Key Highlights

  • The maiden JORC resource totals 6.16 million tonnes at 2.6 grams per tonne gold for 522,000 ounces.
  • About 95% of the ounces sit in the Central Island area, mostly in the Vadrians deposit.
  • A separate Exploration Target of 8 to 12 million tonnes at 2.0 to 2.5 g/t is conceptual.
  • Caprice held A$9.5 million in cash at 30 September.

Caprice Resources (ASX:CRS) has published a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate for its wholly owned Island Gold Project in Western Australia's Murchison goldfields. The estimate, reported under the JORC Code 2012, totals 6.16 million tonnes at 2.6 grams per tonne gold for 522,000 ounces.

Just over half the contained gold, 269,000 ounces, is classified as Indicated, from 2.99 million tonnes at 2.8 g/t. The remaining 253,000 ounces, from 3.16 million tonnes at 2.5 g/t, is Inferred, the lowest-confidence category. The estimate uses drilling results received up to 10 August 2026, so later assays are not included.

About 95% of the ounces sit in the Central Island area, mostly in the Vadrians deposit, with New Orient contributing 4%. Caprice puts its discovery cost at about A$25 an ounce.

The high-grade core

Within the total, Caprice has highlighted a subset of 1.8 million tonnes at 5.8 g/t for 340,000 ounces when a 3.0 g/t cut-off is applied, including 228,000 ounces at 7.5 g/t above a 5.0 g/t cut-off. These are grade sensitivities within the same estimate, not additional ounces.

The company says this makes Vadrians one of the highest-grade undeveloped deposits in the Murchison, with mineralisation open at depth and along strike. Metallurgical testwork reported in June returned recoveries of up to 94% through conventional gravity and carbon-in-leach processing, indicating free-milling gold.

Qualifications apply. The resource is constrained by pit shells at A$5,000 an ounce, which the company describes as a reporting constraint rather than a mine design or economic study. The gold is also nuggety, with a nugget effect of 25% to 51% of total variance, meaning grades can vary sharply over short distances and estimates are sensitive to how high assays are capped.

Within the Central Island pit shells, the Vadrians mineralised domain holds 252,000 ounces at 3.3 g/t, about 87% of the ounces there. Fresh rock accounts for roughly 80% of the pit-shell ounces, at 231,000 ounces grading 4.3 g/t. That is relevant because fresh-rock ore usually requires more processing energy than oxide material, although Caprice's testwork so far points to good recoveries.

Resource versus Exploration Target

Caprice has also set out a separate Exploration Target of 8 to 12 million tonnes at 2.0 to 2.5 g/t, or 500,000 to 900,000 ounces. This excludes the resource and is conceptual: there has been insufficient exploration to estimate a resource for it, and further work may not produce one.

Managing director Luke Cox called the maiden estimate a line in the sand and said the company's next goal was more than one million ounces. Investors should treat that as an objective. Reaching it would require both converting Inferred material and finding new ounces.

Funding and drilling

Caprice held A$9.5 million in cash at 30 September and has two rigs operating. About 25,000 metres of a 50,000-metre programme remained as at 15 October.

Work streams include extension drilling around higher-grade positions, infill of priority Inferred areas, and testing of the Exploration Target and prospects across North and South Island, Western Island and Southern Lake. Assays for 5,376 metres from the Gap Zone between Vadrians and New Orient are outstanding.

The company also identifies hinge-fold targets that it says may represent direct extensions of the Comet deposit, where Valiant Gold (ASX:VAL) is restarting mining. Caprice itself notes that proximity to third-party deposits does not indicate mineralisation on its ground.

What to watch

The near-term catalysts are the Gap Zone assays, ongoing results from the remaining drilling and a first resource update. Testing of the Exploration Target is expected over about 24 months, subject to results, funding and access. Because the current cash balance must support a large programme, any future Capital raising would also be relevant to shareholders.