Auravelle Metals Completes 34-Hole Drill Program Near 1.6Moz Gold Deposit

Aircore drilling complete at Nuckulla Hill as assays and expanded RC program loom

Auravelle Metals (ASX: AUV) has completed its discovery-focused aircore drilling program at the Nuckulla Hill Gold Project in South Australia. Assay results are expected mid-to-late October, and an expanded RC drilling program is scheduled to commence in October — two near-term catalysts that make this an active period to watch for investors.

Nuckulla Hill sits along the Yarlbrinda Shear Zone, a structurally significant geological corridor that hosts Barton Gold’s (ASX: BGD) adjacent 1.6 million ounce Tunkillia Gold Project. That proximity is the geological foundation for Auravelle’s exploration thesis here.

Q1 FY27 drilling program — what was tested and what was found

Three targets drilled across the Yarlbrinda Shear Zone

The completed program comprised 34 aircore holes across three priority prospects within Nuckulla Hill:

• Sheoak North: 12 holes
• Myall: 9 holes
• Sauna: 13 holes

Four-metre composite samples were collected for gold assay throughout each hole, with bottom-of-hole samples also submitted for multi-element analysis. Results are expected mid-to-late October.

The headline geological observation from logging is that alteration assemblages at Sauna, Myall, and Sheoak North are similar to those observed at the known Sheoak mineralisation. That consistency across all three new prospects is the key early encouraging signal — though assays are required before any conclusions can be drawn about mineralisation.

MD quote

Andrew Muir, Managing Director

“Completion of this aircore program marks another important step in systematically testing the broader Nuckulla Hill Project beyond the known Sheoak mineralisation. While we await assay results, early geological observations are encouraging and support the prospectivity of these targets. With the expanded RC program due to commence shortly, we’re looking forward to following up Sheoak while continuing to test additional priority targets across the project.”

Why the Yarlbrinda Shear Zone matters to gold investors

A shear zone is a linear belt of rock that has been intensely deformed by tectonic forces. The heat, fluid movement, and chemical change that accompany this deformation create conditions where gold-bearing fluids can be concentrated and deposited. Shear zones are one of the most productive geological settings for gold discoveries globally, particularly in ancient cratons like South Australia’s Gawler Craton.

The Yarlbrinda Shear Zone is the structural corridor running through Nuckulla Hill, and it is the same feature that hosts Barton Gold’s 1.6Moz Tunkillia deposit on ground directly adjacent to Auravelle’s tenements. For an explorer, working on the same structure as a known multi-million-ounce deposit is a meaningful geological endorsement of the search area.

Auravelle’s work at Nuckulla Hill sits within a broader discovery context: earlier fieldwork identified a gold-silver corridor in the Gawler Craton spanning multiple structural targets across the company’s South Australian tenement package.

Aircore drilling is the discovery tool Auravelle used to test this ground. It is a cost-effective, fast-moving first-pass technique that drills relatively shallow holes across wide areas to collect rock chips and identify geochemical anomalies. Where aircore results show gold or associated elements of interest, the company follows up with RC (reverse circulation) or diamond drilling — deeper, higher-resolution methods that can properly characterise mineralisation. That is precisely the sequence Auravelle is now executing at Nuckulla Hill.

What’s next — expanded RC program and a pipeline of pending results

The upcoming RC drilling program at Nuckulla Hill has been expanded beyond its original scope. The program will focus on infill and extensional targets at Sheoak, Sheoak East, and Bimba, with the rig expected on site in October. The decision to expand this program ahead of receiving aircore assay results reflects management’s confidence in the targets identified to date.

The decision to expand the RC program ahead of aircore assay results follows Auravelle’s earlier work targeting high-grade gold expansion at Nuckulla Hill, which established the Sheoak mineralisation as the project’s most advanced prospect and the anchor for subsequent drilling.

Auravelle’s near-term newsflow pipeline across its portfolio includes:

1. Nuckulla Hill — regional aircore assay results (mid-to-late October)
2. Crown Project (WA) — soil sampling results (expected in the coming weeks)
3. Skye — first-pass soil sampling results to define drill targets (expected in the coming weeks)
4. Nuckulla Hill — RC drilling at Sheoak, Sheoak East, and Bimba (commencing October)

Auravelle is focused on two core project areas: the Gawler Craton in South Australia (Nuckulla Hill) and the Crown Project near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Several near-term catalysts from both regions are expected to converge in Q4 CY2026, making this an active newsflow period for the company.

Figure 1 (Nuckulla Hill Project showing gold-in-soils with structural targets) and Figure 2 (South Australian regional context map, noting proximity to Tunkillia 1.6Moz Au and Prominent Hill) are referenced in the original ASX announcement dated 25 September 2026. Embed these images from the CMS where available.

Don’t Miss the Next ASX Gold Discovery

Get FREE breaking ASX gold news delivered to your inbox within minutes of release, complete with in-depth analysis. Join 30,000+ investors already staying ahead of the market with Big News Blast. Click the “Free Alerts” button to receive real-time alerts the moment market-moving gold news breaks.