- 01BPM gains approvals for 10k RC at Bonnie & Clyde; drilling in 5-10 days.
- 02Targets: 6km soil anomaly; up to 65 RC holes across 13 traverses.
- 03Beachcomber continues.
BPM Minerals (ASX: BPM) has secured the final key approval needed to start its maiden 10,000-metre reverse circulation drilling program at the Bonnie & Clyde prospect within the Forelands gold project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields.
The program is expected to begin within five to 10 days after site preparations and will test a gold-in-soil anomaly of more than 6km that has not previously been drilled.
Ministerial consent to explore the Coonana Reserve has now been issued, while a Program of Work approval allows for up to 70 RC holes, with BPM planning about 65 holes across 13 traverses.
The drilling will target several coherent gold anomalies refined through about 1,500 recent soil samples and detailed airborne magnetic surveying, with BPM viewing the target area as having potential to host a substantial Tropicana-style gold system.
BPM collected the soil samples on a 50m by 50m grid across the historical anomaly, with the recent work reconfirming multiple zones of coherent gold anomalism above 100 parts per billion.
First Drilling Targets Refined
The Clyde target extends about 750m by 450m and returned a peak of 594ppb gold, while Bonnie 1 covers about 700m by 250m and peaked at 408ppb, with two further Bonnie targets adding to the planned drill area.
The planned RC campaign will test both weathered and fresh rock beneath the anomalies, with drill lines positioned across priority zones identified by the combined soil geochemistry and magnetic interpretation.
BPM considers the broader setting supportive of its target model because Bonnie & Clyde lies along the Yellow Dam Shear Zone near its intersection with the Hootanui Shear Zone, while historical drilling immediately to the south at Dragonfly encountered broad gold mineralisation and alteration interpreted as Tropicana-style.
“The Bonnie & Clyde prospect was one the few areas Anglo Gold Ashanti was unable to access during their major exploration campaign through the belt 15 years ago,” chief executive officer Oliver Judd said.
“The necessary approvals process has required a large amount of consultation over the past year—now that this is complete, future access and exploration activities will be able to be implemented along industry standard timeframes.”
Beachcomber Keeps Rig Active
The exploration team and drill rig are already active at the nearby Beachcomber prospect, where about 5,500m of RC drilling across 35 holes has been completed since work began on 8 August.
About 3,000m of Beachcomber samples have been dispatched to the laboratory, with results expected about eight weeks after receipt and drilling observations confirming the main high-grade gold-bearing quartz vein has been intersected in multiple holes.
Drilling will continue at Beachcomber until ground preparations at Bonnie & Clyde are complete, after which the rig will shift to the new program before returning to Beachcomber once the RC campaign is finished.
BPM expects the Bonnie & Clyde program to take about two months, with assay results scheduled to be returned and reported progressively through the fourth quarter of 2026 and first quarter of 2027.
The broader Forelands campaign is expected to complete during the fourth quarter of 2026, while BPM is targeting a maiden mineral resource estimate for Beachcomber in the first half of 2027.
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