Helix Resources Locks in 30 Nullagine Gold Tenements for Just $250K
Key Takeaways
- Helix Resources has acquired 100% of 30 exploration tenements in the Mosquito Creek Basin for AUD $50,000 cash and AUD $200,000 in shares at $0.035 per share, subject to shareholder approval.
- The Mosquito Creek Basin carries a total endowment of approximately 2.4–2.5 Moz, yet roughly 97% of all historical drilling has been concentrated on just two structural corridors — Middle Creek and Blue Spec — leaving parallel zones almost entirely untested.
- Helix's tenements sit immediately adjacent to AIM Mining's 1.8 Mtpa Golden Eagle processing plant, creating toll-treatment and farm-in optionality without requiring Helix to fund new processing infrastructure.
- The basin's geological succession is correlative with the Mallina Basin that hosts De Grey Mining's multi-million ounce Hemi deposit, providing a credible geological basis for basin-scale discovery potential.
- CuFe Ltd retains a 1% net smelter royalty on all minerals extracted, and the scrip component requires shareholder approval before the transaction is fully completed.
Helix locks in 100% interest in 30-tenement Nullagine gold package
Helix Resources (ASX: HLX) has entered into a binding agreement to acquire a 100% interest in a package of 30 exploration and prospecting tenements (P46/2158–2190) in the Mosquito Creek Basin, East Pilbara from CuFe Ltd. The transaction adds a fourth project pillar to Helix’s existing portfolio alongside its West Pilbara (Weerianna), Arizona, and Cobar copper-gold assets.
Commercial terms are straightforward. Helix pays CuFe AUD $50,000 in cash plus AUD $200,000 in Helix shares issued at $0.035 per share, subject to shareholder approval. CuFe retains a 1% net smelter royalty on all minerals extracted from the tenements.
Key transaction details at a glance:
- Total tenements: 30 (P46 series, P46/2158–2190)
- Vendor: CuFe Ltd
- Cash consideration: AUD $50,000
- Scrip consideration: AUD $200,000 at $0.035/share (subject to shareholder approval)
- Royalty: 1% net smelter royalty on all minerals extracted
When big ASX news breaks, our subscribers know first
Why the Mosquito Creek Basin matters
A 2.4–2.5 Moz endowed basin that’s barely been tested
The Mosquito Creek Basin carries a total endowment (past production plus current resources) of approximately 2.4–2.5 Moz, sourced from the WA Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration (DMPE) MINDEX Database. To put that in context, the announcement draws a direct comparison to the Mallina Basin before De Grey Mining defined the multi-million ounce Hemi deposit in 2019 — a discovery that reshaped how the market values Pilbara gold ground.
The critical gap is where the exploration opportunity sits. Roughly 97% of all historical drilling in the Mosquito Creek Basin has been concentrated on just two structural corridors: Middle Creek and Blue Spec. Helix’s tenements provide exposure to the largely untested parallel corridors that run alongside these historically drilled zones, where almost no systematic work has been done.
Geological setting investors should understand
The Mosquito Creek Basin is an Archaean metasedimentary belt, technically described as the Mosquito Creek Formation, deposited approximately 3,000–2,905 million years ago along the margins of the East Pilbara granite-greenstone terrane. It forms part of the De Grey Group within the broader De Grey Supergroup. In simple terms, this is ancient deep-water sedimentary rock that has been compressed, faulted, and mineralised over geological time, and it hosts gold in a fundamentally different way to the older volcanic-hosted gold camps found elsewhere in the Pilbara.
Two distinct mineralisation styles operate in the basin, and both matter:
- Middle Creek Fault Zone: Moderate-grade, gold-only lodes (around 2 g/t Au) hosted in ferruginous quartz veins. The Golden Eagle deposit is the key example.
- Blue Spec Fault Zone: Very high-grade epizonal veins with a gold-antimony (Au-Sb) signature, locally exceeding 20 g/t Au and 1.6% Sb, developed along later cross-cutting structures.
The presence of two separate mineralisation events in a single basin means this is a more complex, multi-event system than a single endowment figure implies. The geological basis for the Hemi analogy is also straightforward: the Mosquito Creek Basin and the Mallina Basin (Hemi’s host) are correlative successions, both filled by De Grey Group sediments during the same regional basin-forming event. The deposit styles currently defined differ, but the age, depositional environment, and turbidite-hosted gold potential are comparable at basin scale.
Infrastructure access and consolidation story
Sitting next door to the Golden Eagle plant
Helix’s tenements sit immediately adjacent to AIM Mining’s Nullagine Gold Project, which hosts the 1.8 Mtpa Golden Eagle processing plant as well as an accommodation village, power station, water supply, and tailings facilities. The tenements also sit near the high-grade Blue Spec gold deposit.
This adjacency creates meaningful strategic optionality. Potential toll-treatment, farm-in, or broader consolidation pathways exist without Helix needing to fund new processing infrastructure. For an early-stage explorer entering a basin at low cost, having a fully built processing plant next door is a material advantage that would otherwise require years and tens of millions of dollars to replicate.
How the basin consolidated — a brief history
The Mosquito Creek Basin has passed through at least four separate major operators over roughly a decade before reaching its current consolidated state under AIM Mining. The timeline below captures the key milestones:
| Date | Event | Companies Involved | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012–2019 | Golden Eagle plant built and operated; Millennium Minerals produces approximately 543,000 oz Au from Nullagine Mining Centre | Millennium Minerals | Core processing infrastructure established in basin |
| 4 August 2020 | Novo Resources acquires 100% of Millennium Minerals, including Golden Eagle plant, Nullagine tenements, and Middle Creek/Blue Spec ground | Novo Resources, Millennium Minerals | First major consolidation step |
| 20 December 2023 | Calidus Resources acquires the entire Nullagine Gold Project from Novo, combining it with Calidus’s existing Warrawoona and Blue Spec holdings | Calidus Resources, Novo Resources | Basin reaches its most consolidated point to date |
| 28 June 2024 | Calidus Resources Group placed into voluntary administration and receivership | Calidus Resources | Insolvency event threatens re-fragmentation of assets |
| 30 July 2024 | Creasy Group-affiliated West Coast Lending acquires Macquarie Bank’s secured debt position | Creasy Group, Macquarie Bank | Effective change of control begins |
| 9 October 2024 / 2025 | Deeds of Company Arrangement executed; Calidus entities transferred to Creasy Group nominee via Supreme Court order; company delisted and renamed AIM Mining Corporation Limited | Creasy Group, Calidus Resources / AIM Mining | Consolidation completed via insolvency process; re-fragmentation prevented |
The insolvency process, while disruptive to Calidus shareholders, actually served to keep the asset package intact. Rather than the tenements being carved up and sold piecemeal, the Creasy Group’s debt acquisition and subsequent court-ordered transfer kept the basin consolidated. Helix is now positioning within that consolidated structure with consideration of $50,000 cash and $200,000 in shares.
The next major ASX story will hit our subscribers first
What this means for Helix’s investment case
The Nullagine acquisition rounds out a four-pillar portfolio for Helix: West Pilbara (Weerianna), Arizona, Cobar, and now East Pilbara (Nullagine). Each asset sits in a different geological and jurisdictional setting, but the Nullagine package arguably offers the most immediate scale potential given the basin’s established endowment.
The Arizona gold basin joint venture represents Helix’s third active growth pillar, adding North American gold exposure to a portfolio that now spans four distinct geological and jurisdictional settings with the Nullagine acquisition.
The entry cost deserves emphasis. A consideration of $50,000 cash and $200,000 in shares for 30 tenements across a basin carrying an approximately 2.4–2.5 Moz endowment is a low-cost foothold by any measure. The staged, risk-managed exploration path is also clear: with roughly 97% of the basin’s historical drilling concentrated on just two corridors, target generation on the parallel structural zones does not require greenfields imagination, it requires systematic work on ground that simply hasn’t been tested.
East Pilbara, Western Australia, is a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction with established infrastructure, a skilled workforce, and a regulatory framework that supports exploration advancement. That jurisdictional quality underpins the risk-adjusted case for the acquisition.
Key reasons this acquisition fits Helix’s strategy:
- Low-cost entry ($50,000 cash and $200,000 in scrip) into an endowed, underexplored gold basin
- Adjacency to existing processing infrastructure (no capital expenditure required to build a plant)
- Exploration upside on ground where approximately 97% of historical drilling has been concentrated on just two structural corridors, leaving parallel zones largely untested
- Hemi-style geological analogy supporting basin-scale discovery potential
- Complements Helix’s existing multi-commodity, multi-jurisdiction portfolio with a fourth, geologically compelling growth option
Note: The announcement does not include a direct quote from Executive Chairman Mike Povey. This section has been flagged for the editor to insert a management quote if one becomes available.
Don’t Miss the Next ASX Gold Discovery
Breaking ASX gold news lands in your inbox within minutes of release, complete with in-depth analysis already done. Join 30,000+ subscribers who never miss a market-moving moment. Click the “Free Alerts” button at Discovery Alert to get FREE real-time coverage of the ASX gold sector the moment announcements hit.