Forrestania Resources’ rise has been a rollercoaster ride, and a number of gold juniors are along for it. Pic: Getty Images
Led by former MinRes executive David Geraghty, Forrestania Resources has become a force in WA’s small-cap gold scene with a dealmaking spree
The $750m capped gold developer has over 2Moz in gold resources and two plants under refurbishment
We look at some of the WA juniors FRS is backing as it builds its gold kingdom
In May 2025, fresh off 21 years at WA mining success story Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN), David Geraghty made a fateful move that shook up the WA gold scene.
The mechanical engineer and experienced mining executive entered the fray at Forrestania Resources (ASX:FRS), becoming a non-executive director.
In July of that year, he replaced Perth corporate advisor John Hannaford as chair.
That triggered a furious acquisition spree that put the Kerry Stokes-backed gold developer well and truly on the map, aided by a rising gold price that eventually hit an all-time high of US$5500/oz in January this year.
From the outside looking in, the firm has been on a warpath to buy everything not nailed down (and some things that are) in the Goldfields region.
A review of ASX releases by Stockhead shows that since Geraghty’s elevation, FRS has announced 24 new deals.
The most ambitious of those was the $300 million purchase of the Edna May gold project from Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS), which saw the company raise $310m from investors to pay $210m in cash and $90m in shares for the prized gold mine and mill near Westonia.
FRS subsequently declared a gold resource of over 2Moz spread over 13 deposits, around half of it immediately surrounding Edna May.
From 1c in early 2025, FRS shares would peak at 69c on February 27.
They have since reverted to 32c, thanks in part to a pullback in gold prices (still healthy at US$4285/oz) and dilution to finance the Edna May deal.
Regardless, breathless dealmaking has turned what looked like an anonymous gold explorer into a $750m-plus player with two plants under refurbishment at Edna May and Lake Johnston – infrastructure that holds serious corporate capital in the current gold market.
The next deal
The pace of dealmaking is so furious, MST Financial has developed a tool, available on the FRS website, providing a timeline of its acquisitions.
Among the deals FRS has engineered in the past year a handful stand out.
Many are acquisitions of non-core projects from fellow explorers, ground held by prospectors or private companies seeking liquidity.
But a few have seen Forrestania launch more ambitious off-market takeovers of competitors.
Along with its project-level purchases of Edna May and Lake Johnston, Geraghty and Co. have looked to consolidate their command of the Southern Cross gold region via corporate action.
That went smoothly at Kula Gold last year, nailing down the target’s Mt Palmer and Southern Cross gold projects near the Marvel Loch gold mine (the latter owned by China’s Barto Gold Mining).
It’s been a bumpier ride at Zenith Minerals (ASX:ZNC), where corrective notices were ordered from the Takeovers Panel following complaints that the Zenith board continued to recommend the offer without reviewing it in light of the dilution caused by the Edna May deal.
FRS currently controls 58.33% of the target ahead of the release of a supplementary bidder’s statement addressing shortcomings identified by the Takeovers Panel.
But it isn’t the only nearby explorer in which Forrestania (or Geraghty himself) has capital parked.
And it could well open the door to a future deal or partnership to progress juniors into production.
According to IRESS data Forrestania has significant stakes in the following ASX plays (as of August 31):
On top of that, Geraghty has significant shareholdings in BSA (ASX:BSA) and Javelin Minerals (ASX:JAV), where he upped his stake this month from an initial 7.6% to 9.65%.
As it turned out, his appearance on the register may have been a harbinger that a deal was on its way.
Javelin announced on September 16 a unanimous board recommendation for a scrip takeover at a 40.6% premium from First Au (ASX:FAU), a combination which would hold three gold deposits around the Kalgoorlie region hosting 350,600oz of consolidated gold.
First Au is chaired by Daniel Raihani, who also sits as a non-executive director on the Forrestania board.
Which other ASX juniors are in the FRS orbit?
Forrestania has hoovered up projects, mills and companies in a major gold belt between Westonia and Lake Johnston. Pic: FRS
OzAurum raised $4.1 million in a placement at 7.2c per share back in January, bringing Forrestania on board as a 19.9% shareholder.
“This strategic investment by Forrestania represents a strong endorsement of the quality, scale and development readiness of the James Stage 1 project,” OzAurum’s managing director Andrew Pumphrey said at the time.
“Importantly, the placement follows our recent high-grade drilling results, which have materially strengthened confidence in the proposed open pit and heap leach development pathway.
“Chairman David Geraghty with his operational experience as a qualified metallurgical engineer bringing projects into production will be invaluable to OZM as we move into production.”
OzAurum counts as its flagship the Mulgabbie North gold project, around 120km northeast of Kalgoorlie, close to Northern Star’s Carosue Dam gold mine.
It holds a resource of 260,000oz at 0.7g/t at Mulgabbie North, where the plan is to develop a heap leach operation which can be scaled up incrementally.
Development of the first stage is underway, with a heap leach plant currently being refurbished in Kalgoorlie and environmental permitting for a larger stage 2 project ongoing.
Forrestania emerged as a substantial holder with 7.03% of Leeuwin on June 12 this year, having built up its position over three months.
The most substantial was a $1.34m purchase on June 11 of over 6.7m shares, which followed news Leeuwin had signed an MoU with Bain Global Resources and its affiliated mining contractor MEGA Resources to advance its Marda project.
FRS has since increased its stake to 12.71%, including shares assigned by Ramelius Resources as part of the Edna May deal.
Leeuwin’s Marda, which has a resource of around 378,600oz, looms as a potentially important asset in the context of FRS’ redevelopment of Edna May.
It was, notably, one of the projects mined as a satellite by Ramelius while it owned the Edna May gold project.
Leeuwin has also, subsequently, acquired early stage gold exploration projects sitting near the Marvel Loch gold project and adjacent to Forrestania’s Lake Johnston mill.
TG6 has been on FRS’ radar for some time, with FRS initially building a substantial shareholder position in September last year.
It was later revealed that TG6 had rebuffed an indicative proposal from FRS for a takeover, with Forrestania at the end of October saying it had no intention to proceed with a bid.
FRS’ position has continued to creep up on the back of both acquisitions and participation in subsequent placements.
It joins a crowded register including a host of institutional names like 1832 Asset Management and Datt Capital, as well as Wesfarmers subsidiary Montague Resources, which sold the flagship Van Uden project to TG6.
Van Uden contains 270,800oz at 1.1g/t Au, with 152,600oz in indicated resources.
But the company is already planning to enter production early via an ore processing agreement with Medallion Metals (ASX:MM8), the owner of the Cosmic Boy mill. It is studying a heap leach project leveraging its near-surface laterite resources which total 1Mt at 0.52g/t for 17,700oz.
On top of that, TG6 has a second limb via its Lake Johnston lithium project.
A maiden resource of 6.7Mt at 1.2% Li2O sets up the project as a potential direct shipping ore lithium producer, which could follow similar operations like Develop Global’s (ASX:DVP) Pioneer Dome in finding a speedy path to market.
That deposit at Burmeister is complemented with a broader exploration target of 11-14.5Mt at 0.9-1.2% Li2O.
At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While OzAurum Resources, Javelin Minerals, Leeuwin Metals and TG Metals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.