St Barbara has uncovered several high-grade gold anomalies at southwest Tatau Island in Papua New Guinea.
The highly anomalous gold results were discovered following a regional surface sampling and drilling program that took place between September 2024 and April 2025.
The program comprised hand auger soil sampling, rock chip sampling, trenching and reconnaissance reverse circulation (RC) drilling.
The hand auger soil sampling extended the southwest Tatau Island by +0.1 parts per million (ppm) of gold in soil anomalies to an area covering 7.3km2, supporting the presence of a large hydrothermal system and enhancing exploration potential of the area.
The results are comparable to the +0.1ppm gold in soil anomalies on the neighbouring eastern Simberi Island, which hosts St Barbara’s Simberi gold deposits (ML136), covers an area of approximately 6.9km2.
The Mt Siro – Seraror area returned several high gold-in-rock chip assays, including 22.5, 2.0, 1.98 and 1.83ppm. The Mt Tiro area also saw great success, with assays up to 2.39, 0.86 and 0.57ppm.
“This first substantial regional exploration campaign at Tatau Island, the neighbouring island to Simberi, has rewarded us with multiple highly anomalous rock chip and soil samples that extend the anomalous areas around Mt Tiro and at Mt Siro – Seraror in particular,” St Barbara managing director and chief executive officer Andrew Strelein said.
“After focusing our attention in FY24 (the 2023–24 financial year) on the successful Simberi resource development and infill conversion program, the team are now broadening their efforts to the regional program and following up opportunities identified in previous campaigns.”
St Barbara plans to capitalise on these opportunities via further trenching and RC drilling, with results from the initial channel sampling and RC drilling expected in the first quarter of FY26.
In other St Barbara news, the company is set to acquire a 14.4 stake in Geopacific Resources through a share transaction with Patronus Resources.
Citing “limited opportunities” to add value to Patronus, St Barbara has agreed to a selective buyback for its 158.1 million shares in Patronus, subject to shareholder approval.
The shares provide a 9.66 per cent concentration of the Patronus share register. As a result, Patronus will transfer 458.6 million shares in Geopacific to St Barbara in exchange for the return of 158.1 million shares in Patronus.
“St Barbara’s existing operational presence in Papua New Guinea through its Simberi gold mine provides deep local experience and strategic alignment with Geopacific’s 100-per-cent-owned Woodlark gold project,” Geopacific said.
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