OzAurum Resources Regains Control of Mulgabbie North Feasibility Study as Metallurgical Work Continues

OzAurum Resources (ASX: OZM) has regained full control of the Mulgabbie North gold project after former partner Line Hydrogen withdrew from a feasibility study agreement.

The company has already begun a new round of metallurgical test work under the guidance of global heap leach specialists Kappes Cassiday & Associates, ensuring the program moves forward on stronger technical foundations.

Management said the early results demonstrate percolation rates far above industry standards, providing confidence that the heap leach pathway is viable for the project.

Feasibility Study Regains Momentum

Now under external administration, Line Hydrogen had completed only limited metallurgical work and had not advanced the study to column leach testing, leaving critical gaps in the feasibility data and creating uncertainty about the project’s pathway.

OzAurum anticipated these shortcomings and proactively established its own metallurgical program, ensuring continuity once the partner formalised its withdrawal.

The company has secured independent oversight of the study through contractor Burnt Shirt, which is managing technical transparency and compliance.

This structure ensures shareholders and regulators can rely on an objective framework for all results generated henceforth.

Early Results Point to Strong Processing Potential

OzAurum conducted initial test work at its inhouse laboratory at Coolgardie, which can complete as many as five percolation tests per day, allowing the company to generate data rapidly and accelerate the feasibility study’s timeline.

Early trials deliberately focused on the highest clay-content paleochannel samples, usually the most difficult material to process through heap leaching.

Across 37 tests, percolation rates averaged 57,200 litres per hour per square metre—more than five times the industry benchmark to assess the suitability of agglomerated ores for heap leach processing.

These results suggest that the orebody, even in its most challenging domains, may be amenable to efficient heap leaching, with less cement and lime may required for successful agglomeration in other zones of the deposit where clay content is lower.

This has direct implications for project economics by lowering reagent costs and improving scalability.

Exploration to Bolster Resource Base

While test work advances, OzAurum is also preparing to restart reverse circulation drilling at the Mulgabbie North Cross Fault in the coming weeks, while samples from the James and Ben prospects will expand the metallurgical dataset and guide optimisation of processing routes.

These programs will also test extensions to known mineralisation, with the goal of building the resource base beyond the current 260,000 ounces across measured, indicated and inferred categories.

Managing director Andrew Pumphrey said the feasibility study now sits on a far stronger footing and is beginning to generate the kind of results that de-risk the project.

“With these strong foundations in place, OzAurum is in an excellent position to deliver a transparent, technically robust, and value-focused pathway to potential gold production,” Mr Pumphrey said.

The company’s broader strategy is to integrate exploration and feasibility work so that Mulgabbie North is both technically de-risked and backed by an expanded resource base by the time the study is complete, putting the project in a competitive position to move into development as gold demand continues to underpin strong prices.