Neometals Drills for High-Grade Gold Below 10g/t Ironclad Intercepts at Barrambie
Key Takeaways
- Neometals has commenced diamond drilling at its 100%-owned Barrambie Project in Western Australia, targeting two separate high-priority zones across the Ironclad gold deposit and the Rinaldi copper prospect.
- The Ironclad programme is chasing a plunging high-grade shoot 150–200m below the current resource, motivated by prior intercepts including 12m @ 5.99 g/t Au and a high-grade sub-interval of 4m @ 10.13 g/t Au from hole 26ICRC004.
- The existing Ironclad Mineral Resource stands at 285,000 tonnes at 1.6 g/t gold for approximately 15,000 ounces, with a March 2026 scoping study outlining potential production of 10,000–11,000 ounces from open-pit development.
- At Rinaldi, RC hole 26RCRC006 is being extended 50m to test the T2 chargeability and resistivity anomaly located 700m northeast of historic copper workings, with assays from the first 78m still pending.
- All drilling is expected to be completed within approximately two weeks, with results feeding into an updated MRE and Final Investment Decision targeted for 2027.
Diamond drilling under way at Barrambie as Neometals chases high-grade gold and copper targets
Neometals (ASX: NMT) has commenced diamond drilling at its 100% owned Barrambie Gold and Copper Project in Western Australia, targeting extensions of the Ironclad gold deposit and the T2 geophysical copper target within the Rinaldi Prospect. The programme comprises two diamond tails (one at each target) and one diamond hole from surface at Ironclad, with all drilling planned for completion within approximately two weeks.
The Barrambie Project sits within the Barrambie Greenstone Belt in Western Australia’s northern Yilgarn Craton.
| Target | Hole(s) | Type | Objective | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ironclad Gold | 26ICRC005 (tail) | Diamond tail | Test mineralised zone stopped by water ingress | ~2 weeks |
| Ironclad Gold | New hole from surface | Diamond | 50m down-plunge from 26ICRC005 | ~2 weeks |
| Rinaldi Copper | 26RCRC006 (extension) | Diamond tail | Test T2 chargeability/resistivity anomaly | ~2 weeks |
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Ironclad gold deposit — drilling targets the high-grade plunge corridor
Chasing the shoot beyond the current resource
The Ironclad deposit currently hosts an Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 285,000 tonnes at 1.6 g/t gold for approximately 15,000 ounces, reported above a 0.5 g/t gold cut-off. A March 2026 scoping study outlined the potential to produce between 10,000 and 11,000 ounces of gold from a planned open-pit development, comprising approximately 85% Indicated and 15% Inferred Mineral Resources.
Two holes are now targeting the interpreted plunging corridor of higher-grade mineralisation below that resource. The first is a diamond tail extending hole 26ICRC005, which stopped short of the target zone due to water ingress. The second is a new hole from surface designed to intercept the mineralised zone 50m down-plunge from 26ICRC005.
Why the prior intercept results demand follow-up
The drilling motivation is clear: hole 26ICRC004 returned 12m @ 5.99 g/t Au from 116m, including 4m @ 10.13 g/t Au from 118m. The new programme is designed to test 50–100m beyond that deepest prior RC hole.
Key prior intercepts from the Ironclad deposit include:
- 26ICRC004: 12m @ 5.99 g/t Au from 116m, including 4m @ 10.13 g/t Au from 118m
- 26ICRC003: 11m @ 5.50 g/t Au from 94m, including 3m @ 15.10 g/t Au from 94m
- 26ICRC001: 3m @ 1.03 g/t Au from 81m and 18m @ 2.14 g/t Au from 89m, including 8m @ 3.29 g/t Au from 89m and 2m @ 4.61 g/t Au from 103m
- 26ICRC002: 15m @ 1.12 g/t Au from 69m, including 2m @ 2.57 g/t Au from 69m and 4m @ 2.34 g/t Au from 80m
Mineralisation is interpreted to be strengthening towards a potential “feeder structure” at depth. The diamond core will also provide structural orientation data to refine the geological model ahead of an updated MRE and Final Investment Decision targeted for 2027.
Rinaldi copper — testing a geophysical anomaly in a proven greenstone setting
RC hole 26RCRC006 will be extended by 50m to complete testing of a strong coincident chargeability and resistivity anomaly (the T2 target) located approximately 700m northeast of the historic Rinaldi copper workings. Assays from 0–78m are currently pending; the 78–124m interval returned no significant intersection.
For geological context, the Rinaldi targets sit within the same stratigraphic host and along strike from Solstice Minerals’ (ASX: SLS) Nanadie Copper Project in the Barrambie Greenstone Belt, which hosts a resource of 40.4Mt at 0.4% Cu and 0.1 g/t Au for 162kt Cu and 130,000 oz Au. Rinaldi is at an early exploration stage, and this comparison reflects the shared geological setting rather than any equivalence in scale or confidence.
Understanding the Barrambie Project’s exploration potential
Diamond drilling offers something RC drilling cannot: continuous core samples that reveal the orientation, dip, and structural character of mineralisation, not just grade. That structural data is what allows geologists to build reliable three-dimensional models of a deposit and predict where mineralisation is heading.
The “feeder structure” concept is why depth matters here. If the high-grade shoot at Ironclad is converging toward the fluid source that created it, the mineralisation could extend meaningfully beyond the current resource footprint. The diamond core from this programme will help test that interpretation directly.
Barrambie’s broader potential adds further context. Historical mines within the Barrambie Greenstone Belt carry a combined average production grade of 24.8 g/t Au. In 2024, Neometals announced an Exploration Target for the broader project ranging from 335,000 to 775,000 ounces across the project area.
Cautionary note: The Exploration Target is conceptual in nature. The Competent Person cautions that insufficient gold exploration has been undertaken to support estimation of a gold Mineral Resource for the Barrambie Project as a whole, and there is no certainty that future exploration will result in the estimation of a Mineral Resource.
Neometals resumed gold and copper exploration in 2025 for the first time in over 20 years. Since then, the company has delivered an updated MRE, a positive scoping study, and executed a 50:50 profit-sharing mining services joint venture with BML Ventures, progressing Ironclad towards commercial gold production subject to conditions precedent including a positive Final Investment Decision.
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Managing Director’s view — two questions, two weeks
Chris Reed, Managing Director, Neometals
“This is a short, targeted drilling programme aimed at answering two important geological questions. At Ironclad, diamond drilling is testing the high-grade gold shoot 150 and 200m down plunge the current resource, where mineralisation appears to be strengthening towards a potential feeder structure. Importantly, the core will also give us much better structural information to refine our geological model as we progress Ironclad towards an updated mineral resource estimate and Final Investment Decision in 2027. At Rinaldi, we are testing the strong T2 geophysical copper target adjacent to known copper-silver mineralisation. With drilling expected to be completed over the next two weeks, we look forward to reporting results and maintaining the development and exploration momentum at Barrambie.”
For investors watching this story, the near-term catalyst is straightforward: drilling operations at both Ironclad and Rinaldi are expected to be completed within approximately two weeks. Strong results at Ironclad — particularly intercepts that confirm the shoot is extending at depth — would support an upgraded resource estimate ahead of the 2027 Final Investment Decision. Positive results at Rinaldi would open a second front of value at Barrambie beyond the gold programme already under way.
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