Waratah Minerals has struck a chord with the exploration community following its compelling update at the RIU Sydney Resources Round-up in early May, where managing director Peter Duerden unveiled a genuine gold-copper discovery story unfolding at the company’s Spur Project—just kilometres from one of Australia’s premier porphyry operations, Cadia Valley.
The ASX-listed junior (ASX:WTM) is methodically proving up a high-grade epithermal gold system with a porphyry copper-gold core in the Lachlan Fold Belt’s prolific Macquarie Arc. And while plenty have come before them, Duerden believes Waratah has cracked the geological code others missed.
“We’re drilling on the edges of the intrusive complex. Ridgeway was found there. Cadia East was found there. And all the ore bodies in the Lachlan, in the Macquarie Arc, are not inside those big magnetic high zones—they’re off the edges,” he told delegates. “It looks quite obvious now. It didn’t when we started.”
Peter Duerden
Reframing a Brownfields Belt
The Spur Project is situated less than five kilometres west of Newmont’s Cadia operations in a district buzzing with M&A and JV activity. Despite a long exploration history dating back to the 1860s, Waratah is the first company to systematically apply a “margin-focused” geological model, one that prioritises structural complexity and vectoring from epithermal caps to porphyry roots.
“This really is…unfinished business,” said Duerden. “People have been here before, done great work… but concepts and ideas change. Targeting ideas change.”
The results speak for themselves. Recent reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling has returned:
11m @ 10.82 g/t Au from 154m (SPRC002)
89m @ 1.73 g/t Au and 0.08% Cu from 115m (SPRC007)
196m @ 0.54% CuEq from surface, including 84m @ 0.62% CuEq from 29m (BZD001)
This mineralisation lies within a greater “Spur Gold Corridor” that now extends over one kilometre and could double in strike as upcoming drilling at Balvenie and Consols unfolds.
“We’re predicting there’s a fertile porphyry system connected to that gold, and those results certainly validate that thinking,” Duerden said.
Epithermal On-Ramp, Porphyry Prize
A key theme emerging from Waratah’s campaign is the genetic and spatial connection between the shallow epithermal system and deeper porphyry intrusions—a characteristic common to the district’s Tier 1 deposits. The company is currently drilling diamond tails beneath high-grade gold hits to test for intrusive porphyry roots.
“These gold epithermals… they look like orogenic systems, but we’ve got a lot of evidence now to suggest they’re the upper levels of something much bigger. The alteration tells the story—albitic caps, potassium feldspar, epidote—these are classic porphyry signatures,” Duerden explained.
Waratah’s geological model has been influenced by regional analogues such as Cowal (Evolution) and Ridgeway (Newmont). Both are examples where shallow epithermal or low-grade porphyry systems gave way to high-grade discoveries once exploration moved toward the structural margins.
“It changes the search space of where you're drilling very quickly,” said Duerden.
Breccia West: Early Porphyry Hits
Initial deep drilling at the Breccia West target has already intersected magmatic-hydrothermal breccias and visible chalcopyrite-pyrite mineralisation—evidence of a working porphyry system at depth.
Hole BZD001 returned:
196m @ 0.54% CuEq (0.35% Cu, 0.23 g/t Au) from 1m
Including 84m @ 0.62% CuEq (0.40% Cu, 0.26 g/t Au) from 29m
Follow-up drilling is now targeting a “porphyry core” intersection where these breccias converge with a magnetic anomaly in the interpreted wallrock position—potentially the heart of the porphyry engine.
“If that mag feature corresponds to the mineralisation we’ve hit in hole two, then that’s a pretty sensible drill hole,” Duerden noted. “Ridgeway started 500 metres down—we’re not there yet.”
Drilling Ramp-Up, Newsflow Ahead
With “proof of concept” now established, Waratah is accelerating drilling and targeting multiple fronts. Two rigs are currently operating, with more likely to be mobilised.
“In many ways, this is a shallow drill-out, and we can do this as a junior,” said Duerden. “There’s a lot more value to be had.”
The company anticipates strong newsflow over the second half of 2025, with priority activities including:
RC and diamond drilling at the Spur Zone (epithermal system)
Step-out drilling at Balvenie and Consols to double strike length
Porphyry core testing at Breccia West
Capital & Leadership
Waratah’s exploration team includes veterans of Newcrest, Alkane, Vale and Ma’aden. Backed by strong institutional shareholders—Gladstone Mining (9.4%) and Farjoy (9%)—the company had $2.4M cash at the end of March, plus $800K in listed equity holdings.
“We’re full of geos right now,” Duerden said. “Geos with track records of discovery. We know how to do this.”
