Highlights

  • Phase 2 aircore drilling at the Spencers Prospect has defined a new 300m north-south gold trend with key intercepts of 28m @ 1.01g/t Au and 20m @ 0.76g/t Au, with mineralisation open along strike and down-dip.
  • The Spencers discovery is the second new mineralised trend identified by Accelerate at Balagundi since exploration commenced in late 2025, validating the company's ground consolidation strategy.
  • AX8 shares fell 25% to $0.006 during morning trade on 7 May 2026; RC drilling at Spencers is scheduled to commence following statutory permitting completion.

 

 

Accelerate Resources Limited (ASX:AX8) has announced the results of its Phase 2 aircore drilling campaign at the Balagundi Gold Project, situated approximately 15 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia's prolific Eastern Goldfields. The program has delivered what the company describes as a significant new shallow gold discovery at the Spencers Prospect — a finding that represents the second new mineralised trend identified at Balagundi since exploration commenced in late 2025, following the earlier delineation of the Delta Trend.

Despite the encouraging nature of the discovery, AX8 shares fell 25% to $0.006 during morning trade on 7 May 2026, a move likely reflecting broader market Volatility and the inherent uncertainties that accompany early-stage exploration results rather than any fundamental problem with the announcement itself. The stock continues to trade in the micro-cap space, and exploration-stage companies on the ASX frequently experience amplified share price movements around drill result disclosures.

 

Spencers Prospect: Drilling Results in Detail

The Spencers Prospect is located within the recently acquired Spencers Project, held under the 100%-owned Mining tenement M25/92. Phase 2 aircore drilling has defined a coherent zone of shallow gold mineralisation over approximately 300 metres of interpreted north-south strike, with the mineralised system remaining open both down-dip and along strike — a configuration that presents a clear target for follow-up drilling.

The standout intercept from the program is 28 metres at 1.01 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 36 metres depth in hole 26BGAC039, which includes higher-grade subintervals of 8 metres at 1.78g/t and 8 metres at 1.37g/t. Hole 26BGAC043 returned 20 metres at 0.76g/t gold from 16 metres, including a higher-grade zone of 8 metres at 1.42g/t. Hole 26BGAC044 added 8 metres at 0.62g/t from 48 metres. The relatively shallow depth of these intercepts is noteworthy, as it reduces the technical complexity and cost of any future resource development scenario.

The width and continuity of the Spencers mineralisation is considered significant in the context of the broader Balagundi Gold Project, where Accelerate is systematically testing multiple gold-bearing structures. Importantly, the Spencers discovery validates the strategic rationale behind the company's recent ground consolidation at Balagundi, with the strongest Phase 2 results coming from the newly acquired tenure — a direct return on the Investment in expanding the project footprint.

 

Broader Program Results and Regional Context

Beyond Spencers, the Phase 2 aircore program — comprising 59 holes for 3,614 metres drilled across several target areas from late February to early March 2026 — also returned anomalous results elsewhere on the project. Of particular interest is hole 26BGAC009, which returned 4 metres at 1.75g/t gold from 32 metres, interpreted by the company to lie along the potential extension of the Paris Gift mineralised trend. This corridor, which connects with the Delta Trend, represents one of the structurally significant targets across the broader project area.

At the Catrock Prospect in the southern portion of the Balagundi Project, the Phase 2 program confirmed and extended historical gold results, with further infill drilling planned to define RC-level drill targets. Additionally, assay results remain pending from a separate phase of 35 aircore holes for 1,473 metres recently completed at the Fluffy Prospect. Preliminary geological logging from the Fluffy program noted widespread sericite-carbonate alteration — a geochemical indicator that is considered encouraging in proximity to gold mineralisation systems of the type found in the Eastern Goldfields. These results are expected to be reported once assays have been received and interpreted.

 

Ground Consolidation Strategy Paying Dividends

One of the more strategically meaningful aspects of the Spencers announcement is what it reveals about the effectiveness of Accelerate's ground consolidation approach at Balagundi. The strongest results from the Phase 2 program were returned from mining tenement M25/92, which was only recently acquired — demonstrating that the expansion of the project footprint has directly added exploration value rather than merely increasing the size of the landholding.

This pattern is consistent with the thesis that Balagundi represents an underexplored gold district with multiple prospective structural trends, rather than a single-target project. The identification of two separate new mineralised trends — Delta and now Spencers — within a relatively short period of organised exploration activity suggests there may be additional discoveries to be made as Accelerate systematically works through the broader project area. The Paris Gift trend extension, supported by the anomalous 26BGAC009 result, adds a third structural corridor warranting further attention.

 

Next Steps: RC Drilling and Permitting

With the Phase 2 aircore results now in hand, Accelerate has confirmed that it has commenced permitting for RC drilling at the Spencers Prospect, with drilling targeted to begin in coming weeks. The planned RC program is designed to test the mineralised structure down-dip and along strike, and to assess the potential for higher-grade shoots within the broader mineralised envelope. RC drilling will provide larger, more representative samples than aircore and will give a clearer picture of the true grade distribution and structural geometry of the Spencers system.

Following the Spencers RC program, the company plans to advance RC drilling at the Delta Trend, which remains a high-priority target following its identification as the first new mineralised trend at Balagundi. The combination of Spencers and Delta now gives Accelerate two active follow-up targets for RC drilling in the near term, and the pending Fluffy results could add a third. This pipeline of activity gives the company a reasonably active near-term exploration calendar as it seeks to build on the foundational discoveries at Balagundi.

 

Conclusion

Accelerate Resources' Phase 2 aircore program at Balagundi has delivered tangible exploration progress with the confirmation of a second new gold discovery at the Spencers Prospect. The shallow, open-ended nature of the Spencers mineralisation, combined with strong intercepts including 28 metres at 1.01g/t gold, provides a credible platform for RC follow-up drilling. Despite the 25% share price decline on 7 May 2026, the exploration results represent a step forward in building the geological case for Balagundi as a multi-trend gold project in one of Western Australia's most prospective goldfields. Progress in the upcoming RC drilling campaigns will be closely watched as the company looks to convert aircore anomalism into more definitive resource-scale targets.