Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) claims it’s beat global mining majors to a big ESG prize, turning its mine of the same name in WA into the first ‘Net Zero’ gold mine in the world.

The miner says its high renewable penetration, blended with the purchase of carbon credits, has seen it claim Net Zero status for the first half of calendar 2025, setting it on a path to meet its 2026 schedule.

While gold’s rapid rise in 2025 has been powered by safe haven demand from investors in turbulent economic times and central bank buying, Bellevue is now targeting the high end jewellery market which makes up around 40% of demand.

It’s testing the waters with east coast gold refiner ABC Refinery and Single Mine Origin to sell gold to ‘ethical buyers’, potentially opening the door to a ‘green premium’.

The move echoes provenance assessments in supply chains for natural mined diamonds.

Bellevue has installed a 90MW hybrid power station at its mine of the same name, including  24MW of wind turbines, 27MW solar and a 24MW thermal plant with 15MW/29MWh of battery storage, claiming to have run for 58 hours on 100% renewable energy in the month of June after its wind turbines were commissioned.

The company has forecast annualised renewable energy penetration of between 80-90% depending in its solar and wind resources and the mine’s power demand.

BGL claims it’s had Net Zero emissions for the first half of CY25, including Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions under the company’s control.

That doesn’t take into account Scope 3 emissions generated in further processing, refining and transport of the gold or its future use in the manufacture of products.

Focus on future

The news comes with Bellevue among the closest watched stocks at this year’s Diggers and Dealers forum.

Despite a record run for gold prices to US$3375/oz – including a ~30% lift in bullion prices over the first half of 2025 – the company is down 25% YTD.

Speculation a cashed up competitor will move to buy the mine and/or company is rife, with loose-lipped executives around the Kalgoorlie conference openly commenting on the idea the mine is in play.

Having initially set guidance of 165,000-180,000oz in FY25, that number was knocked down in January and then further clipped in April to 129,000-134,000oz at all in sustaining costs of $2425-2525/oz.

But beyond that, analysts were forced to chop longer term cashflow expectations after BGL cut its post FY29 guidance from 250,000ozpa to 190,000ozpa.

BGL eventually delivered 130,164oz for FY25 at AISC of $2422/oz.

It’s set guidance for FY26 of 130-150,000ozpa at $2600-2900/oz, ramping up to 175,000-195,000ozpa in FY27.

MD Darren Stralow is presenting on Tuesday afternoon in Kalgoorlie.