Eastern Metals Granted $910,750 in Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive Tax Credits

Eastern Metals Ltd (ASX: EMS) (“Eastern Metals” or “the Company”) is pleased to advise that it has been successful in its application to participate in the Australian Government’s Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive (“JMEI”) for the 2024-25 income tax year, and has been awarded an allocation of $910,750 in exploration credits.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Eastern Metals has been successful in its application for the Australian Government's Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive scheme for the 2024-25 income tax year.
• Eastern Metals has received an allocation of $910,750 in refundable tax offsets and franking credits, available for potential distribution to Eligible Shareholders for the 2024-25 income tax year.

The JMEI scheme encourages investment in small, Australian exploration companies that carry out greenfields mineral exploration and allows those companies to convert a portion of their tax losses into credits (franking or offset) to be passed on to “Eligible Shareholders”.

Eligible Shareholders are entitled to receive JMEI credits and must be Australian resident shareholders who invest, for cash, in newly issued Eastern Metals shares (for example, in a Placement Offer, Entitlement Offer or Share Purchase Plan) between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2025.

Individual shareholders, trusts or superannuation funds will be entitled to refundable tax offsets, and in the case of corporate investors, franking credits. JMEI credits are distributed to all Eligible Shareholders on a pro-rata basis.

Should an Eligible Shareholder receive newly issued EMS shares in the 2024-25 tax year, Eastern Metals encourages individuals and entities to seek their own tax advice. Further information can be found on the Australian Taxation Office’s (“ATO”) webpage ‘What to do if you receive exploration credits’, here.

The maximum amount of exploration credits for an income year, is the lesser of the following:

• The Company’s actual greenfields exploration expenditure for the income year, multiplied by the Company’s corporate tax rate for the income year.
• The Company’s actual tax loss for the income year, multiplied by the Company’s corporate tax rate.
• The amount of credits the ATO allocated to the Company ($910,750 for the Company during the year ended 30 June 2025), plus any unused portion of the Company’s exploration credits allocation relating to the preceding income year (currently $nil for Eastern Metals).

Further information about the Federal Government's JMEI scheme can be found here.

Eastern Metals would like to thank the Australian Government for its support, and the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies for its advocacy on behalf of junior exploration companies in relation to the JMEI scheme.

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