Ballard Mining million-ounce Baldock gold resource: design notes for mine planners
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Ballard Mining’s Baldock gold project in Western Australia has lifted its combined indicated and inferred mineral resource to 1 million ounces, signalling a substantial scale-up of the greenfields discovery. The resource growth follows recent drilling along the main shear-hosted lode system, with mineralisation defined over several kilometres of strike and to depths typical of Archaean orogenic gold camps in the Yilgarn. For mine planners and geotechs, the larger inventory strengthens the case for a standalone open pit transitioning to underground, with corresponding demands on pit slope design, dewatering and paste backfill options.
Technical Brief
- Mineralisation is hosted in a shear-related lode system, pointing to structurally controlled ore continuity and geotechnical anisotropy.
- Shear-hosted geometry will likely drive orientation of pit walls relative to foliation to manage planar and wedge failures.
- Transition to underground mining would enable paste backfill to contribute to both ground support and tailings management.
- For similar shear-hosted systems, the case reinforces early integration of structural geology, hydrogeology and slope design in resource drilling.
Our Take
A one‑million‑ounce gold resource at Baldock in Australia drops Ballard Mining straight into the scale bracket where, in our database, juniors typically start attracting farm‑in interest from established ASX gold producers such as Northern Star Resources and De Grey Mining.
With gold up roughly 40% in 2025 according to our recent producer‑ranking coverage, a resource of this size has markedly better optionality for Ballard Mining, from a modest starter operation through to a sale or JV once further drilling upgrades the inferred component.
Among the 358 gold‑keyword pieces in our coverage, Australian project stories tagged as ‘Projects’ that cross the one‑million‑ounce threshold often see a pivot from pure exploration newsflow to early scoping and permitting work within the next reporting cycle.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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