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Penny Taylor
PLC Resources has unearthed and ranked a set of gold targets, using an integrated suite of modern exploration techniques to light up prospective ground at its Abbotts gold project in Western Australia’s prolific Murchison region. The work has also revealed compelling spectral signatures similar to those of a nearby producing gold mine.
The Abbotts project lies 35km north of Meekatharra, spanning four tenements across 205 square kilometres within the historically rich Abbotts Greenstone Belt, which produced some 41,000 ounces of gold at a whopping average grade of 31 grams per tonne (g/t) from its old quartz reef workings. Despite that impressive pedigree, much of the belt remains relatively untouched by modern exploration techniques, offering PLC an intriguing opportunity to uncover fresh gold deposits.
Keen to put a modern spin on the belt’s old-fashioned gold riches, PLC enlisted remote-sensing specialist Geo Spectra to undertake a comprehensive satellite-based assessment of the ground. The high-tech program combined EnMAP hyperspectral imagery with existing high-resolution airborne magnetics and historical gold, copper and arsenic geochemistry to pinpoint the alteration patterns and geological structures typically associated with orogenic gold deposits.
The high-tech exercise has already coughed up a string of first-priority gold targets at Rochefort, Buttamiah, Vranizan North and Sprigg Bore, among others. The standout hotspots are where geological alteration, historical gold anomalies and favourable magnetic structures converge, particularly around major fault intersections and prospective host rocks.
‘This targeting study gives us a district-scale picture of the gold potential across our ground at Abbotts for the first time.’
PLC Resources executive director Simon Phillips
Adding weight to the findings, a prominent cluster of promising alteration signatures at Sprigg Bore, in the southeast of PLC’s ground, coincides with historical rock-chip samples returning between 350 and 651 parts per billion, suggesting the satellite technology may be doing its job of homing in on prospective gold-bearing structures.
The latest work has also sharpened the geological picture around Rochefort, where PLC recently wrapped up an eight-hole, 1896-metre reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign, with assays expected in the coming weeks.
The findings build on PLC’s earlier high-resolution airborne magnetic survey, which mapped a network of regional-scale folds and fault corridors that may have provided pathways for gold-bearing fluids to move through the rocks and deposit their precious cargo.
Notably, spectral features on the company’s ground resemble the alteration style at New Murchison Gold’s producing Crown Prince mine, 5km south of the project boundary. The similarities are concentrated on PLC’s central tenement, near the greenstone belt’s eastern margin, where they align with the eastern limb of a major fold identified in the magnetic survey.
Crown Prince has been the talk of the Murchison in the past year, hosting a combined open-pit measured and indicated gold resource of 247,800 ounces at a hefty grade of 3.1 grams per tonne (g/t) gold. The highly profitable mine began production in September 2025, with ore trucked to Westgold Resources’ Bluebird processing plant, 36km to the south.
With Hamelin Gold and King River Resources also advancing programs nearby, the Murchison is experiencing a renaissance and humming with exploration activity as companies bring modern techniques to this historic goldfield.
PLC Resources executive director Simon Phillips said: “This targeting study gives us a district-scale picture of the gold potential across our ground at Abbotts for the first time. With Rochefort assays pending, we now have a ranked, defensible set of targets to take to the field, and we look forward to testing them.”
With a new target list in hand, PLC is planning to get boots on the ground later in the quarter to verify the targets. Geological mapping, rock-chip sampling and surface geochemistry will help separate the genuine gold exploration targets from misleading surface features and narrow down the best spots for drilling.
The company will also fold the pending Rochefort assays into its growing exploration database to fine-tune its target rankings. Aircore testing programs already have regulatory approval, with drilling targeted for the first quarter of 2027. Future work may also include RC and diamond drilling.
Beyond Abbotts, PLC has another iron in the fire at its Yalgoo gold project, where it holds an inferred resource of 150,000 tonnes grading 2.7g/t gold for 13,000 ounces, giving the company a second foothold in one of Western Australia’s prospective gold belts.
With a growing pipeline of gold targets, drill rigs on the horizon and Rochefort assays just around the corner, PLC has plenty of opportunities to turn its high-tech exploration work into a meaningful gold discovery in one of WA’s most celebrated goldfields.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au