Horizon revives historic WA gold camp with massive drilling blitz

There is a timeless rhythm to the Western Australian goldfields where history rarely stays buried for long. In the cyclical world of resources, yesterday’s legacy projects frequently become tomorrow’s high-flying development stories.

For punters tracking the sector, Horizon Gold could present a compelling case study of a former WA gold producer being reawakened in a booming market.

The Perth-based developer holds a 100 per cent interest in the historic Gum Creek gold project, a brownfields, multi-million-ounce gold camp in the prolific Sandstone mining district, 100 kilometres southeast of Meekatharra.

This is not frontier exploration country. Modern mining kicked off here in the 1980’s, yielding more than 1 million ounces of gold through a network of 37 open pits and 3 underground mines before it was placed on care and maintenance in 2005.

‘The momentum across the project is building, and we look forward to delivering further results in the coming weeks.’

Horizon Gold managing director Scott Williamson

In late 2016, Horizon Gold picked up the Gum Creek project after it was spun off its parent company, Panoramic Resources and backed by a $15 million float.

While Panoramic initially kept a controlling stake in Horizon, a 2020 shakeup saw it visited by the administrators, leaving private investor Zeta Resources to pick up the pieces and take over management of the project. This allowed Horizon to fully untether from Panoramic’s financial issues and focus entirely on developing Gum Creek into its flagship asset.

Notably, when operations at Gum Creek were halted in 2005, the spot gold price was hovering around a meagre A$560 per ounce. Today, with global gold prices charting historic highs and spot prices sitting around A$6300 per ounce, the underlying economics of the project look set to be transformed.

Horizon’s updated mineral resource estimate confirms a substantial global resource of 2.31 million ounces of gold, averaging 1.89 grams per tonne (g/t) across 38 million tonnes of ore, 70 per cent of which is free-milling.

To unlock the prize, Horizon outlined a clear production pathway in its 2024 scoping study. The strategy focuses on a remarkably simple, de-risked starter project targeting low-strip, free-milling oxide open pits across 14 distinct deposits, with the main Gidgee and Howards deposits providing 752,000 of the initial 822,000 ounces.

The blueprint touts a conventional 2.4 million tonnes per annum carbon-in-leach gold plant, slated to churn out an average of 100,000 ounces of gold per year over an initial eight-year mine life, underpinned by a robust 94.5 per cent gold recovery rate.

Following an estimated initial capital expenditure of A$350 million, the model demonstrates spectacular financial metrics, forecasting a hefty average annual EBITDA of A$383 million and a mouthwatering 57 per cent internal rate of return (IRR).

Since the entire project sits on existing mining leases, Horizon benefits from streamlined, brownfields-style permitting advantages. It can also leverage established infrastructure, including existing haul roads, an operating camp, and tailings storage, materially slashing upfront capital costs and engineering timelines.

Impressively, Horizon’s low-cost starter plan captures only 822,000 ounces of the global resource, leaving nearly 1.5 million ounces completely outside of the initial economics.

However, given the permitting timeline for building a new plant, the company is also considering an early cash-flow shortcut by toll-treating ore in the first instance until it has approvals and a bankable feasibility study under its belt.

Management says it has already earmarked several gold processing plants within trucking distance of Gum Creek, giving the company multiple potential pathways to get ounces moving sooner rather than later.

Transitioning a project from study to financing and production requires significant corporate nous, which Horizon appears to possess in spades. Recently appointed managing director Scott Williamson heads up the company, bringing a rare dual background that combines technical mine management with capital markets smarts.

A graduate mining engineer with a first-class mine manager’s certificate, Williamson cut his teeth in heavy underground operations with Rio Tinto at Argyle and at Northparkes – now owned by Evolution Mining – before serving in key roles at mid-tier gold miners Resolute Mining and Perseus Mining.

Notably, he has bolstered this foundation with years on the sell-side as a resources analyst and institutional dealer at Euroz Hartleys, experience that proved invaluable when the company went through a major A$30 million capital raise in March.

Williamson operates alongside non-executive chairman Peter Sullivan, an industry veteran with over 30 years of resource corporate finance and project engineering experience.

Equally critical is the financial powerhouse anchoring the company’s register, with major shareholder, Zeta Resources, maintaining a powerful 65 per cent controlling stake.

Zeta is managed by ICM Limited, an international investment giant founded and steered by legendary resources investor Duncan Saville. Saville’s investment vehicles are globally renowned for their patient, deep-pocketed, long-term approach, utilising London-listed UIL Limited to back high-conviction development projects.

Horizon Gold managing director Scott Williamson said: “With a 2.3 million-ounce resource base, a Feasibility Study on track to be completed mid-year, and a gold price environment that only strengthens our investment case, Gum Creek is rapidly advancing towards development. The momentum across the project is building, and we look forward to delivering further results in the coming weeks.”

Adding to the project’s credentials, the company says it could potentially scale up rapidly through additional exploration targets identified across 80 kilometres of brownfields strike. Recent shallow drilling confirmed this potential, defining continuous supergene mineralisation well beyond historic pit limits.

This is showcased by shallow intercepts of 11m running 3.18g/t gold at its Goldfinch prospect, 7m grading 2.46g/t gold at its Robin prospect, 22m hitting 3.18g/t gold from two metres depth at its Swan/Swift prospect, along with 28m clocking 3.88g/t gold at its Howards prospect.

Furthermore, deep underground potential at the company’s Omega prospect, which historically produced at grades above 5g/t gold, remains completely open at depth, as highlighted by an eye-watering historical down-plunge slice of 30m that landed at 21.1g/t gold.

Despite these hefty numbers, the market appears to have largely overlooked the asset. A February 2026 analysis by stockbroker Evolution Capital highlighted that Horizon trades at a significant discount to its peers.

According to Evolution at current prices, Horizon’s share price clocks an enterprise valuation of just A$86 per resource ounce. This contrasts sharply with the A$ 142-per-ounce average commanded by other ASX-listed gold companies with more than 2 million resource ounces in WA.

However, a market re-rating might just be close at hand. Regional consolidation, spearheaded by Brightstar Resources’ absorption of ASX-listed peers Aurumin Limited and Alto Metals, is transforming the Sandstone district into a major hub of corporate activity.

With $30 million of fresh capital in its back pocket, Horizon is preparing to use some of those funds to unleash a massive 80,000m drilling assault across Gum Creek through the back half of 2026.

The fully funded campaign will deploy four rigs targeting shallow oxide discoveries and high-grade underground extensions as the company pushes to grow its current 2.3-million-ounce gold inventory towards a coveted 3-million-ounce milestone. An updated resource estimate is expected later this year.

For now, the company’s immediate workflow is moving through final engineering study gates in preparation of its bankable feasibility study, set for release in late June. This important milestone will likely be followed by a formal final investment decision and the ordering of long-lead items slated for the second half of the year.

In a tier-one jurisdiction such as Western Australia, multi-million-ounce gold assets with granted mining leases and immediate proximity to infrastructure are a rare commodity.

However, with a fully funded drilling blitz now locked and loaded, four rigs ready to spin and a bankable study fast approaching, Horizon appears to be systematically bulldozing its way towards the front of WA’s development pack.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au