Surefire Resources NL (ASX:SRN) delivered progress across its Western Australian gold, critical minerals and iron portfolio during the June 2026 quarter, led by high-grade surface sampling at the newly identified Loot gold prospect and a downstream processing agreement for the large-scale Victory Bore vanadium-titanium-iron project.
The company continued work across its three principal project areas - Yidby, Victory Bore and Unaly Hill, and Perenjori and Kadji - while maintaining a focus on advancing exploration targets and assessing lower-capital development pathways.
At Yidby, surface float sampling returned gold grades of up to 13.19 g/t from a distinctive albitite rock unit at the Loot prospect, establishing a minimum mineralised strike length of about 200 metres.
Reprocessed gravity data also highlighted a relationship between gravity-low anomalies and known gold occurrences at Loot and the nearby historical Cashens open pit, while identifying three additional areas for follow-up exploration.
Meanwhile, at Victory Bore, Surefire signed a heads of agreement with Australian Flow Batteries Pty Ltd to test a representative vanadiferous titanomagnetite concentrate using a proprietary hydrometallurgical process.
The program will evaluate the recovery of vanadium and assess the potential to produce titanium dioxide and iron co-products, with the results expected to inform future project development and an update to the existing pre-feasibility study.
Surefire Resources Projects
Loot emerges as Yidby exploration highlight
The strongest exploration results of the quarter came from the 100%-owned Yidby Gold Project in Western Australia’s Mid-West region.
Surefire completed further float sampling at the newly discovered Loot prospect, around 1.5 kilometres north of the main Yidby prospect and approximately 500 metres south of the Cashens prospect and historical open pit.
Sampling focused on a recognisable, fine-grained felsic albitite unit that had returned encouraging gold grades during earlier fieldwork.
The latest campaign outlined gold-bearing float over a minimum strike length of around 200 metres, with multiple high-grade results recorded along the interpreted trend.
The strongest assay returned 13.19 g/t gold, with other notable results including 10.2 g/t, 9.03 g/t, 7.66 g/t, 7.55 g/t, 6.62 g/t, 5.04 g/t and 4.52 g/t gold.
Surefire said the mineralisation at Loot and Cashens Find was associated with a grey, fine-grained rock comprising more than 90% albite and containing common relict sulphide casts.
The company believes the albitite formed through sodium-rich hydrothermal alteration within shear zones, faults or fracture corridors in the highly metamorphosed Yidby terrane.
Such alteration systems can create pathways for mineralising fluids, supporting the possibility that the gold-bearing structures may continue both along strike and at depth.
Albitite-related occurrences are known elsewhere in Western Australia’s Yilgarn Craton, including around established gold districts and major regional fault systems.
The presence of similar rock at the base of the historical Cashens open pit has also strengthened Surefire’s interpretation that the albitite may represent an important exploration marker across the broader project area.
Yidby tenements - abundant Gold Iron and Copper Mineralisation - highlighting the Loot Prospect
Gravity work identifies further Yidby targets
Surefire also completed a reinterpretation of existing gravity geophysical data from Yidby using updated software and geological concepts.
The work, undertaken by Southern Geoscience Consultants, produced a series of inverted gravity models designed to improve the company’s understanding of subsurface rock units and the structural controls on gold mineralisation.
One of the more significant observations was that interpreted gravity-low bodies were coincident with both the Loot prospect and the Cashens historical open pit.
Albitite has a lower density than the surrounding ultramafic rocks, creating the potential for the altered rock to be detected as a negative gravity anomaly.
This density contrast provides Surefire with a potential geophysical exploration tool for identifying additional concealed albitite bodies beneath transported cover.
The gravity interpretation also outlined three previously unexplored target areas.
One anomaly lies east of Loot and south of Cashens, while two further targets are positioned west-southwest of Loot.
Surefire plans to inspect these areas through additional surface mapping and float sampling, with the aim of determining whether the anomalies are associated with further gold-bearing albitite.
The company also appointed Terra Resources during the quarter to undertake a broader review of the Yidby project.
This work includes the reconciliation, refinement and organisation of the project database, as well as a broader assessment of the geological setting and exploration potential.
The review remained underway at the end of the quarter and is expected to assist Surefire in refining targets and establishing the next phase of exploration.
Victory Bore enters battery supply chain test program
Surefire made progress at the Victory Bore vanadium-titanium-iron project by signing a heads of agreement with Australian Flow Batteries, a Western Australian long-duration energy storage company.
Under the agreement, Surefire will provide a representative concentrate sample from Victory Bore for hydrometallurgical testing.
The concentrate was produced through earlier metallurgical work completed by the company and contains elevated grades of iron, vanadium pentoxide and titanium dioxide.
Australian Flow Batteries will use its licensed processing technology to assess vanadium recovery from the concentrate and evaluate the potential production of titanium dioxide and iron co-products.
The test program is intended to provide additional technical information on potential downstream processing pathways and support Surefire’s strategy of extracting greater value from Victory Bore’s multi-commodity resource.
The collaboration also creates a potential connection between Victory Bore and an emerging Australian vanadium flow battery supply chain.
Vanadium redox flow batteries are designed for long-duration energy storage and use vanadium electrolyte to store and discharge electricity.
Surefire said the proposed test work represented a first step towards assessing whether Victory Bore concentrate could be processed into battery-grade vanadium products within an Australian-based supply chain.
Processing work to assess multiple products
Australian Flow Batteries is commercialising vanadium redox flow battery technology and is seeking to establish a vertically integrated business encompassing mineral processing, electrolyte production, battery manufacturing and energy storage deployment.
The company has licensed a hydrometallurgical process designed to extract battery-grade vanadium pentoxide, titanium dioxide and iron products from vanadiferous titanomagnetite feedstock under relatively low-temperature conditions.
The hydrochloric acid-based process includes acid recycling and is being developed through a pilot plant at Kwinana in Western Australia.
Surefire said the process could potentially produce high-purity titanium dioxide suitable for established markets, vanadium pentoxide for use in vanadium electrolyte and iron oxide that may have applications in lower-emissions steelmaking.
Testing of the Victory Bore concentrate will examine how the material performs using this processing route.
The resulting data is expected to be incorporated into future technical studies and may help Surefire assess potential partnerships, processing locations and end markets.
Large-scale resource underpins Victory Bore
Victory Bore is Surefire’s largest and most advanced project and contains a substantial vanadium, titanium and iron resource.
The project has a JORC Mineral Resource of 464.6 million tonnes grading 0.30% vanadium pentoxide, 5.12% titanium dioxide and 17.7% iron.
This includes a probable ore reserve of 93.1 million tonnes grading 0.35% vanadium pentoxide, 5.2% titanium dioxide and 19.8% iron.
Previous metallurgical test work produced a magnetic concentrate grading 61.68% iron, 1.489% vanadium pentoxide and 9.921% titanium dioxide, with relatively low levels of several key impurities.
The results showed that most of the vanadium reported to the magnetic fraction, an important consideration for the potential recovery of vanadium during downstream processing.
The non-magnetic fraction also contained 18.5% titanium dioxide, which Surefire believes may have the potential to be upgraded into a titanium feedstock.
The company’s existing development concept is based on mining and beneficiation at Victory Bore to produce a magnetite concentrate.
That concentrate could then be transported to a separate downstream processing facility capable of producing higher-value vanadium, iron and titanium products.
Surefire continued evaluating processing options and engaging with potential strategic, development and offtake partners during the quarter.
The company also progressed its application to convert the Victory Bore exploration tenure into a mining lease.
Kadji results require further investigation
At the Kadji Gold Project, Surefire resampled four historical bulk leach extractable gold, or BLEG, anomalies originally identified by BHP during exploration in the 1980s.
Twenty samples were collected from the historical locations and surrounding areas and submitted for gold and silver analysis.
However, the resampling program did not reproduce the historical anomalism.
Surefire is investigating whether the difference may have resulted from inaccuracies in the historical survey grids, which could mean the recent samples were not collected from the original locations.
The company is also considering whether differences in sampling methods influenced the outcome, with historical work using considerably larger sample sizes.
Despite the latest results, Surefire noted that the volume of historical gold and silver data was too extensive to dismiss without further assessment.
Historical work across Kadji included surface channel results of 33 metres at 0.21 g/t gold and 30 metres at 0.22 g/t, as well as drilling intersections of 28 metres at 0.72 g/t, eight metres at 1.18 g/t, four metres at 2.31 g/t and one metre at 11.6 g/t gold.
Further sampling and review work is planned during the next quarter.
Location map of Kadji Gold Project
Perenjori and Unaly Hill remain in portfolio
Surefire continued to assess development options for the Perenjori Magnetite Project, which is situated in Western Australia’s infrastructure-rich Mid-West region.
The project is around 219 kilometres by rail from Geraldton Port and contains a historical mineral resource of about 191 million tonnes grading approximately 36% iron.
The company is reviewing alternative operating scenarios and processing pathways for the project.
Unaly Hill, which hosts vanadium, titanium and iron mineralisation, is adjacent to Victory Bore and forms part of the same broader critical minerals strategy.
The project extends Surefire’s exposure to the regional vanadiferous titanomagnetite system and may offer future opportunities to increase the scale of the company’s resource base.
Next steps
Surefire plans to continue follow-up work at the Yidby Gold Project, including surface sampling across the three new gravity targets and completion of the Terra Resources geological and database review.
The findings will be used to refine the company’s exploration model and prioritise future work at Loot, Cashens and other prospects within the Yidby tenement package.
At Victory Bore, the company will provide concentrate to Australian Flow Batteries for hydrometallurgical testing.
The results will be assessed for inclusion in an updated pre-feasibility study and will assist the company in evaluating downstream processing, partnership and product development opportunities.
Surefire will also continue progressing the Victory Bore mining lease application and engaging with potential strategic investors, offtake groups and project development partners.
Further assay and verification work is planned at Kadji to resolve the discrepancy between the recent resampling and the historical exploration database.