining the revived company is Mr. Dale Hanna. A chartered accountant with over 20 years of experience working with ASX-listed resource companies, his background covers the full spectrum of mining operations from early stage exploration to production.
With Hanna and Phillips joining the board, previous chief executive Jason Froud, who helped Premier1 make the strategic transition from lithium to gold, will remain in his role and move into a non-executive director role.
Boasting shallow, high-grade gold at Wadgingarra, attainable targets at Mount Kersey and a wealth of processing options in the region, the company’s Yalgoo gold push appears to be just the beginning.
As major companies build empires north and south of both of the company’s projects, Premier1 and its expanding resources may soon add even more luster to the region’s reputation.
But for now, the gold mine, limited to just $6.5 million, is looking at a new phase of drilling in 2026 and hopes it can turn that potential into reality.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
