Brought to you by BULLS N’ BEARS
James Pearson
While many gold juniors have struggled to quickly capitalise on the soaring gold price, Auric Mining has taken a far more direct route – dig it up, process it, and count the ounces.
That strategy is paying off in spades at the company’s Munda gold project near Widgiemooltha in Western Australia, where the latest gold pours from its second mining campaign have delivered results well ahead of expectations.
Across three toll runs in campaign two so far this year, Auric has produced 4,819 ounces of gold, with a final outturn and gold-in-circuit still to be tallied.
When added to the 2,718 ounces recovered during campaign one in late 2025, total production to date from the starter pit at Munda now stands at a very healthy 7,537 ounces, comfortably ahead of the 6,100-ounce target set for the starter pit.
The market’s response has been swift and decisive, with Auric shares blasting almost 25 per cent higher to 34 cents on solid early turnover today.
After initial gold sales from campaign two, Auric still holds 3,272 ounces of gold and 315 ounces of silver in its metal account at ABC Refinery, giving management flexibility over when to sell into what remains a strong gold price environment
Add it all together and the numbers start to look impressive for a company of Auric’s size. The company is now sitting on a whopping $34 million in cash, bullion and listed investments, providing plenty of financial firepower to fund the next phase of growth without the usual small-cap funding stress.
Over the course of its second campaign, Auric processed 68,500 dry metric tonnes – slightly more than planned – with performance improving as the campaign progressed.
What impressed most, however, were the ore grade and recovery, which, after processing at Black Cat Syndicate’s Lakewood mill, have consistently beaten targets. Management says the results have strengthened confidence the main pit – Auric’s bigger prize – will mirror the starter pit over its mine life once it comes online.
Auric Mining managing director Mark English said: “Gold grade and recoveries continued to improve over the duration of this second campaign, and with further outturns and Gold In Circuit (GIC) calculations still to come, it augurs well for exceptional results from our Munda Starter Pit.”
Non-executive chairman Steve Morris added that the company has focused from day one on acquiring proven, infrastructure-adjacent gold assets capable of fast-tracked production. Success at Jeffreys Find unlocked the move into production at Munda, a project long seen as high quality and now validated by well-above-budgetresults.
A key takeaway from the starter pit outcomes is that they have provided real-world data on mining conditions, metallurgy, and recoveries that will feed directly into planning for the much larger Munda main pit. With more than 125,000 tonnes processed across two campaigns since October last year, Auric now has a solid operational dataset to work from.
Once reconciliation of the mining and processing data is complete, the company plans to roll straight into detailed scoping and design work for the main pit.
With gold already flowing, cash piling up and confidence building in the Main pit at Munda Auric is fast shifting from a starter-pit success story into a credible growth producer.
As scoping work on the Munda main pit moves into focus, the company now has the ounces, the data and the balance sheet to turn a strong start into a much bigger gold opportunity.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
