Premier1 Lithium is set to initiate its first reverse circulation (RC) drilling programme at the Rochefort Gold Prospect in the Abbotts North Project, Western Australia, by late May 2026.
The project is situated 35km north of Meekatharra and approximately 20km north of the Crown Prince deposit owned by New Murchison Gold.
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It has received the necessary regulatory and heritage approvals for the drilling programme.
Premier1’s programme involves drilling up to five RC holes totalling around 1,000m.
This initial phase aims to test the core of the gold anomaly, evaluate the extent of mineralisation, and assess its continuity along strike and down dip.
The drill-holes are set to intersect quartz-hematite vein systems and broader alteration halos hosted within fractionated quartz dolerites, mirroring characteristics of major Yilgarn gold deposits.
Rochefort was first discovered through geological mapping and rock chip sampling, which revealed significant results of up to 11.7 grams per tonne gold from quartz-hematite veins trending north-south.
Follow-up soil sampling identified a consistent gold-in-soil anomaly of approximately 400m × 350m, with peak soil values reaching 30 parts per billion (ppb) gold.
Subsequent UltraFine re-assays recorded maximum values of 42.9ppb gold.
In March 2026, Premier1 reported the completion of a high-resolution ground gravity survey at Rochefort.
Analysis of the gravity data, combined with pre-existing, high-resolution airborne magnetic data, indicated that the mineralisation is positioned at intersections of north-south trending structures and a major north-west lithological contact between metasedimentary rocks and fractionated dolerites.
Premier1 Lithium executive director Simon Phillips said: “What we are seeing at Rochefort has all the hallmarks of a gold mineralised system, with high-grade rock chips, a coherent soil anomaly and a clear structural setting now defined across the prospect.
“Rochefort sits in the same Abbotts Greenstone Belt that hosts New Murchison Gold’s producing Crown Prince deposit ~20 km to the south – but unlike almost every other prospect across this significantly underexplored belt, there is no evidence of historical workings and it has been defined entirely through modern, systematic exploration.
“This makes Rochefort a genuinely rare and compelling discovery opportunity in a proven and now re-emerging greenstone belt and progressing to this maiden drill programme is an exciting step as we move to test it.”
