Highlights

  • Encounter Resources detects gold within niobium carbonatite intervals at Aileron, with holes returning 7m at 0.5g/t gold alongside 2.7% Nb2O5.
  • At Emily prospect, hole EAL259 intersects 2m at 1.1g/t gold within 2.8% Nb2O5, suggesting gold occurs in the same rock as niobium.
  • Niobium drilling continues with 49m at 2.3% Nb2O5 at Green and first diamond hole at Emily reaching 45.8m at 0.7% Nb2O5.
  • Combined resources at Green and Emily total 114Mt Inferred niobium; gold not yet included in any resource estimate.

Gold has turned up inside niobium-bearing carbonatites at Encounter Resources Limited's (ASX:ENR) Aileron project in WA's West Arunta region — an early observation that management is treating with cautious interest. Announced approximately 28 October 2026, a small number of holes assayed for gold have returned intervals alongside existing niobium intersections, raising the possibility of a gold by-product within the mineralised system.

The Gold Discovery

At the Green prospect, hole EAL1421 returned 7m at 0.5g/t gold from 63m within a zone also grading 2.7% Nb2O5. Hole EAL1483 intersected 11m at 0.4g/t gold from 73m, co-occurring with 1.4% Nb2O5. At the Emily prospect, hole EAL259 returned 2m at 1.1g/t gold from 56m within a 2.8% Nb2O5 interval. In each case, the gold occurs within the same carbonatite rock being mined for niobium — a situation that could support a by-product credit in future economic studies, though this has not been assessed technically or economically.

Managing Director Will Robinson described the finding as encouraging but noted the company does not yet know how significant it could be. Only a small number of holes have been assayed for gold so far. A re-assay programme on earlier holes is planned to determine whether gold was present but undetected in previous campaigns.

Niobium Results

The core niobium programme continues to expand the resource base. At Green, hole EAL1491 returned 25m at 3.3% Nb2O5 from 80m, including 9m at 5.6% Nb2O5 from 81m. Hole EAL1483 extended to 49m at 2.3% Nb2O5 from 48m, including 19m at 4.3% from 55m. Several aircore holes ended in mineralisation, suggesting the extent of the system remains undefined at depth.

At Emily, the first diamond hole, EAL2220, returned 45.8m at 0.7% Nb2O5 from 51.2m, including 2.6m at 2.5% from 59.4m. The hole reached below the previous aircore limit and ended in primary mineralisation, extending the known depth of the Emily carbonatite system below the current resource wireframe.

Resource Context

Combined resources at Aileron total 114 million tonnes of Inferred niobium mineralisation: Green holds 100Mt at 0.71% Nb2O5, including 19Mt at 1.6% higher-grade; Emily holds 14Mt at 0.93% Nb2O5. Gold is not incorporated in either estimate. Mineralogical work on higher-grade intersections will follow, and metallurgical testwork to assess gold extraction as a co-product is planned for a later stage.