Recent drilling has also done its part to thicken the plot. Zenith wrapped up 37 reverse circulation holes at Dulcie Far North that extended lodes and validated the updated geological model. The holes included some eye-catching numbers, such as 6m at 2.76 g/t from 57m, including 4m at 3.72 g/t, 9m at 1.46 g/t from 55m, with 2m at 5.17 g/t), and 5m at 2.19 g/t from 97m, with 1m at 9.34g/t. Results such as these add the right kind of down-hole texture ahead of a bigger program.
The ledger highlights Zenith’s recent refocus on dollars and cents. The company completed a fully underwritten non-renounceable entitlement offer raising about $3.5 million before costs and banked around $820,000 from the sale of its Kavaklitepe gold project in Türkiye. It’s a textbook cull-and-concentrate play: prune non-core assets to fund the core.
Then there’s Queensland, which provides Zenith’s second act and is worth keeping an eye on. The company is diamond drilling up to 3000m at its Red Mountain gold project to test a Mt Wright-style intrusion-related gold system with a hint of porphyry copper on the eastern side of the complex.
The work is partly underwritten by a Queensland $275,000 Collaborative Exploration Initiative grant. One target is probing below a 129m interval grading 0.51g/t in rhyolite, which geochemists would call “on-trend” for a vertically zoned intrusive-related gold system (IRGS). The theory says grades should lift at depth if the system behaves.
Under Smith and his new management, the corporate narrative has been simplified to “going for gold”: resource growth at Dulcie first, testing the scale at Red Mountain in parallel, and letting optionality in the broader portfolio sit in the background. The latest investor material spells it out – Zenith is funded to “go for gold” after its raise, with about 12,000m of reverse circulation drilling on the slate at Dulcie, Dulcie Far North’s 302,000 ounces as the base, and the next resource update anticipated in the fourth quarter of the year.
Importantly, the market backdrop fits perfectly with the strategy. Bullion has set fresh record highs in 2025 on a cocktail of rate-cut expectations, safe-haven demand and ongoing central-bank buying. That matters when you’re converting targets to ounces and stepping into capital markets from campaign to campaign. Higher prices widen the runway.
All up, Zenith’s de-risking has been practical, not performative. It has more ground, more permitted ground and a bigger base of ounces. It has money in from the recent raise and the Türkiye exit, a clear drill path in WA and deep tests underway in Queensland.
If Dulcie’s phase two delivers logical step-outs and fills – and Red Mountain coughs up an IRGS lift at depth – the company will have gone a long way towards proving the Smith-era thesis: sharpen the focus, spend metres where they count and build a pipeline that can credibly move from resource growth into studies.
And that’s the pitch today: a lean team with a bigger WA footprint, permits in pocket, cash topped up and drills set to bite where the model already works. Then there’s a Queensland deep-drill that could add a higher-octane chapter if it behaves.
In a market that’s rewarding ounces and momentum, this one has both levers within reach.
Zenith Minerals has clearly cut the clutter, banked fresh ammo and pointed the metres at a WA corridor that already works. It also has a deep test humming in Queensland. The plan seems clear – let the drills do the talking, and if Dulcie steps up and Red Mountain winks at depth, the Smith-era refocus won’t read like strategy – it will read like momentum.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
