Barton Gold (ASX:BGD) CEO Alexander Scanlon outlined the company’s strategy to move from exploration into production, describing a three-stage plan to “build a platform, commercialize it, and grow it” across a consolidated gold district in South Australia’s Central Gawler Craton. Speaking at RIU Explorers, Scanlon said the company has completed what he called its first five-year “act” as a public company and is now preparing for a commercialization phase that includes feasibility work, permitting steps, and extensive drilling intended to drive regular news flow.
Consolidating a historical gold district
Scanlon said Barton is a “pure-play, precious metals developer” focused in the Central Gawler Craton, an area better known for copper and uranium, including major operations such as Carrapateena, Olympic Dam, and Prominent Hill. He noted that west of the copper belt is a 130-year-old historical high-grade gold district that he said the company moved to consolidate roughly five years ago “while nobody was paying attention.”
Central Gawler Mill: DFS and tailings opportunity
Scanlon said Barton has a definitive feasibility study (DFS) underway to start operations at its Central Gawler Mill, which he described as a “fully established, fully permitted facility.” He referenced an initial study indicating it would cost about AUD 30 million to refurbish the mill to its original 600,000 tonnes per annum hard rock capacity.
The DFS is evaluating potential fine grinding, as well as the use of historical tailings and open pit mineralization to start what he characterized as a conservative baseline operation. He said the company is “not trying to shoot the lights out,” but instead to establish operating cash flow and optionality to expand into higher-grade underground and regional feed sources.
On timing, Scanlon said Barton is targeting the start of site works by the end of the year and production in 2027. Elsewhere in his remarks, he said the company hopes to start site operations by the end of 2026 and pour first gold in 2027.
He highlighted two historical tailings facilities and described the older facility (TSF 1) as containing material around the outside grading 0.6–1.0 grams per tonne gold. Scanlon said metallurgical test work indicates recoveries of 60%–80% with “very simple, clean metallurgy,” and that processing tailings could help bootstrap operations before blending in open pit and, later, underground feed.
Tunkillia: PFS work and May 2025 study metrics
Scanlon said Barton’s large-scale Tunkillia asset was acquired as a 0.6 million-ounce resource and grown to 1.6 million ounces after identifying five new gold zones, at a cost he described as less than AUD 20 per ounce on a “true all-in” basis.
He said upgrade drilling, a pre-feasibility study (PFS), and a mining lease application for Tunkillia are planned to be completed by the end of the year. Scanlon also discussed a study published in May 2025 that he said demonstrated Tunkillia could support a 5 million tonne per annum processing plant producing about 120,000 ounces of gold and 250,000 ounces of silver annually.
In describing that study, Scanlon cited several metrics based on an AUD 5,000 gold price assumption, including AUD 2.7 billion operating profit and an AUD 1.4 billion NPV, as well as a 73% unlevered equity IRR and a payback period of less than one year. He attributed the cash flow profile to a higher-grade central zone that supports a “starter pit,” which he said would lift early feed grade and accelerate production.
- Stage-one starter pit: about 180,000 ounces of gold in the first year and about 206,000 ounces over the first 13 months, Scanlon said.
- He also said the starter pit alone could generate about $850 million in operating profit in the first year at $5,000 gold, and that stages one and two could generate about $1.3 billion in operating profit in the first 2.5 years under the same assumption.
- Scanlon added that at the “current gold price,” the first 2.5 years could produce about $2 billion in operating profit, which he said would equate to paying back development five times.
He also contrasted life-of-mine and starter pit grades, citing 1.2 grams per tonne versus 0.8 grams per tonne, and said the grade uplift could lower cash costs in early years and raise annual gold output from 120,000 ounces to 180,000 ounces at the same plant throughput in that period.
Regional “hub-and-spoke” growth and a high-grade silver surprise
Scanlon described a longer-term regional “hub-and-spoke” strategy built around two processing hubs: the existing Central Gawler Mill and a potential future mill at Tunkillia. He pointed to regional enhancement assets that could provide blending feed, including the Wudinna project, which he said is a 279,000-ounce asset acquired from Cobra Resources. Scanlon highlighted metallurgy test work indicating 97%–99% recoveries via gravity and leaching, and said flotation could concentrate about 90% of gold into 6% of feed mass—potentially allowing concentrate to be trucked to Barton’s mills rather than constructing a new plant at Wudinna.
He also discussed the Tarcoola project and the Tolmer discovery between the two hubs, calling Tarcoola the original high-grade gold field of South Australia with an existing mining lease, an open pit, and roughly 600 historical high-grade workings. Drill testing at Tolmer initially targeted gold and encountered high-grade gold, he said, before the company recognized unusually high silver associated with the mineralization.
Scanlon said a follow-up drill hole 500 meters west into what is now called the Western Silver Zone returned 6 meters at 4,747 grams per tonne silver plus 13 grams per tonne gold, which he described as the highest-grade silver intersection reported on any stock exchange globally in 2025. He said subsequent work is focused on understanding structural and stratigraphic controls, and that the company will follow up in parallel with commercialization of its gold assets. He outlined a broad range of grades observed, stating silver between 100 and 17,000 grams per tonne with gold between 3 and 50 grams per tonne as a byproduct credit, suggesting potential value in a small pit as an “accessory income” to the gold platform.
Capital structure, funding history, and upcoming activity
Scanlon said Barton has about 240 million shares on issue and described it as about an AUD 250 million company, with a tightly held share register concentrated among board, management, institutional shareholders, and high-net-worth investors. He also emphasized what he described as capital discipline, noting a AUD 15 million placement in October that was cornerstoned by Franklin Templeton.
Over the preceding four years, Scanlon said the company earned more money internally from its assets than it raised publicly, adding that Barton raised about AUD 13 million publicly over that four-year period. He attributed the company’s cost focus in part to board and management being large shareholders.
Looking ahead, Scanlon said Barton expects a busy period of activity, including multiple technical studies and 60,000 meters of drilling planned over the next five months, which he said should support “an incredible amount of news flow” as the company advances its near-term operations and medium-term expansion plans.
About Barton Gold (ASX:BGD)
Barton Gold Holdings Limited engages in the exploration of gold projects in South Australia. It holds 100% interests in the Challenger, Tarcoola, and Tunkillia projects. The company was incorporated in 2019 and is headquartered in Adelaide, Australia.
