Fully funded Geopacific looks to swift development of PNG’s next major gold mine

Geopacific looks to swift development of PNG’s next major gold mine, backed by completed $40m entitlement offer to grow and unlock Woodlark’s potential.

Pic: Getty Images

• As gold nudges US$3000/oz, Geopacific Resources is ramping up development activities at its 1.67Moz Woodlark Project

• The emerging miner is fully funded for a 30,000m drill program that will feed into definitive feasibility study this year

• Advanced drill-planning is underway to extend known gold mineralisation and test new targets

Special Report: With gold widely tipped to breach US$3000/oz by year’s end, Geopacific Resources is ramping up development activities at its 1.67Moz Woodlark Project following the successful completion of a $40 million entitlement offer.

Key contracts have been awarded, with earthmoving equipment and fuel supplies locked in for shipping to Woodlark this month. Initial testing of high priority targets via augering and trenching is also scheduled to start during March, ahead of the start of drilling in May.

High-priority exploration prospects include satellite deposits Little Mackenzie, Wayai Creek and Boscalo North/Great Northern, and Geopacific Resources (ASX:GPR) has been advancing these with recent fieldwork.

The team is confident those areas show considerable scope to host additional economic gold mineralisation for future resource growth to bolster the existing project.

Geopacific CEO James Fox said there is significant underlying value and upside at Woodlark.

“With funding for an extensive exploration and project development work program now in place, the team is working hard to deliver on a series of key objectives, including commencing a 30,000-metre drill program and the completion of a project DFS by the end of the calendar year,” he said.

“We are keen to assess the impact of the materially higher gold price and ensure the engineering design appropriately considers throughput flexibility to maximise Project returns.”

Approximately 5km of trenching will be excavated to better define the surface expression of mineralisation before drill-testing and will start as soon as the earthmoving gear arrives on-site. Results from this trenching program are expected from May 2025.

Any new resources and technical improvements revealed by the program will be fed into an updated definitive feasibility study set for release later this calendar year.

GPR will also restart front-end engineering and design and documentation for the PNG project.

The pro-rata renounceable entitlement offer was strongly supported by existing shareholders, with subscriptions of $20,344,256, and the underwriters tipping in $19,643,602.

Fox thanked shareholders for their participation in the successful entitlement offer, which provided full funding for the milestone drill program.

“The company is well positioned to unlock the significant underlying value and upside potential of the 1.67 Moz Woodlark Gold Project, where a recent Study confirmed that the project is forecast to generate strong returns for its stakeholders over a long-life operation.”

Fox said a series of important project objectives would be delivered over the next 18 months, including an updated DFS by the end of CY2025 and the restart of front-end engineering and design work.

“Drill planning is underway with earthmoving gear due to mobilise to site later this quarter for road upgrades and trenching, in advance of drilling in May,” he said.

“Numerous high-priority exploration targets with substantial resource growth potential have been identified.

“Approximately 5km of trenching and 30 km of drilling are planned over the next 18 months to test for extensions to known, high-grade, near-surface mineralisation, generating strong news-flow and share price catalysts along the way.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the Woodlark community, PNG Government, and our stakeholders.”

Strong growth potential

With a pre-tax NPV of A$625 million utilising a gold price in the financial model of A$2,900. and a low-strip mining operation, the Woodlark Project is de-risked, with infrastructure and key licences already in place to support its near-term development.

GPR believes there is also significant resource growth upside based on its own drilling and reviews of previous exploration, particularly at two satellite deposits Great Northern and Wayai Creek, along with the Little MacKenzie target.

The mineralisation at Woodlark is commonly associated with large-scale porphyry copper-gold deposits, a geology style that hosts some of the world’s largest gold reservoirs.

Existing substantial shareholder Deutsche Balaton Aktiengesellschaft (Deutsche Balaton) and Patronus Resources (ASX:PTN) partially sub-underwrote the entitlement offer up to a total value of approximately $35m.

Gold and uranium explorer Patronus took a 15.7% shareholding as a sub-underwriter. Another WA-based explorer, Voltaic Strategic Resources (ASX:VSR) , acquired an approximately 4.2% shareholding.

This article was developed in collaboration with Geopacific Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.