The US Forest Service has approved Resolution Minerals Ltd (ASX:RML, OTC:RLMLF)’s Plan of Operations for Horse Heaven, in Idaho, United States, giving the company permission for up to 57 drill holes from 19 sites along existing roads. The company is now set to begin drilling in August 2025.
The Phase 1 drilling campaign will test high-priority targets for antimony, gold and tungsten beyond the historically tested oxide/sulphide layer. The program will initially focus on the Golden Gate target area.
The Golden Gate Ridge area is largely underexplored at depth. Previous explorers targeted open-pit, heap leach gold and did not assay for antimony or tungsten. The new program by Resolution aims to address this gap by testing deeper sulphide zones and evaluating the potential for critical minerals.
In another milestone for the company, vendor 1503571 B.C. has completed a key acquisition step by exercising its option to acquire full ownership of the Horse Heaven Project, satisfying a primary condition of RML’s acquisition process.
CEO of US Operations, Craig Lindsay, noted that the Horse Heaven Project offers the first new drilling in more than three decades.
“The receipt of this approval to conduct drilling operations is transformational for the Horse Heaven Project, and allows for the first new drilling at the project in over thirty years. Resolution Minerals is very excited to begin aggressively advancing Horse Heaven, to confirm the presence of a gold resource at Golden Gate, expand known mineralisation and potentially identifying the presence of tungsten and antimony,” Lindsay said.
Drilling permits unlock potential at Golden Gate target
The Phase 1 program will involve approximately 20,000 feet of drilling across 20 holes, targeting the Golden Gate Fault Zone.
This zone extends over 3.5 kilometres and hosts disseminated gold mineralisation within altered granodiorite. Historical drilling focused only on shallow oxide zones, with limited hole depths of less than 170 metres. Historic assays from the 1980s and 1990s include:
- 36.6 metres at 1.51 g/t gold (GGR-31)
- 71.6 metres at 1.37 g/t gold (GGR-32)
- 59.4 metres at 1.03 g/t gold (GGR-33)
“Historically, the Golden Gate Ridge area has produced tungsten from both open pits and underground adits, and an antimony anomaly has been identified that runs parallel to the Golden Fault Zone. We are excited about the prospect of the Horse Heaven Project and its potential to play an important role in meeting the United States’ growing demand for a domestic supply of critical metals,” Lindsay said.
“The project aligns with broader US objectives to strengthen domestic supply chains for critical metals.”
Phase 1 drilling is scheduled to begin in August 2025, with Phase 2 planned for Spring/Summer 2026.
Acquisition progresses with key vendor milestone met
The vendor, 1503571 B.C., has exercised its option to acquire 100% of 1262446 B.C. Ltd, which owns the Horse Heaven Project through its subsidiary Horse Heaven Holdings Inc. This step satisfies one of the three key conditions for Resolution’s acquisition.
Remaining conditions include the completion of due diligence by Resolution and shareholder approval, which is being sought at a General Meeting on July 25, 2025.
Meanwhile, Resolution has announced changes to escrow arrangements in line with Listing Rule 3.10A:
- 12.5 million fully paid ordinary shares will be released from voluntary escrow on July 17, 2025, ahead of the original September 21, 2025, release.
- 5 million RMLOC quoted options, also in escrow, will be released on July 31, 2025.
- A further 81,963,480 RMLO options are set to expire on July 31, 2025.
These events mark key dates for investors ahead of the drilling campaign and potential acquisition finalisation.