Recharge Metals Awards Drill Contract at Prospero’s Untested Depth
Key Takeaways
- Recharge Metals has awarded the RC drill contract to Impact Drilling for a maiden 30,000m program at Sunset Well, with mobilisation scheduled for October 2026.
- Only three holes have ever been drilled below 100m vertical depth at the Prospero Deposit, leaving a known gold resource with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 2.87Mt @ 1.0 g/t Au for 94,500 oz Au almost entirely untested at depth.
- Phase 1 (5,000–8,000m RC) targets open-pit extensions above -250mRL on a 100 x 50m spacing, with Phase 2 RC and diamond drilling (12,000–15,000m) to follow in Q1 2027 at tighter 50 x 50m spacing.
- Historical near-surface intercepts include 36m @ 2.73 g/t Au and 2.9m @ 6.35 g/t Au, providing a high-grade benchmark for what depth drilling may encounter.
- Recharge holds approximately $5.6 million in cash as at 20 July 2026, providing runway through Phase 1 and into Phase 2, with Sunset Well sitting within 100km of seven operating gold processing plants in WA's Eastern Goldfields.
Drill contract awarded as Recharge Metals prepares to unlock Prospero’s untested depth
Recharge Metals (ASX: REC) has awarded the Reverse Circulation (RC) drill contract for its maiden 30,000m program at the Sunset Well Gold Project near Leonora, Western Australia, to Impact Drilling. Mobilisation is scheduled for October 2026. The program will be the first exploration drilling at the Prospero Deposit since the mid-1990s, nearly 30 years of untested ground sitting beneath an Inferred Mineral Resource of 2.87Mt @ 1.0 g/t Au for 94,500 oz Au.
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Q2 FY27 catalyst: what the 30,000m program looks like
The program is structured across three distinct phases, each targeting a different layer of the geological opportunity at Sunset Well:
- Phase 1 RC (5,000–8,000m): Commences October 2026 at the Prospero Deposit, targeting open-pit extensions above -250mRL on a broadly 100 x 50m spacing. Anticipated to be completed by the end of the calendar year.
- Phase 2 RC + Diamond (12,000–15,000m): Commences Q1 2027 at Prospero, informed by Phase 1 assay results, tightened to a roughly 50 x 50m spacing to define and extend high-grade lodes.
- Aircore (10,000m): Planned along the greater Prospero Trend in late 2026 or early 2027, targeting historical high-tenor RAB anomalies that never reached fresh rock.
The investment case for this program rests on a striking data gap. Only three holes have ever been drilled below 100m vertical depth at Prospero, and the deposit is open in all directions. This is a known gold system with almost no downhole testing.
Luke Timmermans, Chief Executive Officer
“We are pleased to advise that Impact Drilling will commence RC drilling at Sunset Well in October. This is a very exciting program given the mineralisation potential of Prospero…”
Why Prospero’s near-surface grades make this a compelling drill target
RC drilling uses a rotating drill bit to bring rock chips to the surface for sampling, giving geologists a rapid, cost-effective picture of what grades exist through the ground. Diamond drilling goes a step further, extracting a continuous rock core that allows precise structural and geological interpretation. Together, the two methods are the standard toolkit for resource definition and extension at a deposit like Prospero.
The significance of a nearly 30-year drilling gap at a known resource is that the geological model has never been stress-tested at depth with modern methods. If Phase 1 intersects the same high-grade structures at depth that historical drilling found near surface, the resource could grow materially.
Those historical near-surface intercepts are genuinely high-grade for a shallow open-pit setting:
- 36m @ 2.73 g/t Au from 32m (SWR134), including 16m @ 5.39 g/t Au from 36m
- 8m @ 4.02 g/t Au from 28m (SWRC015), including 2m @ 8.3 g/t Au from 28m
- 4m @ 3.62 g/t Au from 32m (SWR008)
- 2.9m @ 6.35 g/t Au from 101.9m (SWD001), including 0.8m @ 21.7 g/t Au from 101.9m
Along the broader Prospero Trend, the average depth of historical RAB drilling was only 47m, and much of that drilling did not reach fresh rock. RAB (Rotary Air Blast) drilling is a fast, cheap technique suited to shallow sampling, but it cannot test the full saprolite profile or the fresh rock beneath. The 10,000m Aircore program is designed specifically to address that limitation by drilling those anomalies to depth with modern methods.
The Ironstone Well acquisition added tenure directly adjacent to the Prospero Trend, expanding the ground package available to the Aircore program and increasing the strike length of anomalies that can now be systematically tested.
The current Prospero Inferred Mineral Resource across the two standard cut-off grades is summarised below:
| Material Type | Tonnes (0.5 g/t cut-off) | Au oz (0.5 g/t) | Tonnes (1.0 g/t cut-off) | Au oz (1.0 g/t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oxide | 1,524,000 | 50,200 | 609,000 | 27,900 |
| Transitional | 767,000 | 25,400 | 287,000 | 13,300 |
| Fresh | 576,000 | 18,900 | 200,000 | 9,000 |
| Total | 2,866,000 | 94,500 | 1,096,000 | 50,100 |
Source: REC ASX Announcement, 20 February 2026. Inferred Mineral Resource estimate compiled in accordance with the JORC Code (2012).
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Funded and focused: what comes next for REC investors
Recharge holds approximately $5.6 million in cash as at its quarterly report dated 20 July 2026, providing the company with runway to sustain news flow through Phase 1 and into Phase 2 drilling.
The near-term pipeline of activity across Recharge’s projects is as follows:
Sunset Well Gold Project, Leonora, WA:
- Commence the inaugural 30,000m drill program in October at the Prospero Deposit and along the greater Prospero Trend
- Phase 2 RC and diamond drilling to follow in Q1 2027, informed by Phase 1 assay results
Brandy Hill South Cu-W-Mo Project, Gullewa, WA:
- Complete the high-resolution drone magnetic survey
- Complete pulp re-assaying for tungsten
- Investigate a ground gravity survey and a preliminary metallurgical test work programme
- Plan drilling activities
For investors focused on jurisdictional risk and infrastructure access, Sunset Well sits within 100km of seven operating gold processing plants in WA’s Eastern Goldfields, one of the most established gold mining regions in Australia. The combination of proximity to processing capacity, a known high-grade resource, and nearly three decades of untested depth at Prospero gives the upcoming drill program a clear set of catalysts to watch through the end of 2026 and into 2027.
For investors wanting the full background on how this program was scoped and the heritage survey work that preceded mobilisation, our dedicated guide to the Prospero heritage survey and programme launch covers the regulatory steps and timeline context leading into the October start.
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