- 01HTM secures up to $177k WA grant for Mt Fisher drilling.
- 02Grant funds 2027 campaign after drilling this year.
- 03Tests 30km gold corridor beyond historic resource.
High-Tech Metals (ASX: HTM) has been awarded up to $177,000 in co-funding under Round 34 of the Western Australian government’s exploration incentive scheme (EIS) to support drilling at the Mt Fisher gold project near Kalgoorlie.
The grant, which represents 50% of eligible direct drilling costs including up to $5,000 towards mobilisation and demobilisation activities, will be incorporated into the company’s 2027 exploration campaign following an aggressive round of drilling to be carried out before the end of this year.
The EIS-supported campaign will test High-Tech’s geological interpretation of the Mt Fisher greenstone belt—including the relationship between prospective rock units and interpreted structures that may control gold mineralisation—and assess the potential for previously unrecognised mineralisation beyond the areas of established resources.
It will complement the company’s existing exploration and resource growth strategy, which seeks to progressively evaluate extensive gold-bearing structures identified throughout the belt and rapidly advance near-term production opportunities on existing mining leases to establish early cash flow.
High-Tech is now progressing detailed planning for the campaign, including finalisation of drillhole locations, relevant approvals and logistical arrangements.
Premier Gold Location
The Mt Fisher project is part of High-Tech’s 1,150-square-kilometre Mt Fisher-Mt Eureka landholding in the heart of the prolific Yilgarn Craton, considered one of the world’s premier gold provinces.
The region hosts multiple multi-million-ounce operations and has established infrastructure and processing capacity to support new exploration and development.
High-Tech’s project hosts the historical Mt Fisher mine, which produced approximately 30,000 ounces of gold between 1987 and 1989 and forms part of an extensive mineralised corridor.
Recent geological and structural interpretation has identified a prospective mineralised horizon extending for more than 30km—considerably beyond the approximately 600-metre strike length over which the Mt Fisher mineral resource was historically defined.
Strong Project Endorsement
Executive director Cristian Moreno said the EIS funding was a strong endorsement of what High-Tech believes is one of the “most exciting and underexplored” belts in the northern goldfields region.
“Exploration here has historically been confined to a handful of small areas, and much of our landholding has never been tested with modern systematic exploration, so we think the potential for new discoveries is significant and this program is designed to start unlocking it,” he said.
“We are doing this from a position of real strength—we already have more than 200,000oz of gold defined, around $9 million in the bank and a clear pathway towards production.”
“Our mining agreement with SSH Group (ASX: SSH) and our memorandum of understanding with Wiluna Mining provide the framework to turn those ounces into cash flow.”
“Very few companies of our size have this combination: a $27m market cap, district-scale ground, a growing resource base, a funded balance sheet and commercial agreements already in place—we’re looking forward to an active period of drilling as we work to demonstrate the full scale of this opportunity.”
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