First Au Limited
First Au Limited (ASX: FAU) is an Australian gold explorer. Its Gimlet Gold Project carries an updated JORC Mineral Resource Estimate of 1.58 million tonnes at 2.22 g/t Au for 112,900 contained ounces of gold above a 0.5 g/t Au cut-off, of which 62% (70,400 ounces) has been upgraded to the Indicated category from a resource that was previously entirely Inferred; the company has characterised that upgrade as clearing the path to development studies. First Au completed its acquisitions of the Barlee Gold Project in June 2026 and of the Riverina East Gold Project, which includes the historic First Hit gold mine, in July 2026, and in September 2026 agreed to acquire the Sandstone gold project for about A$900,000 in cash, shares and deferred consideration. No scoping study, PEA, Pre-Feasibility or Feasibility Study has been completed.
Lifecycle Milestones
Not in place: mill. Not yet determined: tailings facility, road access, grid power.
Not in place: mill. Not yet determined: tailings facility, road access, grid power.
Combined view across 4 projects. Figures below are only combined where the underlying basis genuinely matches -- see the notes under each.
Jurisdiction (40%)9/10
Western Australia: Fraser PPI 2025 is 88.53 of 100 (rank 13 of 68), which maps to 9 on this site's scale. Western Australia / Victoria, Australia -- Tier-1 mining jurisdiction.
Infrastructure (40%)3.6/10
No confirmed mill at Gimlet Gold Project, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia; road access, grid power, and tailings facility not yet researched, counted at a neutral 5/10 until established.
Nearby producing mine (20%)10/10
Binduli North (Janet Ivy) (Norton Gold Fields Pty Ltd) is 11 km away -- within shared-mill trucking range.
Acquisition Susceptibility
A relative ranking of how closely this company matches the profile of juniors that have actually been acquired — not a probability, and not a reason to buy. Acquisitions are rare: only a few dozen significant deals happen a year across a universe of thousands of juniors, so even a high score here describes a long shot. The strongest signal in the research, a producer that already owns part of the company, is scored from its disclosed strategic shareholders. A producer that is a joint-venture or earn-in partner on the project, rather than a shareholder, isn't captured yet.
How this score is built
- Disclosed pending dealSub-score: Not scored
No pending acquisition or merger disclosed (checked)
Not scored: having no deal in flight isn't held against a company.
Weight 26.25% - Producer's strategic stakeSub-score: Not scored
No producer holds a disclosed stake on file (holder register researched) See holders
Not scored: most juniors that do get bought had no prior toehold, so a missing stake says little either way.
Weight 25% - Distance to a producing mineSub-score:8.9/10
Nearest producing mine: Binduli North (Janet Ivy) (Norton Gold Fields Pty Ltd), 11 km
10 next to a producing mine, 8 at 20 km, 5 at 50 km, 0 beyond 200 km.
Weight 22.5% · 46% here - Lifecycle stageSub-score:3.5/10
Stage: Resource Definition
Feasibility and permitting score 10, where deals cluster, and production 5.5; earlier stages score less, down to 1 at grassroots.
Weight 15% · 31% here - JurisdictionSub-score:9/10
Australia: jurisdiction score 9/10
Our jurisdiction score, used as is: higher means lower political and permitting risk.
Weight 6.75% · 14% here - CommoditySub-score:10/10
Primary commodity: Gold
Gold 10, copper 8, silver 5, nickel and uranium 4, others 2: most majors' deals are for gold.
Weight 4.5% · 9% here
Weight is each input's share of the full score. “Here” is its share of this company's score: inputs that aren't scored are left out and the rest re-weighted, never counted as zero.
Your Rankings
Management Team
Executive Chairman of First Au Limited, an ASX-listed exploration company with gold and base metal projects in Western Australia.
Geology Manager at Beacon Minerals Limited; also a non-executive director of First Au Limited. Production and growth geologist with over a decade focused on the Eastern Goldfields, including work on KCGM, Beta Hunt and Daisy Milano.
Non-Executive Director of First Au Limited; also Non-Executive Chairman of OD6 Metals Limited.
Insiders, Investors & Smart Money
Notable shareholders and insiders whose involvement is worth knowing about, plus what we're seeing from institutional/large-investor activity.
Insiders bought roughly AU$277,000 of stock on-market over a recent quarter, including a purchase by non-executive director Daniel Raihani described as the largest insider buy in the past year, and directors separately committed a minimum AU$100,000 to the company's share purchase plan. The exact per-share price is inconsistently reported across sources, so this is read as real but imprecisely documented activity.
No notable insiders tracked for this miner yet.
Reports, Presentations & Documents
First Au is a gold explorer focused on Western Australia. Its only resource is at the 100%-owned Gimlet gold project, about 15 km north-west of Kalgoorlie, where a JORC estimate released on 16 April 2026 totals 1.58 Mt at 2.22 g/t gold for 112,900 oz, including 70,400 oz indicated in 1,034,000 t at 2.12 g/t and 42,500 oz inferred; the company is advancing concept-level technical studies there and evaluating third-party processing in the Kalgoorlie region. In 2026 it completed the acquisitions of the Barlee gold project in June and of the Riverina East gold project from Viking Mines in July, which includes the historic First Hit mine that produced about 30,000 oz at 7.7 g/t in 2002, and in October 2026 it began a maiden reverse-circulation drill program at First Hit aimed at a first resource estimate there. In September 2026 it agreed to acquire the Sandstone gold project and entered a binding takeover implementation deed to acquire Javelin Minerals in an all-scrip offer supported by Javelin's board, and in October 2026 it signed a binding agreement to acquire the Lady Jane gold project in the Ora Banda district from Dynamic Metals. No economic study has been published.