Consensus community valuation
9th June 2026: Commencement of Drilling at Pickle Crow
Page 1 of today's announcement:
This project is in Canada, however so is FFM's Green Bay Copper/Gold Project and it's a wonderful asset. I own FFM in my ISA (which only holds ASX300 companies - due to the fund rules) and I hold BVR in my SPF (which holds sub-ASX300 more-speculative companies), and FFM did control both projects until they sold their controlling (70%) interest in the high-grade Pickle Crow Gold Project to Bellavista Resources (BVR) in exchange for BVR shares in April (this year).
BVR now own FFM's former Ontario gold assets - including that 70% stake in the Pickle Crow Gold Project and the Sioux Lookout Project for which FFM received 60 million BVR shares (worth A$47.4 million at the time); FFM then distributed those 60 million BVR shares directly to its (FFM's) shareholders - and I was in cash at the time waiting for my ISA (Income Stream Account) to be opened, so have had to buy all of my small BVR position on-market.
FFM does also retain 50 million BVR Performance Rights, which will vest upon the achievement of specific drilling, resource growth, and production milestones at Pickle Crow, so those are really Milestone Rights in my view.
The reason given for FFM divesting Pickle Crow at the RRS (Resources Rising Stars) Gather Round Conference at the Adelaide Convention Centre in April (two months ago, attended by @SudMav and myself) by Firefly's (FFM's) CEO, Darren Cooke (who is ex-NST - Darren spent 6 years as part of the Business Development team at Northern Star Resources that completed M&A transactions that saw the company transform from a junior into a global gold company, now Australia's largest as well as a global top-10 gold producer - plus Darren previously also held senior positions in global majors Barrick Gold and Newmont, the world's largest gold miner) was that FireFly's management and board didn't feel they had the "bandwidth" to give Pickle Crow the love it deserved because they were so focused on developing Green Bay, their flagship asset.
So, despite Pickle Crow being their 2nd best project, they felt it would benefit more from being the flagship project of a different company who would give it the sole focus it deserved.
I also think that Pickle Crow wasn't really being valued correctly (i.e. not highly enough) within FFM, and spinning it out into a different company could see the two projects get more appropriately valued by the market given further drilling and time. This is because Green Bay has some gold but is predominantly a copper project, while Pickle Crow is a gold project, so unless you're an established producer like EVN who have branched out from gold into copper, the market tends to prefer pure plays to mixed commodity companies, especially at the junior end, however that's just my own interpretation, and I could be wrong.
So, BVR has been around for a while, but they have only controlled Pickle Crow for 2 months, and their MD, Glenn Jardine also presented at the aforementioned RRS Gather Round in April, and it was a fairly compelling presentation, particularly as they are cashed up, with zero debt, and were about to embark on 15 km (15,000 metres) of MR delineation and extensional Diamond Drilling (DD - the best type of drilling; it's the most expensive but produces solid drill cores where there is often visible gold). DD (as opposed to RC or AC drilling) is also much more accurate in terms of assay results and being able to pinpoint exactly where the highest grade gold is positioned, so tends to produce more reliable and useful results than cheaper forms of drilling.
And most of the gold that has been found already at Pickle Crow is shallow (near surface) and the mineralisation begins from surface. There's a heck of a lot to like about this project. It's large, the grades are really good, especially for an OP project - which is what they are initially targeting.
And then there's the management:
Their MD, Glenn Jardine is ex-De Grey Mining (DEG) and has only been their MD since 3 November 2025, and I imagine that's when this deal (BVR to gain the controlling interest in Pickle Crow from FFM) began brewing.
Glenn has extensive experience in the resources industry, spanning early-stage exploration through to managing multi-operational corporations, business development and mergers and acquisitions. He has taken projects from discovery through resource growth, feasibility studies, equity funding, debt financing, project development and operations. As I said, most recently Glenn Jardine was MD of De Grey Mining Limited, successfully taking the world class Hemi Gold Project from discovery through to financing and environmental approvals prior to the company being taken over by Northern Star Resources (NST) for $6 billion.
Peter Canterbury is BVR's Finance Director, also appointed on 3 November 2025, and he was De Grey's CFO. Peter is a seasoned mining executive with extensive experience across the full lifecycle of resources projects from discovery through to operations both in Australia and globally. He was the CFO at De Grey Mining from February 2021 until its takeover by Northern Star in May 2025. During that time he was integral to the development of the Hemi project including funding of the Company consisting of A$1.2B of equity and credit approved A$1.1B of Project Debt.
So both Peter Canterbury and Glenn Jardine have superb recent and relevant experience in developing large world class gold deposits.
Peter's previous roles include being CFO at Sundance Resources for six years until 2013. During his time at Sundance, he was also Acting Chief Executive in the recovery of the company following the tragic plane crash which killed the Company’s entire Board and Chief Executive. He was Chief Executive of Bauxite Resources from 2013 until 2016 and Managing Director of Triton Minerals from 2016 to 2021. He is currently an Independent Non-executive Director of Unico Silver (ASX: USL).
Being a sub-$100m (currently around $82m) company, BVR only have a 4 person Board, and one of their NEDs is Michael Wilson, who has been a BVR Board member since November 2021. Mr Wilson is a geologist with over 25 years’ experience with extensive gold and base metals exploration experience throughout Australia and Chile. He has played key roles in discovering and defining more than 1.2 million ounces of gold and over 172 million pounds of copper globally with ASX listed junior companies. In 2016 Mr Wilson's leadership of a dedicated exploration team resulted in that team being awarded the inaugural NSW Mineral Council Explorer of the Year, specifically for their work on the Collerina Copper Project discovery for Helix Resources.
So, now we have some newsflow; BVR are going to begin this 15 km of new drilling this month (June 2026) and we can expect newsflow including results of that drilling from July onwards. It's a great project with a lot of upside potential and it's being run by the ex-MD and ex-CFO of De Grey (DEG) who developed the $6 Billion Hemi deposit in northern WA that is now owned by NST.
The timing of today's announcement was unfortunate - on a day in which everything across the gold sector was getting smashed, however BVR closed only half of one cent down (or -1.27%) on a day when only 4 goldies were in the green out of the 75 companies on my Aussie Gold Sector watchlist.
But with BVR I hold them for expected newsflow through the remainder of this calendar year and beyond, not for what their share price does on a daily basis.
Disclosure: BVR Held (0.74%), and FFM Held (4%).
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