ASX All Ords gold stock Barton Gold Holdings Ltd (ASX: BGD) has had a tough time of it in 2026.
In early morning trade on Monday, Barton Gold shares are down 0.6%, trading for 79 cents apiece. This sees the share price down 39.7% year to date.
For some context, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is down 0.1% today and up 0.1% this year.
The ASX All Ords gold stock has faced a few tailwinds this year.
Among those was the somewhat dilutive capital raising in June. The miner has also faced a declining gold price, with the yellow metal down 24% since its 28 January peak.
And Barton Gold is still primarily an explorer waiting to transition to a producer to take advantage of the still historically high gold price. (Despite the sizeable retrace since late January, the current gold price of US$4,141 per ounce remains up 23% since this time last year.)
Speaking of becoming a producer, today the miner announced that it's taking a big step towards making that transition.
Image source: Getty Images
ASX All Ords gold stock appoints GR Engineering
In what could be a welcome longer-term development, Barton Gold reported that it has started a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) at its Tunkillia Gold Project, located in South Australia. ,
The ASX All Ords gold stock has appointed GR Engineering Services Ltd (ASX: GNG) to lead the PFS.
In May Barton Gold's Optimised Scoping Study (OSS) revealed that Tunkillia has the potential to produce around 120,000 ounces of gold and 260,000 ounces of silver annually.
At current gold and silver prices, the miner said that Tunkillia is modelled to produce approximately $1.75 billion in operating profit during the first 27 months of production.
The miner's 60,000 metre reverse circulation (RC) and 3,000m diamond (DD) drilling campaigns are scheduled for completion in September 2026 to support JORC Resource upgrades and the PFS analyses.
What did Barton Gold management say?
Commenting on the commencement of the PFS that could support the ASX All Ords gold stock over the longer term, Barton managing director Alexander Scanlon said:
Tunkillia's OSS demonstrated the financial and capital leverage available to large-scale bulk processing operations, with robust economics driven by higher-grade 'Starter Pits' modelled to generate $1.75 billion operating profit during the first 2.5 years at current gold and silver prices and thus paying back development costs four times over during this time.
On the appointment of GR Engineering, Scanlon added, "We are pleased to be working again with GR Engineering, who delivered Tunkillia's 2025 Optimised Scoping Study to a very high standard."
Barton expects the PFS to be completed during the first quarter of calendar year 2027.
