Monday 15 June 2026
The Bullabulling Gold Project in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields already ranks among the country's larger undeveloped gold deposits. At 130 million tonnes grading 1.0 g/t gold for 4.5 million ounces (December 2025 JORC resource), the project has the scale that attracts serious capital. The latest drilling results from Minerals 260 Limited (ASX: MI6) suggest the numbers are heading higher and may reflect a better grade profile than the current model predicts.
The result in context
The June 2026 announcement covers 22 holes for 5,425 metres across the Bacchus and Phoenix deposits, both of which sit within the existing resource envelope. Two themes emerge from the results.
At Bacchus, infill and extensional drilling returned grades consistently above the current resource model. The headline intercepts tell the story clearly:
BBRC0468: 7m @ 7.2 g/t Au from 86m.
BBRC0480: 11m @ 3.3 g/t Au from 185m.
BBRC0475: 28m @ 1.7 g/t Au from 159m, with internal high-grade zones reaching 22.6 g/t and 17.6 g/t.
One extensional hole, BBRC0511, returned 6m @ 2.9 g/t Au from 276 metres outside the current MRE pit shell. A diamond tail is planned to test for deeper mineralisation. The system is open at depth and along strike.
At Phoenix, six infill holes produced results in line with or better than the model: 7m @ 4.7 g/t Au from 199m, 5m @ 3.8 g/t Au from 125m, 20m @ 1.1 g/t from 212m, and 14m @ 1.4 g/t from 220m. Phoenix continues to deliver continuity across the 8.5-kilometre strike extent of the broader resource.
The geology
Bullabulling sits in the Coolgardie domain of the Eastern Goldfields Superterrane, a region with a long production history and well-understood structural controls on gold mineralisation. The deposit comprises multiple mineralised lodes hosted within a broadly north-south trending corridor, with gold associated with quartz veining in sheared and altered mafic and ultramafic sequences.
The Bacchus results are notable for revealing a potentially more extensive higher-grade footwall zone than previously interpreted. This is the kind of geological refinement that can shift a resource profile meaningfully: not just adding tonnes at the margins, but improving the grade distribution within the core of the deposit, which has direct implications for mine design and processing economics.
Project trajectory
Minerals 260 acquired 100% of the Bullabulling Gold Project from Norton Gold Fields (a Zijin Mining subsidiary) and has since drilled 615 holes for 132,991 metres with up to seven rigs operating concurrently. The campaign is one of the largest active drilling programmes in the Australian gold sector by metre count.
A maiden ore reserve and updated mineral resource estimate are due mid-2026, followed by a pre-feasibility study on the same timeline. A definitive feasibility study is targeted for early 2027. The project benefits from a $220 million funding package with Franco-Nevada, existing infrastructure, and granted mining leases, positioning it for a relatively fast path from feasibility to development compared to greenfields projects.
What this means for the sector
Bullabulling illustrates a pattern visible across the Australian gold sector in 2026: existing resources being expanded and upgraded through aggressive infill campaigns rather than new discoveries driving growth. ABS data for the March 2026 quarter shows gold exploration expenditure at $450.9 million, accounting for nearly half of total mineral exploration spend. The capital is chasing ounces, and projects that can demonstrate resource growth through drilling are attracting development funding.
For the exploration workforce, a seven-rig programme covering 8.5 kilometres of strike demands a sustained field team of experienced geologists and technicians capable of maintaining logging, sampling, and QA/QC discipline across a high-throughput operation. The difference between a resource update that lifts grade and one that merely adds tonnage often comes down to the quality of the geological interpretation being fed back into the drilling programme in real time.
At Norwest Exploration and Mining Services, we deploy experienced geologists and field technicians into active programmes across Australia, from single-rig campaigns to operations running multiple rigs simultaneously. The quality of the people on the ground shapes the quality of the data, and the data shapes the resource.
A 4.5-million-ounce resource gets you attention. A resource that keeps growing in every direction gets you funded.