Key Highlights

  • A pre-feasibility study for the 100%-owned Bullabulling Gold Project was released on 8 July 2026.
  • A final Investment decision is targeted for the first quarter of calendar 2027.
  • First production is targeted for the fourth quarter of calendar 2028.
  • The tenement package covers about 1,160 square kilometres, up from 130 square kilometres in April 2025.

How far along is a gold developer that has just joined the S&P/ASX 200 but has not yet built a mine? Minerals 260 Limited (ASX:MI6) offers a clear case. On 8 July 2026 it released a pre-feasibility study (PFS) for its 100%-owned Bullabulling Gold Project in Western Australia, and on 30 July 2026 its June quarter report set out a path to a Final Investment Decision (FID) targeted for the first quarter of calendar 2027 and first production targeted for the fourth quarter of calendar 2028. This matters because the company is large enough for index inclusion, yet its value depends on study outcomes, approvals and funding rather than on current earnings. The period-specific figures provide context for the company’s operating performance and execution priorities.

What Minerals 260 owns

Bullabulling is about 25 kilometres west of Coolgardie and 65 kilometres south-west of Kalgoorlie, in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. The tenement package covers about 1,160 square kilometres, up from 130 square kilometres in April 2025. During the June 2026 quarter the company agreed to acquire a further tenement package of about 350 square kilometres from Geko Explore for A$7.0 million, made up of A$3.5 million in cash and shares. It also holds the Moora copper-gold project, which was inactive in the quarter. Minerals 260 was added to the S&P/ASX 200 in June 2026, which the company itself notes.

Resources and reserves

The Mineral Resource, updated on 8 July 2026, is 190 million tonnes at 1.0 grams per tonne gold for 6.2 million ounces, up 38% from 4.5 million ounces in December 2025. Of that, 4.4 million ounces are Indicated and 1.7 million ounces are Inferred, a lower-confidence category. The cut-off grade is 0.35 grams per tonne within an A$5,250 per ounce pit shell.

The Ore Reserve is 90 million tonnes at 0.86 grams per tonne for 2.5 million ounces, all in the Probable category, with about 85% conversion of Indicated Resources.

The pre-feasibility study

The PFS describes an open-pit operation Mining about 40 million tonnes a year at a strip ratio of 4.9 to 1, feeding a 5 million tonne a year processing plant using crushing, semi-autogenous and ball milling, and carbon-in-leach recovery. Key outputs:

Mine life of 19 years, producing about 2.3 million ounces in total, averaging about 150,000 ounces a year over the first ten years and about 125,000 ounces over the life of mine.

Metallurgical recovery of 92% for the first ten years and 90% over the life of mine.

Post-tax net present value at a 5% discount rate of A$2.3 billion (as at 1 April 2027) and a post-tax internal rate of return of 43%, with payback about two years from production start.

C1 cash cost of A$2,130 per ounce and All-In Sustaining Cost of A$2,520 per ounce.

Capital spending of A$180 million before FID, A$560 million after FID, A$115 million for pre-production operations and A$99 million sustaining over the life of the mine.

These are unaudited study estimates assuming gold at US$3,800 per ounce (about A$5,500) and 0.69 US dollars to dollar, and are not a forecast. About 3% of the production target comes from Inferred Resources, and the company says any expansion beyond 5 million tonnes a year is conceptual, with no economic viability determined.

Funding and cash

At 30 June 2026 the company held about A$211 million in cash and term deposits: A$96 million in cash and A$115 million in term deposits maturing beyond three months. No Debt facilities were drawn or undrawn at quarter end.

A Franco-Nevada funding package of A$220 million was secured in February 2026, and a debt process is under way with multiple indicative term sheets, with an independent technical report expected in August 2026. Pre-FID and post-FID Capital together are about A$740 million in the PFS, so cash on hand covers only part of it. The company states that financing terms are not yet finalised and that FID depends on debt terms and the definitive feasibility study (DFS). No new Equity was raised in the quarter.

Milestones and activity

Recent work included 26,000 metres of grade control drilling at Phoenix, water bore drilling, DFS metallurgical sampling and tailings storage design. It signed an A$59.1 million fixed-price contract with ATCO for a 400-person accommodation village, due to operate in the first quarter of calendar 2027.

Sector and competitive position

Western Australian gold developers compete for capital, labour and contractors. Bullabulling's differentiators are scale, with a 19-year life in the PFS,.

Risks and what to watch

The company lists these caveats: financing is not finalised, primary State approvals are still being advanced, the stamp duty on the Bullabulling Acquisition (about A$8.6 million) is estimated and not yet assessed, and results are sensitive to gold price and currency assumptions. Cost Inflation and dilution from further equity are general developer risks.