Eastern Metals

Investor Insight

Eastern Metals is a base and precious metals explorer with a high-quality asset portfolio located in some of Australia’s best known mineral provinces.

Eastern Metals’ core focus is on the advanced Home of Bullion deposit in the NT, which hosts a Resource of 3.1 million metric tons @ 2.9 percent copper-equivalent – and the Browns Reef zinc-lead-copper-silver deposit in the Cobar Basin of NSW, a world-class mineral jurisdiction.

Overview

Eastern Metals (ASX:EMS) is an ASX-listed base and precious metals explorer with a portfolio of high-quality assets in some of Australia’s most resource-rich regions, with established production, transport and energy infrastructure.

With many centuries of intensive use, base and precious metals are well understood at every stage of the project lifecycle – from exploration to development, mining, processing and offtake – offering de-risked exposure to the energy thematic.

The company holds two projects: the Arunta Project in the Northern Territory (NT), and the Cobar Project in the Cobar Basin of New South Wales (NSW), a world-class mineral jurisdiction. The company’s main focus is on two advanced assets: the Home of Bullion deposit in the NT and the Browns Reef deposit in the Cobar Basin, both strategically located, with ready access to road, rail and energy infrastructure.

Eastern Metals is led by a board and management team with significant breadth and depth of experience in exploration, discovery, development and governance, and a strong track record in delivering value for shareholders.

Company Highlights

• Eastern Metals is an ASX-listed exploration company focused on discovering and developing strategically located base and precious metals projects in New South Wales (Cobar Project) and the Northern Territory (Arunta Project).
• Eastern Metals’ flagship assets are the Home of Bullion deposit in the Northern Territory (NT), which hosts a total Identified Mineral Resource of 3.1 million metric tons @ 2.9% copper equivalent – and the Browns Reef zinc-silver-lead-copper-gold deposit in the world-class Cobar Basin, New South Wales (NSW).
• Both Home of Bullion and Browns Reef are strategically located, with ready access to road, rail and energy infrastructure.
• The world-class Cobar Basin in NSW is enjoying a resurgence courtesy of some new discoveries and Metal Acquisition’s (NYSE:MTAL,ASX:MAC) purchase of the CSA Mine in June 2023.

Key Projects

Arunta Project

The Arunta Project is located in the Northern Territory encompassing a land package of 539 sq km, and is strategically located between the Stuart Highway, the Adelaide-Darwin rail corridor, and the Amadeus gas pipeline, east of Barrow Creek in the NT. The northern project area comprises one deposit and two prospects – Home of Bullion, Mulbangas and Prospect D. The priority is on advancing the Home of Bullion copper deposit. Home of Bullion hosts an existing mineral resource estimate (MRE) of 3.1 million metric tons, grading at 2.9 percent copper equivalent for 89.9 metric kilotons of contained copper-equivalent metal.

Home of Bullion, from 1923 to 1949 produced 3,185 metric tons of ore at 22.5% copper. With an MRE in place for this deposit, there is potential for further increasing the resource base, especially as the deposit remains open along strike and at depth. Further field work, including IP surveys, mapping and field sampling programs will aim to generate drill-ready targets along the ~9 km magnetic trend between Home of Bullion and the Mulbangas prospect. This work is supported by a recent co-funding grant of up to $100,000 through the NT Government’s Geophysics and Drilling Collaborations Program.

Cobar Project

The Cobar Project is situated 470 km west of Sydney, in New South Wales. It encompasses the company's Browns Reef tenement along with three exploration licenses – Tara, Bothrooney and Black Range – located in the southern Cobar Basin, a tier 1 mining jurisdiction for base metals exploration and production.

The project’s previous owner, Kidman Resources, defined a JORC 2012 exploration target for the Browns Reef deposit, based on 52 diamond drill holes and 22 RC holes, of 27 to 37 million metric tons grading between 1.3 to 1.4 percent zinc, 0.6 to 0.7 percent lead, 9 to 10 g/t silver and 0.2 to 0.3 percent copper. (The potential quantity and grade of this exploration Target are conceptual in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in the determination of a mineral resource. Eastern Metals confirms that it is not in possession of any new information or data that materially impacts on the reliability of this estimate.)

Eastern Metals is currently advancing the Browns Reef deposit to identify areas where higher-grade zones of base metals mineralization may occur. The Evergreen and Pineview zones are targets for further exploration, where previous fieldwork programs identified new zones of anomalous base metal mineralization. These new zones, named Kelpie Hill and Windmill Dam, will be the primary focus of forthcoming exploration initiatives. IP surveys and drilling will investigate whether these areas constitute a continuous mineralization zone linking Pineview and Evergreen and potentially serving as a northern extension of Evergreen.

The Cobar Project is adjacent to Australian Gold and Copper’s (ASX:AGC) Achilles prospect which recently delivered spectacular gold and silver results.

Management Team

Bob Duffin - Non-executive Chairman

Bob Duffin has over 45 years of experience in the mining industry. He has participated in exploration programs for a variety of commodities, including copper, other base metals, gold, uranium and iron ore. He began his career with the Geological Survey of New South Wales and held senior positions at Peko-Wallsend, MIM Holdings, Austirex International and Natquest. He has been a non-executive director of several listed companies, including Centennial Coal, Midwest Corporation, Ferrowest, Burmine, Austmin Gold, Mt Lyell, Europa Minerals Group and Mancala.

Ley Kingdom - Chief Executive Officer

With over 25 years of experience in the resources sector in technical and corporate roles, Ley has worked across diverse commodities and jurisdictions, from greenfield exploration to resource definition and feasibility studies. Ley’s prior experience includes working for Western Mining Corporation, BHP and a number of juniors and mid-tiers overseeing greenfield projects through to resource definition and feasibility.

Jason Berton - Non-executive Director

Jason is a geologist and company director who commenced his career as an exploration and mine geologist at the Plutonic Gold Mine in Western Australia, before moving to BHP in South Australia, where he worked on the Olympic Dam Mine expansion project. Previously, he also worked with SRK, an international firm of consulting geologists, and spent two years in private equity assessing resource investment opportunities. He is the Managing Director of PolarX, where he played a major role in negotiating the acquisition of key tenements in North America, and a former director of Estrella Resources. He is also a non-executive director of Lithium Plus.

Mark Dugmore - Non-executive Director

Mark Dugmore is an experienced geologist and boasts significant experience in the mining sector, having served as director and advisor to several junior mining exploration companies. Since 2014, he has served as the managing director of the ROMARDO Group, a Brisbane-based private group specializing in generating early-stage exploration projects in precious metals, base metals and lithium. He spent 16 years working with BHP Minerals.

Ian White - Non-executive Director

Ian White is an experienced corporate executive with experience in company administration, management and marketing. He has served on more than 20 boards as director or secretary, including several ASX-listed companies. Currently, he is the secretary of Maronan Metals (ASX:MMA) and was previously secretary for WPG Resources and Eastern Iron.

Ian Morgan - Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary

Ian is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and the Governance Institute of Australia, with over 35 years of experience. Ian provides secretarial and advisory services to a range of companies, including holding the position of Company Secretary and CFO for other ASX-listed public companies.