Great Northern Minerals (ASX:GNM) lights up four IP targets under Iron Butte

The strongest chargeability sits directly beneath the deposit and up-dip from that 13.5 g/t deeper hit

Great Northern Minerals (ASX:GNM) has just done the work most juniors skip. Rather than push straight into a maiden drill program on gut feel, the company has reprocessed the 2022 pole-dipole IP dataset at Iron Butte and pulled four fresh chargeability anomalies out of it. All four sit undrilled across a 3km corridor in Nevada’s Battle Mountain district.

The most interesting one is directly beneath the existing 480,000oz gold and 11.5Moz silver resource. That anomaly reads up to 30 mV/V and sits up-dip of hole AAU22-04, which returned 1.5m at 13.5 g/t gold from 405.4m. The core of the anomaly has never been drilled.

The other three targets sit at Iron Butte North, Iron Butte South and Caetano. Each one carries either surface geochemistry, historical drill intercepts ending in mineralisation, or both. The maiden drill campaign is still targeted for Q3 CY2026, and permitting and contractor engagement are now underway.

For investors following the Iron Butte story since the April 2026 acquisition, this is the piece that turns a target list into a real drill plan. And it changes the odds on the maiden program in a way the market has not fully priced.

The central anomaly is the one that could reshape the resource

Chargeability anomalies map disseminated sulphides. In plain English, IP gives geologists a picture of where sulphide minerals sit in fresh rock, and in epithermal and Carlin-style systems those sulphides often carry the gold.

The Iron Butte Central anomaly is compelling for one simple reason. The existing 480,000oz resource is an oxide shell. The chargeability sits underneath it, and the one deep hole that clipped the edge of the anomaly returned 13.5 g/t gold. That is a 30-fold uplift on the 0.4 g/t oxide grade.

If the core of that anomaly holds Carlin-style mineralisation, the Iron Butte story stops being a bulk-tonnage heap-leach play and starts being something considerably more valuable per ounce. We think that is the real prize sitting in today’s announcement.

The other three targets extend the footprint rather than deepen it

Iron Butte North lines up the chargeability with the soil anomaly GNM walked in April, which returned rock chips up to 8.3 g/t gold. Coincident geochemistry and geophysics is the textbook definition of a high-priority drill target.

Iron Butte South sits 900m south of the resource, directly beneath two historical holes that ended in mineralisation. Caetano sits 1km northeast on the newly staked ground, next to a historical intercept of 10.7m at 0.2 g/t gold and 11 g/t silver from 9.1m.

None of these are speculative walk-up targets. Each one has either surface grade, historical drilling that stopped in mineralisation, or both, sitting alongside the geophysical signature.

Where the funding math starts to bite

GNM had around A$3.9 million in cash at the last update, which the company said was enough to fund the maiden drill program. Four priority targets across 3km of strike is a bigger program than one central anomaly.

The skeptical read is that GNM will need to prioritise ruthlessly, or return to market before all four targets get tested properly. A capital raise ahead of drilling is a real possibility investors should factor in, particularly if the share price responds to today’s news.

The counter is that a well-timed raise on the back of a strong drill hit at the central target would be materially less dilutive than one done in advance.

The Investors Takeaway for Great Northern Minerals

The sequencing here matters. Permitting and contractor engagement are running now, drilling is targeted for Q3 CY2026, and the drone magnetic reinterpretation is still to land on top of the IP work. That is a lot of catalyst compressed into a short window.

The single most important hole in the maiden program will be the one that tests the core of the central chargeability anomaly beneath the resource. If it hits Carlin-style grades similar to the 13.5 g/t edge intercept, the entire valuation frame on GNM changes. Investors can read our previous coverage of GNM’s Iron Butte drone magnetic work at stocksdownunder.

Watch for the final target prioritisation, any indication of a pre-drill capital top-up, and the first drill assays. That is the sequence that either validates the district thesis or leaves GNM as a solid oxide story trading on peer comps.