When Wishbone Gold PLC (AIM: WSBN, AQSE: WSBN) was last examined in August 2025, Red Setter had transformed the company from a largely overlooked junior explorer into one of the market’s most closely followed speculative mining shares. The discovery of a substantial breccia i nterval, combined with Red Setter’s location near Telfer and Havieron, had driven a rapid fourfold rise in the share price. That momentum continued after publication, eventually carrying the shares to around 185p in October 2025. At that point, investors were no longer valuing Wishbone solely on what had been discovered, but on what Red Setter might ultimately become.
The position today is very different. Wishbone’s shares, at the time of writing, last closed at 22p, representing a decline of close to 90% from their October peak. Much of the speculative value attached to the original breccia discovery has therefore disappeared, despite the company continuing to drill, raise exploration capital and expand its position around the Telfer district. The market has effectively moved from assuming that Red Setter could become a major discovery to demanding much stronger evidence before assigning it that value again.
That reversal does not necessarily mean the original geological excitement was misplaced. It shows instead how quickly the valuation of an early-stage explorer can move ahead of the underlying evidence, particularly when comparisons with a discovery such as Havieron enter the investment narrative. The wide zones of alteration, quartz-carbonate veining and visible sulphides reported during the first drilling campaign were encouraging geological indicators, but they were not themselves proof of an economic gold-copper deposit. Wishbone has spent the period since then trying to convert those initial indicators into measurable mineralisation, continuity and scale.
What the Market Expected After August
The August rally began with hole 25RSDD001, which intersected a 152-metre breccia interval within a broader 257-metre zone of quartz-carbonate veining and sulphides. Chalcopyrite and pyrite were observed between depths of 520 metres and 777 metres, while the hole was stopped because additional drill rods were required to continue safely. The scale of the altered zone immediately raised the possibility that drilling had entered a substantial hydrothermal system. Combined with Red Setter’s position 15 kilometres south-west of Telfer, that was enough to create expectations well beyond the information then available.
Those expectations were strengthened by comparisons with Havieron, where early drilling revealed mineralisation beneath cover before systematic follow-up work demonstrated the scale of the deposit. Investors began to view Red Setter through a similar lens, with each geological observation interpreted as another potential step towards a district-scale discovery. The market was effectively pricing in the possibility that deeper drilling would find higher-grade gold and copper within the breccia system. With Wishbone still carrying a relatively small valuation, even a modest perceived chance of such an outcome supported a sharp re-rating.
The difficulty was that the original drilling had identified the geological setting rather than demonstrated commercial grade and continuity. Brecciation, alteration and sulphides can show that mineralising fluids moved through a rock system, but they do not establish that enough valuable metal was deposited to support a mine. The first campaign therefore created a compelling target while leaving the most important investment questions unresolved. Once the immediate momentum weakened, the market began waiting for assay results and follow-up intersections capable of validating the expectations already reflected in the shares.
Wishbone’s subsequent announcements have gradually added evidence to the Red Setter model, but they have also highlighted the time and capital required to test a large, deeply covered system. Additional drilling, geophysical interpretation and expanded exploration programmes have all been necessary to understand where mineralisation sits within the broader structure. During that process, shareholders have also absorbed several equity raises, increasing the number of shares across which any eventual project value must be divided. The result was a widening gap between a potentially significant geological opportunity and a market that had become less willing to pay in advance for its success.
Red Setter Moves Beyond Geological Promise
The most important development since the original breakout is that Wishbone has now reported measurable gold and copper from several parts of the Red Setter system. Results from the 2025 programme included 8.36 metres at 1.09 grams per tonne gold and 0.05% copper from 305 metres in hole 25RSDD003. Within that interval, 6.13 metres returned 1.47 grams per tonne gold and 0.06% copper, providing a stronger internal zone rather than a single isolated high-grade sample. These results established that the alteration and sulphides encountered during drilling were associated with genuine precious and base-metal mineralisation.
Other holes added evidence that gold and copper occur across more than one part of the system. Hole 25RSDD006 returned 5.76 metres at 0.66 grams per tonne gold and 0.4% copper from 149 metres, while 25RSDD007 intersected 4.05 metres at 0.23 grams per tonne gold and 0.39% copper. The latter included 0.6 metres at 1.2 grams per tonne gold and 2.46% copper, demonstrating that locally stronger copper grades are present. A reverse-circulation hole also returned two metres at 2.3% copper from 185 metres, broadening the evidence beyond the diamond drilling.
The results remain exploration intersections rather than the outline of a mineral resource. Nevertheless, they are consistent with earlier drilling that included seven metres at two grams per tonne gold and 0.38% copper, within a wider mineralised interval. Previous holes had also returned narrower higher-grade sections, including one metre at 6.4 grams per tonne gold and 0.69% copper. Taken together, the old and new results show repeated mineralisation rather than one exceptional hole carrying the entire investment case.
The 2025 Drilling Results in Context
The 2025 campaign consisted of seven holes, five directed towards the main diorite trend and two testing a separate geophysical target. Drilling within the diorite intersected several mineralised zones, while the company’s structural work indicated that the sulphide-bearing veins occur in multiple orientations. Wishbone also reported that alteration generally became more intense with depth and was accompanied by stronger gold and copper grades. That interpretation supports further drilling, although it also means the geometry of the system may be more complicated than a single continuous mineralised body.
This distinction matters when assessing the headline grades. An interval such as 8.36 metres at 1.09 grams per tonne gold is clearly encouraging for an early-stage project, but it does not yet reveal the true width, orientation or continuity of the mineralisation. The same applies to the copper-rich intersections, which show that higher-grade zones exist without yet demonstrating how frequently they occur. More closely spaced drilling is required before investors can judge whether Red Setter contains repeatable mineralised structures or a series of narrower, disconnected zones.
Wishbone’s interpretation is that mineralisation sits within altered parts of the diorite intrusion and associated breccia zones, forming a much larger hydrothermal system. Mobile magnetotelluric surveying has helped refine the structural model, but the company has returned its principal attention to the diorite trend where drilling has repeatedly encountered gold and copper. This is a more focused strategy than simply pursuing the largest geophysical anomaly. The next stage is to establish whether the known intersections can be connected into mineralised trends with sufficient width and consistency to justify resource definition drilling.
Shallow Gold Changes the Immediate Question
The first results from the 2026 programme have introduced a potentially important new feature to the Red Setter story. Hole 26RSRD003 encountered the project’s shallowest reported gold mineralisation, beginning at a depth of 45 metres. More significantly, the hole ended with 11 metres at 0.7 grams per tonne gold from 139 metres, including four metres at 1.3 grams per tonne gold to the end of the hole at 150 metres. Because the final samples remained mineralised, Wishbone moved the diamond rig onto the same position to extend the hole at depth.
The grades are not exceptionally high in isolation, but the combination of width, shallow depth and an interval ending in mineralisation makes the result more meaningful than a narrow standalone intercept. Earlier attention had centred on deeper breccia and alteration targets, which required relatively expensive diamond drilling beneath substantial cover. A mineralised zone beginning at 45 metres can be tested more quickly using reverse-circulation drilling before deeper diamond tails are added. Wishbone has therefore expanded the shallow programme with additional holes around the discovery.
The result also changes the immediate exploration question. Rather than asking only whether stronger mineralisation lies deep within the diorite and breccia system, investors can now ask whether a shallower gold zone extends laterally and at depth. Wishbone plans to combine the follow-up drilling with a high-definition transient electromagnetic survey intended to improve targeting. If subsequent holes repeat the width and grade of 26RSRD003, the shallow discovery could provide a more accessible route towards demonstrating continuity while deeper drilling continues to test the broader gold-copper system.
A Four Kilometre System, but Is It One Discovery?
Wishbone has described Red Setter as a mineralised system extending across a substantial diorite trend, with earlier drilling identifying gold and copper over more than three kilometres. The 2026 programme is now designed to evaluate continuity along an interpreted four-kilometre trend, increasing the potential scale under investigation. Mineralised intersections have been recorded at different depths and positions, while geophysics has identified further targets around the diorite and dome structure. This gives Wishbone a large exploration footprint, but size alone does not establish that the individual intersections belong to one continuous deposit.
The geological model currently includes diorite-hosted mineralisation, brecciation, quartz-carbonate veining, alteration and sulphide-bearing structures. Earlier results showed that mineralised intersections were spatially associated with a dioritic intrusive, although Wishbone acknowledged that the precise connection between the intrusion and the mineralisation was still being determined. The company has also found veins running in multiple orientations, which could help create broader mineralised zones but makes their geometry more difficult to interpret. This is why further drilling must establish whether the separate gold and copper intersections can be connected rather than simply plotted within the same large system.
Red Setter may ultimately contain several related zones rather than one simple orebody. That would not prevent it from becoming valuable, but it would influence the drilling density, mining method and amount of material required to support a future resource. The encouraging point is that gold and copper have now been encountered repeatedly across the trend rather than being confined to the original deep breccia interval. The unresolved question is whether those intersections develop into mineralised structures with enough width, grade and continuity to support a coherent deposit.
The 2026 Drill Programme Becomes the Real Test
Wishbone’s 2026 programme was designed around approximately 9,000 metres of drilling across 25 holes. The planned work included around 3,500 metres of reverse-circulation drilling followed by 4,500 metres of diamond drilling, using reverse-circulation pre-collars and diamond tails to reach depths of up to 400 metres. The programme is intended to test extensions to known gold-copper mineralisation, examine continuity along the four-kilometre diorite trend and improve the understanding of structural controls. It also targets the parts of the system showing the strongest alteration and sulphide development.
This represents a more systematic programme than the drilling that drove the original share price breakout. The early campaign proved that Red Setter contained an extensive hydrothermal system, while the later assays confirmed that parts of it carry measurable gold and copper. The present campaign must now move from identifying mineralised positions to testing them repeatedly along strike and at depth. Results that extend existing intersections or reproduce the shallow mineralisation would begin to answer the continuity question, whereas isolated hits would leave Red Setter as a large but fragmented exploration target.
Execution will be important because Red Setter is remote and previous work was affected by the practical difficulty of supporting drilling from Perth, Port Hedland and Marble Bar. Wishbone has applied for a new 30-kilometre road connecting the project towards the Nifty copper mine, where accommodation, fuel, water and airport access may be available. A heritage survey for the proposed route has been completed, although further approvals and construction remain necessary before the full logistical benefit can be realised. Better access could reduce operating friction and allow future campaigns to move more quickly from drilling to core processing and assays.
Funding Exploration and the Cost of Progress
Testing Red Setter at this scale has required Wishbone to return repeatedly to the equity market. The company raised £1.5 million in August 2025 through the issue of 120 million new shares, with the proceeds intended to expand drilling at the project. It followed this in September with a further £4 million, issuing another 307.7 million shares to support additional exploration. These raises gave Wishbone the capital to continue drilling, but they also increased the number of shares entitled to any eventual project value.
A further institutional placing raised £1.1 million in April 2026 at 26.35p per share. Wishbone issued 4.17 million new shares and attached one warrant for every two placing shares, exercisable at 40p for two and a half years. The proceeds were allocated to exploration across the Western Australian portfolio, including Red Setter and the development of the newly acquired Silver Lake project. Institutional participation provided a degree of external support, although the accompanying shares and warrants preserve the familiar dilution risk for existing investors.
This is the unavoidable tension within the Wishbone investment case. Red Setter requires enough drilling to establish scale and continuity, yet Wishbone does not generate operating cash flow capable of funding that work internally. Shareholders must therefore weigh the geological progress created by each raise against the declining ownership represented by each individual share. The recent fall in the share price makes that balance more difficult, because future capital raised at lower valuations would generally require the issue of more equity unless drilling results first restore market confidence.
Silver Lake and the Expanding Telfer Footprint
Wishbone’s decision to acquire Silver Lake adds a second major exploration theme alongside Red Setter. The project covers 422 square kilometres in Western Australia’s Carnarvon Basin and contains surface silver mineralisation across an interpreted 35-kilometre structural corridor. Historic rock-chip samples include grades of up to 847 grams per tonne silver, while earlier drilling returned two metres at 150 grams per tonne from a depth of four metres. These figures require modern validation, but they provide Wishbone with a shallow exploration target that can be tested differently from the deeper gold-copper system at Red Setter.
The acquisition was completed through the issue of 3.57 million Wishbone shares at 29p, valuing the consideration at approximately £1.04 million. Initial work includes compiling and reinterpreting historical exploration data, validating previously identified structures and finalising targets for auger or air-core drilling. Silver Lake is also accessible by established roads and lies within reach of the port at Onslow, giving it a more straightforward logistical setting than Red Setter. The project could therefore provide a lower-cost stream of exploration news while the more expensive drilling campaign continues in the Paterson Province.
Wishbone has also strengthened its position around Telfer by winning a contested ballot for 67 square kilometres of crown land approximately 25 kilometres north-west of the mine. The new ground increases the company’s exposure to one of Australia’s most closely watched gold-copper districts, although it remains at an early stage and must still progress through heritage, access and exploration planning. Together with Red Setter, Cottesloe and Anketell, the award gives Wishbone a broader regional position rather than dependence on one isolated licence. The strategic logic is clear, but the additional ground also creates more targets competing for a finite exploration budget.
What the Wider Portfolio Still Contributes
Cottesloe remains the most advanced supporting project within Wishbone’s Paterson portfolio. The project now covers approximately 165 square kilometres around 35 kilometres south-east of Red Setter, with historical drilling identifying shallow silver and lead mineralisation across an interpreted 12-kilometre trend. Reported intersections include 22 metres at 42.7 grams per tonne silver from eight metres and 20 metres at 35.9 grams per tonne from two metres. These results suggest a sizeable sediment-hosted system, although Cottesloe has recently received less market attention as capital and drilling have concentrated on Red Setter.
Anketell provides further regional exposure approximately 85 kilometres north of Red Setter. The tenement is surrounded by ground connected with larger explorers and lies around 40 kilometres east-south-east of the Winu discovery. Its position within the Paterson Province makes it strategically attractive, but it remains a less developed exploration asset without the density of drilling now available at Red Setter. For the immediate investment case, Anketell is therefore better viewed as portfolio optionality than as a project likely to determine Wishbone’s near-term valuation.
The company also retains its Queensland assets, including White Mountain and the Wishbone II, IV and VI licences. White Mountain contains several historic workings and reported surface grades reaching 15.82% copper and 4.7 grams per tonne gold at the Clements prospect. The wider Wishbone licences occupy a historically productive part of the Charters Towers-Ravenswood province, where previous workings recorded locally high gold grades. These projects broaden the company’s commodity and geographic exposure, but Red Setter now clearly carries the greatest responsibility for restoring investor confidence.
Why the Shares Fell from 185p to 22p
Wishbone’s decline from around 185p in October 2025 to approximately 22p cannot be attributed to one failed drill result. The peak followed a rapid re-rating built around the possibility that Red Setter’s large breccia and alteration system could develop into a discovery comparable in importance to other deposits in the Paterson Province. That possibility had been reflected in the valuation before sufficient assays were available to establish grade, width or continuity. As the drilling programme progressed more slowly than the earlier share price, speculative expectations began to unwind.
The capital structure also changed substantially during the period. Wishbone raised a total of £7.95 million during 2025 and completed a 100-for-one share consolidation in November, reducing the reported share count while leaving shareholders’ proportional ownership unchanged. Further shares were then issued through the April 2026 placing and the Silver Lake acquisition, with warrants creating the possibility of additional future dilution. Although the funding enabled a larger exploration programme, the repeated issuance reminded investors that continued drilling depends on access to external capital.
The market has therefore reset Red Setter from an anticipated major discovery to an exploration project that must prove itself hole by hole. Confirmed gold-copper mineralisation, the four-kilometre diorite trend and the latest shallow intersection all preserve the geological argument, but they do not yet provide a resource estimate or demonstrate economic continuity. At 22p, considerably less future success appears to be reflected in the shares than at the October peak. The next valuation move is likely to depend less on geological descriptions and more on whether the 2026 programme delivers repeatable intersections that begin to connect Red Setter’s separate mineralised zones.
What Could Rebuild the Red Setter Valuation
The clearest potential catalyst is confirmation that the shallow zone encountered in hole 26RSRD003 continues beyond the first intersection. The hole returned 11 metres at 0.7 grams per tonne gold from 139 metres, including four metres at 1.3 grams per tonne to the end of the hole. Wishbone has extended the hole with diamond drilling and added further reverse-circulation holes around the discovery. Repeated intersections at comparable widths and grades would begin to convert one encouraging result into a recognisable mineralised zone.
Results from the deeper programme could have an even greater effect if they connect the known gold-copper intersections along the diorite trend. By June, Wishbone had completed 2,182 metres across 14 reverse-circulation holes and 687 metres across the first two diamond holes. The wider programme is targeting depths of up to 600 metres and is specifically intended to test extensions, continuity and structural controls. A sequence of holes showing mineralisation at predictable positions would provide stronger evidence than another isolated high-grade interval.
The most important change would be the emergence of a geological model capable of guiding drilling consistently. At present, Red Setter contains shallow gold, deeper gold-copper intersections, breccia zones and mineralised veins distributed across a large intrusive system. Demonstrating that these elements are structurally connected would allow investors to begin considering potential scale rather than simply exploration promise. Until that happens, each assay will remain important, but the pattern created by several holes will matter more than the headline from any single result.
The Risks That the Latest Results Have Not Removed
Red Setter remains an early-stage exploration project without a defined mineral resource. Gold and copper have been confirmed, but the drilling completed so far has not established the dimensions, average grade or continuity of an economic deposit. The latest shallow interval remains open at depth, although that description only means the hole ended before the mineralised zone was fully tested. Follow-up drilling could extend the intersection, but it could also show that the mineralisation narrows, changes direction or becomes lower grade.
The project’s scale creates both opportunity and geological uncertainty. Mineralisation has been reported across an approximately four-kilometre diorite trend, but the available intersections may represent several separate structures rather than one continuous deposit. Complex vein orientations could make the system harder and more expensive to define, particularly beneath cover. Considerably more drilling may therefore be needed before Wishbone can move towards a maiden resource estimate.
Funding remains the principal corporate risk attached to that geological uncertainty. Wishbone ended 2025 with approximately £3.4 million in cash and subsequently raised £1.1 million, with the company stating that it was funded for its plans through 2026. However, completing the current programme will not necessarily complete the evaluation of Red Setter, particularly if the results justify a larger follow-up campaign. Further equity may eventually be required, leaving future dilution dependent on the share price at which new capital can be secured.
From Speculative Breakout to Evidence-Led Discovery Story
The first phase of the Red Setter story was driven by possibility. A deep breccia interval, extensive alteration and the project’s position near Telfer created the prospect that Wishbone had identified another important Paterson Province mineral system. That possibility was sufficient to drive the shares from suspension into a dramatic re-rating, but the valuation eventually moved too far ahead of the drilling evidence. The decline from approximately 185p to 22p represents the reversal of those expectations rather than proof that Red Setter has failed.
The project is now stronger geologically than it was when the original rally began. Wishbone has confirmed gold and copper in several holes, identified mineralisation along a large diorite trend and reported its shallowest significant gold intersection to date. It has also mobilised both reverse-circulation and diamond rigs for a programme of up to 9,000 metres. Red Setter has therefore moved beyond a story based only on visual observations, even though it remains well short of a defined discovery.
This leaves Wishbone in a more balanced but still highly speculative position. The reduced share price means the market is assigning far less value to future success, while the active drilling programme provides several opportunities for the geological case to strengthen. Equally, the company must now deliver continuity, repeatability and scale rather than another isolated sign that mineralising fluids once moved through the system. Red Setter has survived the collapse of its first speculative re-rating, but whether it can support another will depend on the evidence emerging from the drill core.
Disclaimer: The information presented in this article represents the views and analysis of the author and is provided for informational purposes only. It should not be interpreted as financial, investment, or legal advice. Investors should conduct their own due diligence and consult a qualified adviser before making investment decisions. Investing in AIM-listed companies involves risk, and past performance is not indicative of future results.
