BPM starts maiden drilling at giant never before drilled WA gold target

Our WA gold exploration Investment BPM Minerals (ASX: BPM) just started drilling the target we have all been waiting for.

Bonnie & Clyde is a more than 6km long gold-in-soil anomaly that has shown gold in samples from surface and has never been drilled before..

It sits in a similar geological setting to the ~8Moz Tropicana gold deposit in the region, run by $73BN AngloGold Ashanti and $5.9BN Regis Resources.

(source)

The maiden drilling program is for 10,000m across 65 holes of RC drilling, so there is no messing around here, this isn’t just a couple of scouting holes to see if it looks interesting.

(source)

The targets were generated from the usual surface exploration (soil sampling) and geophysics (a detailed airborne magnetic survey).

So now it's down to the all important drill bit to reveal what is underneath.

BPM's review of the geochemically-led WA gold discoveries of the past ~20 years came up with the following as examples that Bonnie and Clyde is showing similarities to:

• Tropicana (~10Moz) - AngloGold Ashanti/Regis Resources
• Rebecca, (~1Moz) - Discovered by Apollo Consolidated (deposit originally called Bombora). Ramelius won a bidding war against Gold Road, taking Apollo out for ~A$181M in late 2021
• Karlawinda and (~3.5Moz) Discovered by WMC Resources in 2005, then acquired by Independence Group (IGO) in 2008, before Capricorn picked it up from IGO in February 2016
• Gruyere (~7.5Moz) - Gold Roads sold to Gold Fields for A$350M cash in late 2016 (plus a 1.5% royalty kicking in above 2Moz production)

Today’s announcement specifically calls out Bonnie and Clyde to be “comparable in the size and tenor” of its soil anomaly.

So should the drilling come in, there is some pretty good company amongst the above examples, as always though, there is no guarantee that economic gold will be found.

AND old AngloGold drilling along strike at Dragonfly had already hit what was interpreted as Tropicana-style mineralisation.

Drilling should take around two months, with assays expected through Q4 2026 and into Q1 2027.

So fingers crossed for the assays - as always, there are no guarantees in exploration.

(source)

For the full background on why this is the target we are most looking forward to, check out our recent note: BPM to drill giant WA gold target in next 5-10 days.

A quick update on Beachcomber

BPM's other drill program at Beachcomber is progressing well, with ~8,100m and 50 holes completed so far.

The first batch of samples is at the lab, with assays expected in Q4 2026.

Drilling here has shown several gold lodes, and BPM intends to put together a maiden JORC resource off the back of this program.

Prior hits at Beachcomber include 3m @ 65.8g/t gold and 9m @ 7.77g/t gold.

What is BPM aiming for at Bonnie and Clyde?

BPM’s Bonnie and Clyde sits across an area so large it’s comparable to that of the ~8Moz Tropicana deposit owned by $73BN AngloGold and $5.9BN Regis Resources.

AND the Glenburgh discovery - which has turned Benz Mining into a $1.3BN capped company (share price is up from ~18c to $4 in the last two years).

(Source)

We’ve been waiting for this drilling event ever since BPM first announced it as a priority target in November last year. (source)

Since then BPM’s managed to bring two big institutional investors onto its register (probably because they also like the target) - Terra Capital and Tribeca Investment Partners at 23c.

Both of those funds have played the gold sector pretty well during the run up in December and January.

Tribeca is coming off a 10+ bagger on US-listed Hycroft Mining and the fund overall was up ~120% for CY2025. (source)

And Terra Capital, who were long gold in a big way well before the rest of the market have had ~118% returns in their natural resources fund… (source) (source)

It's not often we see institutional investors come onto the register of a pre-discovery junior explorer.

Which tells us they are liking what they see with Bonnie and Clyde…

They aren’t the only fund managers with eyes on Bonnie and Clyde either.

Tom Woolrych, fund manager from Deutsche Rohstoff AG, gave BPM and these targets a shout out on the Money of Mine podcast a few weeks ago, when explaining why he personally bought BPM shares - listen here.

So again, BPM has a target with a footprint large enough to be WA’s next major gold discovery AND (fingers crossed) the right type of geology similar to some of the mega mines in the area.

The best part (but also the scariest) is that the targets have NEVER been drilled before.

So BPM will be the first company to have a proper crack at a discovery on this mega target.

You can see our Deep Dive on Bonnie and Clyde and the drilling already underway here: BPM to drill giant WA gold target in next 5-10 days.

What’s next for BPM?

Bonnie & Clyde targets (Drilling now) 🔄

After today’s announcement we have three key bits of newsflow to look out for on these prospects over the coming weeks/months:

Here are the catalysts we will be tracking:

• ✅ Key tenement granted
• ✅ Heritage survey
• ✅ Soil sampling (1,500 samples taken, assays 4-6 weeks away from today)
• ✅ Geophysical survey results.
• ✅ Program of Work
• ✅ RC drilling begins (TODAY) (source)
• 🔲 Drill results (expected Q4 2026/Q1 2027)

Beachcomber Phase 2 drilling (7,500m) 🔄

As mentioned earlier, here we want to see BPM extend the gold discovered with BPM’s first round of drilling on this prospect.

Here are the catalysts we are tracking across this prospect:

• ✅ Drilling commenced
• 🔄 Drilling completed
• 🔄 Assay results - expected “throughout Q3-2026”
• 🔲 Maiden JORC Resource (H1 2027) (source)