By 
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canada News Group News Commentary – Two of the tightest stories in metals — record-setting gold and critically short antimony — just converged on a single project. Rua Gold Inc. (TSX: RUA) (NZX: RGI) (OTCQX: NZAUF) (FSE: X9R) has delivered a positive Preliminary Economic Assessment for its 100%-owned Auld Creek Gold-Antimony Project in New Zealand’s Reefton Goldfield — inside a Fast-Track permitting jurisdiction, with a 19,000-metre drill program already underway.
A Dual-Metal Project at the Right Moment
The Auld Creek project is unusual in carrying meaningful exposure to two metals whose supply stories are breaking at the same time. Gold has spent 2026 setting record highs amid sustained central-bank purchasing, with some forecasts pointing toward US$5,000 per ounce by the fourth quarter. Antimony — designated a critical mineral by the United States and others following China’s late-2024 export restrictions — remains structurally short in Western markets. Most larger gold projects do not carry antimony as a second revenue stream, and most do not sit inside a Fast-Track Approvals jurisdiction; Auld Creek does both.
On May 5, 2026, the Company released the results of a positive PEA for the project, prepared in accordance with the disclosure standards of National Instrument 43-101 and effective April 25, 2026. Two weeks earlier, on April 20, 2026, Rua had submitted its Fast-Track Referral application for the same project, marking its transition from explorer toward mine developer. Additional detail is available on the company’s Canada News Group profile page.
The Numbers Behind the Study
The PEA outlines an after-tax NPV5% of approximately US$42 million at base case, rising to roughly US$113 million at spot gold prices, for a 5.5-year underground operation processing 250,000 tonnes per year and producing two saleable concentrates — gold and antimony. Over that initial mine life, the plan models contained metal of roughly 84,000 ounces of gold plus approximately 9,000 tonnes of antimony, with average annual production of about 27,000 gold-equivalent ounces. Projected metallurgical recoveries are strong at 95% for gold and 85% for antimony, and the flowsheet is notable for using no cyanide — a meaningful permitting and environmental consideration.
The underlying Mineral Resource Estimate, effective February 27, 2026, comprises 0.3 million tonnes Indicated at 5.67 g/t gold-equivalent for 54,000 ounces, plus 1.3 million tonnes Inferred at 3.66 g/t gold-equivalent for 150,000 ounces, at a 1.6 g/t gold-equivalent cut-off. Mining is envisioned as overhand cut-and-fill via underground decline access from surface portals, with the on-Crown-land surface footprint targeted at less than one hectare — a deliberately small disturbance profile that supports the permitting case.
Why Fast-Track Matters
New Zealand’s Fast-Track Approvals regime is a one-stop-shop permitting process designed to accelerate nationally significant projects. Its relevance to Rua is concrete: the nearby Wharekirauponga project was the first mine fully permitted under the Fast-Track process — in just 112 days — and is now under construction. Rua filed its Fast-Track Referral application for Auld Creek on April 20, 2026, is targeting completion of a Preliminary Feasibility Study in Q4 2026, and aims to have the project fully permitted in Q2 2027. CEO Robert Eckford has framed the PEA as representing only a portion of the broader district opportunity, with significant upside remaining at depth and along strike. Readers can follow the permitting and PFS milestones via the company’s investor landing page.
That permitting angle is more than administrative detail. For a junior developer, the gap between a positive economic study and an actual permit is where many projects stall for years. A jurisdiction with a demonstrated, time-bound Fast-Track pathway materially changes the risk calculus — though, as with any permitting process, inclusion and approval are never guaranteed.
A District, Not Just a Deposit
One reason the company frames Auld Creek as only a portion of the opportunity is the scale of its surrounding land position. The Reefton Goldfield is a historic district that has produced millions of ounces of gold over its lifetime, and Rua’s permits cover a large swath of it — including multiple known gold-antimony occurrences along a corridor stretching tens of kilometres. Auld Creek is the most advanced of these, but the company has repeatedly emphasized that the broader field offers additional drill-ready targets, several of which share the same geological signature that makes Auld Creek attractive.
That district-scale optionality is what separates a single-asset story from a potential multi-deposit one. If the ongoing drill program both deepens confidence at Auld Creek and confirms mineralization at adjacent targets, the company’s development case could broaden well beyond the 5.5-year mine life modelled in the current PEA. Mineralization at Auld Creek itself remains open at depth and to the north, leaving room for the resource to grow as drilling continues — though, as always, exploration upside is a possibility rather than a certainty until it is drilled off and reported.
The Peer Group
Rua sits within a small global cohort of gold-antimony names that has drawn outsized attention as antimony prices surged. Alkane Resources Limited (ASX / TSX: ALK) — which acquired Mandalay Resources in 2025 — operates the Costerfield gold-antimony mine in Victoria, Australia, described as the largest antimony-producing mine in the Western world, making it the closest producing analogue to what Auld Creek aspires to become. Larvotto Resources Limited (ASX: LRV) is advancing its flagship Hillgrove gold-antimony project in New South Wales toward development, and has been among the most prominent pure-play gold-antimony developers.
Southern Cross Gold Consolidated Ltd. (TSX: SXGC) is advancing the high-grade Sunday Creek gold-antimony project near Melbourne, where management describes gold as the primary value and antimony as a by-product that helps the permitting case — a framing that closely mirrors Auld Creek’s dual-metal profile. American Tungsten and Antimony Ltd. (ASX: AT4) rounds out the group as an antimony-focused developer assembling critical-mineral assets. Across the peer set, the common thread is the scarcity premium attaching to projects that pair gold’s record pricing with exposure to a critical mineral the West is scrambling to source — the exact intersection Rua has consolidated on a single, 100%-owned asset.
The Bottom Line
With a positive PEA, a dual-metal resource, strong projected recoveries on a no-cyanide flowsheet, an active 19,000-metre drill program and a Fast-Track permitting application already filed, Rua Gold has assembled a development story that hits several of the themes investors are chasing in 2026 at once. The PEA is preliminary by definition and includes Inferred resources that may never convert to reserves, and the path through a PFS, permitting and financing carries real risk. But few junior developers combine gold and antimony exposure inside a demonstrated Fast-Track jurisdiction the way Rua now does.