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Perth, Australia (ABN Newswire) - Vertex Minerals Limited (ASX:VTX) (OTCMKTS:VTXXF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Vince Fayad and Kurt Laney as Joint Chief Financial Officers (CFO) of the Company.

HIGHLIGHTS:

- Appointment of Vince Fayad and Kurt Laney as Joint Chief Financial Officers

- Both bring extensive experience in the public company sector, with a strong focus on the mining industry

- Focus on processes and controls to support the growth and development of the Company

- Based in Sydney

Vince and Kurt bring a wealth of experience in both the mining and public company sectors. Their combined experience, together with their broader expertise in handling larger trading entities, will be invaluable as the Company progresses towards its next stage of production. Vince and Kurt will work alongside the management team at Hill End, with a particular focus on supporting the evolution of the Company's processes and controls across the accounting, finance and treasury functions as Vertex transitions to production.

Both Kurt and Vince are Chartered Accountants and their experience includes:

- Vince has over 40 years' experience in corporate finance, international M&A, accounting and other advisory related services in Sydney-based mid-tier accounting firms. His experience ranges from provision of corporate, accounting and secretarial services, together with strong commercial acumen particularly, in the planning and execution and of development strategies for projects as well as acquisition skills.

- Kurt is an experienced Chartered Accountant with over ten years of experience specialising in the provision of accounting for publicly listed companies, taxation, and corporate secretarial services.

Vince brings extensive public company experience, including his current role as Executive Director and Joint Company Secretary of Astute Metals NL (ASX:ASE). Kurt also serves as CFO and Joint Company Secretary of ASE. Over the past decade, both Vince and Kurt have held Joint CFO and Company Secretary roles across several other ASX-listed companies.

Executive Chairman Roger Jackson commented, "I am delighted with the appointment of Vince and Kurt. They bring not only a strong degree of financial acumen, but also have extensive public company experience and, being Sydney-based, will integrate well with our project team and operations. These skills will be invaluable as the Company moves forward. I look forward to working with Vince and Kurt".

About Vertex Minerals Limited:  

Vertex Minerals Limited (ASX:VTX) is an Australian based gold exploration company developing its advanced Hargraves and Hill End gold projects located in the highly prospective Eastern Lachlan Fold Belt of Central West NSW. Other Company assets include the Pride of Elvire gold project and Taylors Rock gold/nickel/lithium project both located in the Eastern Goldfields of WA. The focus of Vertex Minerals is to advance the commercial production of gold from its NSW projects embracing an ethical and environmentally sustainable approach.

Source:
Vertex Minerals Limited

Perth, Australia (ABN Newswire) - Vertex Minerals Limited (ASX:VTX) (OTCMKTS:VTXXF) is pleased to announce that the Company's engineering and geology team at the Reward Mine have identified an additional two stope block that have not been previously reported.

HIGHLIGHTS:

- VTX's Technical Services team has identified a fully developed stope block to include in the mine production start-up.

- Stopes are suitable for airleg mining which will augment jumbo production.

- Stope blocks contains an Inferred Resource of 2,075 tonnes at 17.8 g/t Au and forms part of the 2023 Mineral Resource Estimate. With the lower block having over 700 tonnes at 42.5 g/t. The planned stope width is the same as the interpretation of the mineralisation. (Refer to Table 1 in Appendices 1*) (VTX ASX announcement 22/06/23)

- Stopes are additional to the PFS mine schedule which is illustrated in Figure 2 showing the location of the additional stope.

- Stope blocks are fully developed and have been sampled from development.

- This stope can be exploited as soon as services have been established.

These stopes will be incorporated into the overall mine schedule, but provide an early source of mill feed.

The stopes were developed by a previous operator and are accessible from existing development. The additional stope blocks contain an Inferred Resource of 2,075 tonnes at 17.8 g/t Au containing 1,189 ounces of gold with the lower block having over 700 tonnes at 42.5 g/t. The planned stope width is the same as the interpretation of the mineralisation. These stopes forms part of the Mineral Resource Estimate reported in VTX Announcement 22 June 2023. They were not included in the production forecast detailed in the 2024 Pre-Feasibility Study (Announcement 3 January 2024). This was due to the complexity of existing airleg workings and uncertainty around access and ground conditions, which established these areas into an Inferred Resource Category.

Note: 'The Mineral Resources are additional to the Ore Reserves.'

Subsequent investigations have concluded that the stopes are fully developed and accessible. The quartz veins are exposed in the existing development and have been sampled. The Company plans to exploit this stope once the mine services have been established and bring this stope into the initial stages of the production schedule.

Vertex's Executive Chairman, Roger Jackson commented: "Our new technical team has been established, and it is great to see them looking for the opportunities to add value to the high grade underground production start-up.

This really does show the potential this mine has for high grade expansion. We are in the process of re-opening the underground mine with the establishment of mine services. Dewatering of the declines has commenced and is progressing to schedule."

*To view tables and figures, please visit:
https://abnnewswire.net/lnk/AJ2XRV1J

About Vertex Minerals Limited:  

Vertex Minerals Limited (ASX:VTX) is an Australian based gold exploration company developing its advanced Hargraves and Hill End gold projects located in the highly prospective Eastern Lachlan Fold Belt of Central West NSW. Other Company assets include the Pride of Elvire gold project and Taylors Rock gold/nickel/lithium project both located in the Eastern Goldfields of WA. The focus of Vertex Minerals is to advance the commercial production of gold from its NSW projects embracing an ethical and environmentally sustainable approach.

Source:
Vertex Minerals Limited

Perth, Australia (ABN Newswire) - Vertex Minerals Limited (ASX:VTX) (OTCMKTS:VTXXF) process plant achieves 60% throughput rate of name plate capacity during processing campaigns while plant commissioning is ongoing with modifications to suit future Reward underground ore feed .

Vertex's Executive Chairman, Roger Jackson commented: "Its pleasing to see we have now almost fully tuned the plant to cater for a wider range of feed stock material. We are now gaining confidence in the processing and gold grade in the surface stockpiles, the fact they are sitting adjacent to the plant and offer an inexpensive feed source is a real advantage to the plant commissioning process.

"The processing of the surface stockpile material has presented some real challenges with the way the old stockpile material breaks down causing frequent blockages in piping. These blockages have hindered the plant availability and throughput, however, the processing team have worked diligently to overcome a vast number of issues in a short period of time.

"Our technical team and operators have been implementing low-cost components and strategies to minimise the fine material into the process. Whilst this has set us back in time with moving to cash flow it is important to note that our main game is mining the Reward high grade gold mine material.

Delays due to plant tuning today should translate to higher efficiencies earlier in the mine plan "Meanwhile our underground team has been busy preparing the historical workings in anticipation of the arrival of our TD1 jumbo drill rig with dewatering, ground support and re-entry tasks underway.

The TD1 jumbo is a crucial piece of mining equipment that will herald the start of a new and prosperous era of mining at the historical Reward Gold Mine.

"Every day I am excited to see the progress of development of the mine, and I look forward to updating investors as and when new news comes to hand"

Over the last 10 weeks the process plant has been steadily ramping up its through put capacity through the commissioning process.

Modifications to the plant include:

- Reducing the clearance in the jaw crusher.

- Dampeners over the sorting screen.

- Increasing the gold concentrate resident time in the Falcon concentrator.

- Increasing recycling load in the regrind mill.

- Adjusting water flows for different circuits in the plant.

- Reducing throughput density on the sand line.

These modifications have been important in increasing the plant utilisation and increasing throughput towards nameplate capacity and availability.

Further modifications and improvements have been identified in the following areas:

- A pre-screening scalper to reduce fines in the crushing system.

- Pre-screening oversize fines material to the re-grind mill prior to the Falcon concentrator

- Tails line (sand line) valves and performance review

- Tails hopper agitator unit

These improvements are planned for integration into the process plant over the next 6 weeks.

Commissioning of the plant using the existing low-grade surface stockpiles has initially enabled modest first concentrate production, allowing Vertex the opportunity to optimise the gold collection processes. A small sample of gold has been sent for refining and sale to test the process. A larger size gold concentrate batch is building as throughput increases. It will be dispatched for refining and sale when worthwhile volumes are obtained.

The low-grade surface stockpile material has been an important source of inexpensive feed material to commission the plant, providing invaluable processing information and support for the training of the new workforce. Further it has offered a rare opportunity to de-risk and optimise the processing flowsheet prior to commencement of mining high-grade underground ore from the Reward mine.

Long lead underground equipment has been ordered, including a TD1 jumbo drill rig (refer VTX ASX 4 March announcement) which is due to arrive from Kalgoorlie in 6 weeks. The arrival of the TD1 jumbo drill will be a key milestone in the development of the Reward mine, signalling a significant shift towards underground mining, and subsequently, underground ore feed into the process plant. Management continues to source other capital items required to furnish and operate the Reward mine.

Vertex continues to progress the Reward mine towards underground mining. Dewatering has commenced of old headings in preparation for the arrival of recently ordered underground mining equipment. Check scaling and assessment of historical ground support has been completed throughout historical areas of the mine.

Areas of concern have been identified and remediated where appliable. Additional ground support will be installed when the TD1 jumbo drill rig has arrived and has been commissioned on site.

*To view the Mineral Resource Estimate, please visit:
https://abnnewswire.net/lnk/9C06B296

About Vertex Minerals Limited:  

Vertex Minerals Limited (ASX:VTX) is an Australian based gold exploration company developing its advanced Hargraves and Hill End gold projects located in the highly prospective Eastern Lachlan Fold Belt of Central West NSW. Other Company assets include the Pride of Elvire gold project and Taylors Rock gold/nickel/lithium project both located in the Eastern Goldfields of WA. The focus of Vertex Minerals is to advance the commercial production of gold from its NSW projects embracing an ethical and environmentally sustainable approach.

Source:
Vertex Minerals Limited