Broad, shallow gold mineralisation has now been defined over approximately 500m of strike within and around the historical Teddy Bear open pit in Western Australia for Medallion, adding another layer to its strategy of balancing near-term processing with longer-term resource growth.
Teddy Bear sits 64km north of the Cosmic Boy Concentrator and has been identified as one of several priority gold prospects being systematically advanced across Forrestania, where Medallion is seeking to unlock both internal feed sources and broader district-scale value.
The mineralisation is supporting work towards a future mineral resource estimate (MRE) and further testing of deposit extensions. Notable historical intercepts include 18m at 3.64 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 57m, including 3m at 10.23g/t gold from 64m; 40m at 1.41g/t gold from 20m, including 8m at 2.63g/t gold from 42m; and 18m at 2.49g/t gold from 22m.
The company’s broader development model has centred on combining the Ravensthorpe gold project with Forrestania processing infrastructure, including the Cosmic Boy facility. Medallion plans to develop a new underground mine centre at Ravensthorpe and truck ore to an existing Forrestania facility, with the repurposing of that facility expected to streamline its pathway to becoming a gold producer.
Medallion managing director Paul Bennett said Teddy Bear had added further weight to the broader Forrestania opportunity, following the company’s recent work at Lounge Lizard.
“The Forrestania Gold Project is continuing to demonstrate the breadth of its gold potential,” Bennett said.
“Following the recent results from Lounge Lizard, Teddy Bear provides further confidence that the project hosts multiple opportunities capable of contributing to future resource growth.”
Medallion has been working to reduce risk around the Ravensthorpe-Forrestania development concept. Earlier this year, the company secured the final primary environmental approval required for development at Ravensthorpe, with the sulphide production strategy involving underground mining at Ravensthorpe and processing at Forrestania.
Teddy Bear, therefore, adds a second dimension to the wider strategy; Ravensthorpe remains the core development engine, but Forrestania is emerging as a complementary growth platform, with historical gold endowment, existing infrastructure and multiple prospects that could contribute to mine life, internal feed or early processing opportunities.
Medallion recently completed a shallow Slimline reverse circulation drilling program on a historical stockpile adjacent to the Teddy Bear waste dump, returning an average grade of 0.95g/t gold and a peak assay of 4.81g/t gold. The drilling results and bulk density data are expected to support a stockpile MRE and provide inputs into Medallion’s assessment of early processing opportunities at Forrestania.
Bennett said the stockpile work was important to Medallion’s production pathway as well as its longer-term resource-building ambitions.
“Importantly, the evaluation of the Teddy Bear stockpile complements our Early Production Strategy, demonstrating that Forrestania presents opportunities to both build long-term resources and identify near-term processing opportunities as we continue unlocking value across the project,” he said.
Teddy Bear may not, by itself, define Medallion’s production outlook, but it supports the company’s argument that Forrestania can offer more than a single processing solution.
The presence of shallow mineralisation, remaining extensions outside the historical pit and stockpiled material all feed into a broader optionality story at a time when developers are under pressure to bring projects forward with capital discipline.
The project’s history also gives Medallion a practical base to work from. Teddy Bear is located on granted mining lease M77/324 within the Western Trend of the Forrestania Greenstone Belt, approximately 16km west of the 1.4-million-ounce Bounty gold mine.
It was mined as a small satellite open pit to Bounty between 1989 and 1992, with historical drilling comprising 210 holes completed between 1989 and 1998, plus three holes drilled in 2018.
Medallion has completed a first-pass evaluation of Teddy Bear, including data validation, DGPS surveys of available collars, open-pit mapping, data review and stockpile drilling.
The company said this work validated the historical drilling dataset and demonstrated strong continuity of the shallow-dipping gold mineralisation.
Further work will focus on grade validation, resource definition and extensional drilling to support a future MRE. Deep sectional drilling is also planned to better define the plunge geometry and assess additional mineralisation at depth.
The broader picture is a two-pillar growth strategy of advancing Ravensthorpe towards production while systematically unlocking Forrestania’s gold potential. Bennett said that the combination could give the company a larger platform to build from.
“Combined with the Ravensthorpe Gold Project, Forrestania provides the second pillar of Medallion’s growth strategy, with a unique platform to expand resources, extend mine life and build a larger, sustainable gold business,” he said.
