The Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum opened in Kalgoorlie on Monday, and as usual the timing has coincided with a burst of announcements from ASX gold companies keen to catch the eye of the roughly 2,600 delegates in town. With gold trading near record levels around A$5,800 an ounce, explorers and producers alike have used the forum to showcase progress on projects across Western Australia and beyond, giving investors a useful snapshot of where the sector’s momentum currently sits.
Ausgold extends Katanning beyond current resource
Among the standout releases this week, Ausgold reported that recent drilling at its Katanning gold project in Western Australia’s Great Southern region has extended mineralisation well beyond the boundaries of the existing Mineral Resource. The company said the growing pipeline of results is building the case for a materially larger deposit, with an updated Mineral Resource Estimate now targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026. Katanning has been steadily re-rated by the market over the past year as infill and step-out drilling has consistently returned wide, shallow gold intercepts, and this latest batch adds to that trend.
Northern Star uses the forum spotlight
Northern Star Resources, one of the ASX’s largest gold producers, timed a site visit to its Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) Super Pit operation for delegates on the opening day of the forum, alongside the release of its June quarter activities report. The company used the platform to reinforce its production guidance and highlight ongoing investment in the Fimiston underground and mill expansion work at KCGM, projects that underpin its status as a bellwether for the broader Western Australian gold sector.
What it means for ASX gold investors
The cluster of announcements around Diggers and Dealers is a reminder that exploration and development newsflow tends to bunch around the forum each August, and this year is no exception. For investors, the practical takeaway is that near term share price volatility in small and mid cap gold names is likely, as companies compete for attention and capital in front of a captive audience of brokers and fund managers. Names with tangible resource growth stories, such as Katanning, and established producers reinforcing delivery, such as Northern Star, are the ones best placed to convert conference exposure into sustained investor interest once the forum wraps up on Wednesday.
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