Barton Gold advances Tunkillia and Tarcoola projects with resource upgrade, major silver find and minimal cash burn

Barton Gold (ASX: BGD) (OTCQB: BGDFF) has reported solid activity at its Tunkillia and Tarcoola gold projects in South Australia for the three months to end March, completed at a low net cash burn of $38,000.

The company’s asset monetisation and grants initiatives have now generated more than $12m (net of costs) additional non-dilutive capital since its initial public offering in June 2021, minimising equity dilution while generating and preserving future value for shareholders.

Managing director Alexander Scanlon said the company had worked hard to keep costs down while advancing resource development at Tunkillia and exploring the recent high-grade Tolmer silver discovery within Tarcoola.

‘Exceptionally strong quarter’

“It has been another exceptionally strong quarter for us with a Tunkillia resource upgrade and optimised scoping study nearing completion, as well as several thousand metres of drilling at Tolmer — all for a net cash burn of only $38,000,” Mr Scanlon said.

“Tolmer is an exciting new development prospect, with two shallow high-grade silver and gold zones emerging in parallel and yielding multiple global ‘Top 10’ silver assays.”

“We are now planning expedited follow up drilling at Tolmer to map out the new high-grade silver zone and accelerating Tunkillia feasibility programs—with $7 million cash, a track record of asset monetisation and a low net cash burn, we are well positioned.“

Updated Tunkillia estimate

Barton released an updated resource estimate for Tunkillia in March, growing the gold content by approximately 120,000 ounces to 1.6Moz and debuting an inferred silver resource of 3.1Moz grading 2.8 grams per tonne as a subset of the gold mineralisation.

The upgrade followed depth extensions in key targets below the main ‘Area 223’ deposit, which the company confirmed with 5,064 metres of reverse circulation drilling in December.

The extensions are located below the higher-grade ‘starter pit’ which is estimated to produce over 180,000oz of gold at a cash cost of less than $1,250/oz from approximately 5 million tonnes of feed.

Optimised scoping study

Barton completed the drilling as part of an optimised scoping study program of works at Tunkillia, initiated after analysis of the original scoping study released in 2024 confirmed the potential for significant processing efficiency gains.

The company commenced a detailed review in November focused on high-priority opportunities relating to comminution circuit design, variable grind sizing, power consumption, mill throughput planning and mine scheduling.

Barton identified significantly reduced work indices and power consumption for all material types indicating material efficiency gains, lower power consumption and lower working capital requirements for the project.

The company has now accelerated the planned completion of the optimised scoping study ahead of its previous 30 June target.

Western silver zone

Barton announced the discovery of a new western silver zone at Tarcoola during the quarter, located approximately 1 kilometre west of the eastern gold zone and hosting high-grade silver largely independent of gold.

Best drilling intersections reported during the quarter were 6m at a bonanza 4,474g/t silver from 46m including 1m at 17,600g/t silver and 4m at 1,417g/t silver from 9m including 1m at 3,790g/t silver.

Planning for an expedited follow-up geochemical and drilling program is now underway, with the aim of quickly mapping and drill testing the potential western, northern and southern extensions of the new zone.

Aircore and reverse circulation drilling also extended the eastern gold zone with best assays of 5m at 3.07g/t gold from 16m and 5m at 4.38g/t gold from 49m including 1m at 13.6g/t gold from 52m.

Exploration costs

Barton focused its exploration expenditure for the period on assay and geochemical analyses of drill results, project studies and expedited drilling to test the newly-discovered western silver zone at Tolmer and extensions of the eastern gold zone.

The company spent a total of $1.65m on these combined activities including exploration personnel costs and paid $166,000 to related parties including directors and their associates.

Barton reported a $3.1 million profit for the six months to end December 2024 during the quarter and received a $2.4m tax refund for research and development activities.