Siren Gold has announced the results of their Feb-May deep hole drilling (ASX Statement 9 July 2025).
Andrew Yuill says the result is discouraging. “Their diagram shows just 1m @1.21 g/t and 4m @2.5 g/t, with the implication that the rest is of lesser gold content.”
Axel Downard-Wilke agrees. “They’ve found exactly nothing. Their results remain so shaky that they aren’t allowed to report financial projections, and no bank would be interested in lending them any money based on what they’ve found thus far.”
Despite this Siren are talking up their results, using language like ‘significant’, ‘exciting’, ‘compelling’ and ‘very strong potential.’ While they claim that the results show the gold concentration is increasing the deeper they go, past results closer to the surface show considerably higher gold deposits.
They’re now massaging their figures – using a lower cut-off figure let them lift the total Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) to 953koz from 824koz, and now they are referring to it as “nearly 1 million”. Their share price plummeted to 4.8c with the announcement and they are clearly desperate.
The company does not know yet whether it has a viable project. With 67% of resources only ‘Inferred’ (speculative), it is not currently able to release forecast production and financial information under ASX listing rules.
It states it will start infill drilling at SE Traverse, Carapace and Main Zone later this year to increase the ‘Indicated’ (probable) MRE from the current 35% to 80% (see map below).
Drilling would not to be completed until June 2026, after which the MRE and Scoping Study would be updated to meet ASX listing rules and enable reporting of production and financial outcomes. But Siren states it is expecting a (positive) decision by end 2025 on its submitted Mining Permit Application.
“How can the government decide on the application without having these results?” says Teri Sawers. “Despite reporting positively on their latest drilling, the ‘Indicated’ MRE hasn’t changed, meaning at this point Siren’s application does not meet the requirements of the Crown Minerals Act.”
“They have this exactly the wrong way round”, says Axel. “They don’t want to spend money to find out whether the resource is economically viable until they get the permit, but the law requires them to prove they have an economically extractable resource before a permit can be issued. We’re calling on NZPAM to do their job and decline the permit application.”
The Cobb is a very high rainfall area that simply isn’t a suitable location for a gold mine. For the third time in just weeks Tasman has declared a state of emergency after our region has been battered by unprecedented rain causing huge flooding, slips and devastating damage. Slips have now closed the Cobb Valley Road for some weeks and once again Tākaka Hill will require a daunting amount of remediation.
How would a mining waste facility in Upper Tākaka somehow be guaranteed – forever – to be accident-proof against similar slips in future severe storms? Or in a massive Alpine Fault quake?
This is the wrong mine in the wrong place.
Sams Creek Collective will keep working to raise awareness about what’s at stake from possible gold mining waste pollution at the head of our community’s waterways.
We will soon be calling a second public meeting to update the local community, answer questions and hear their views. We call on Siren Gold to do the same in seeking input from and meeting with our Golden Bay community in the months ahead.
For further information call Axel Downard-Wilke on 027 2929 810
