Vertex to Incorporate TOMRA Laser Sorter into the Reward Gold Plant – with Refurbishment and Build on Target

Perth, Australia (ABN Newswire) - Vertex Minerals Limited (ASX:VTX) (OTCMKTS:VTXXF) is pleased to announce a further update on the Reward Gold mine start up.

HIGHLIGHTS

- All major components are now installed and fitted at the Reward Gold Mine Gravity Plant.

- Electrical fit out is well underway.

- Piping and water reticulation is ongoing.

- Tails lines are being laid to the dry sand stack location.

- Plant power up is planned for mid-December.

- General Manager and other key personnel have commenced employment.

- Ore Sorter structure is under construction and will be installed in January

- The plant will be commissioned on stockpiles located at the plant prior to the Ore Sorter installation.

- Road infrastructure upgraded.

- Portal entry and ore handling area refurbished and expanded.

- Vertex on track for January commissioning of the plant.

Mobilisation of the Gravity Plant from Ballart to site commenced earlier this month (as announced 13 November 2024), with all major components now onsite, installed and fitted at the Gravity Plant. Fitout of ancillary services (including electrical and water) is well underway, with completion and initial powering-up scheduled for mid-December 2024.

All Civil Works for this stage, including the upgrading and refurbishment of Road Infrastructure, portal entry and the ore handling area are also complete.

Ore Sorter and Forward Plan

Compelling results from Ore Sorting testwork (including a 337% increase in grade and 79% mass reduction) as announced on 25th July 2024, resulted in a decision to incorporate pre-concentration into the flow sheet and design for the Hill End project (as announced 11 September 2024). Construction of the Ore Sorter structure has commenced, with installation expected in January 2025. Installation of the Ore Sorter is not expected to delay plant commissioning, with initial processing of existing stockpiles located at the plant location to commence prior to installation and commissioning of the Ore Sorter.

Corporate and Financial

On 7 November 2024, Shareholders voted to approve the second tranche of the Company's 2-tranche share placement announced in mid-August 2024. All funds for the second tranche have been received and allotment is expected shortly.

The Company's Annual General Meeting (AGM) is scheduled for 29 November 2024 and resolutions include approval for the conversion of loan funds received under the capital-raising announced in October 2024. Various option issue approvals were granted in the 7 November Meeting and are being sought at the AGM and a prospectus for the issue of those options is being prepared.

On 27 May 2024 the Company announced that it had signed a terms sheet with Ocean Partners for a US$10M Prepayment Facility, subject to conditions precedent. Following on from the revised mine design and Gravity plant flow sheet, because of the decision to utilise an ore sorter, the capital expenditure required to develop the mine was significantly lowered. A facility of this size is no longer expected to be required by the Company and the parties have agreed that the proposed arrangement will not be completed, with no penalty to the Company. The Company is in negotiations with several parties in relation to a significantly smaller debt or prepayment facility.

Commenting on the progress, Vertex Executive Chairman Roger Jackson said: "We are very excited by the progress that has been made with the Gravity Gold plant installation at our mine ready Gold project.

The installation is well ahead of the time we had scheduled, which has helped recover the time lost due to weather with the civil construction. We are hopeful we can now power the plant up for testing in just a few weeks. We then can commission the plant with the gold ore stockpiles we have sitting at the plant.

I would commend Gekko and our Hill End team for their efforts with this installation."

*To view photgraphs, please visit:
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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 an update on the Reward Gold mine start up, with the refurbished Gekko plant arriving this week along with a team of trades people to install and commission the plant. Further the site infrastructure has been redeveloped with a number of improvements to roads and tails line implemented.

HIGHLIGHTS

- Civils completed.

- Gekko have commenced mobilising the Gekko Gravity Gold plant from Ballarat to the Mine site.

- Recently purchased LM 90 Drill Rig has been mobilised from Kalgoorlie to the Mine site.

- Mobile fleet purchased and on site.

o Light vehicles, heavy 6wd truck, 4wd Dual cab light truck, Integrated tool carrier, underground loader, underground haul truck, excavator

- Fixed plant purchased and on site.

o Underground fans
o Transformers
o Fuel Infrastructure
o Replacement piping for slurry and water reclaim

- General Manager and Mine Manager has commenced employment on site.

- Road infrastructure upgraded.

- Portal entry and ore handling area refurbished and expanded.

- Vertex on track for January commissioning of the plant.

The Reward Gold Mine is well placed for a simple start -up:

- The new processing plant will be constructed adjacent to the underground mine portal (640 Level) and over the existing footprint of the existing plant.

- The 640 Level extends into the resource and no stripping required with the revised mine plan.

- Second egress in place with existing ladder way from 640 Level to surface.

- Some underground fleet and utility services are already owned by Vertex. With new fleet arriving.

- The New plant will be utilising the existing services and infrastructure:

o Gold Room
o Water systems
o Power generation
o Offices
o Change Rooms
o Workshop
o Storeroom
o Crib Room
o Jaw Crusher
o Access Roads
o Security System

Commenting on the progress, Vertex Executive Chairman Roger Jackson said: "We are very pleased with the progress so far with the redevelopment of the Reward Mine and the refurbishment of the Gravity Gold plant, given we have done this with a very small capital budget and a very wet season. I would like to acknowledge our team at Hill End, headed up by our Director Declan Franzmann and Maintenance Manger Jeff Williams who have worked tirelessly on this project to get it to this point.

Further I would like to express our gratitude to the efforts made by Gekko on their professionalism in taking a second-hand plant and refurbishing it to an excellent standard within a very short lead time.

We are now all-hands-on-deck to get ore into the plant and be producing gold bars in January."

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) has identified major benefits for utilising pre-concentration technology at its Reward high grade gold mine.

Ore sorting pre-concentration test work was initiated with leading ore sorting provider TOMRA with outstanding results.

94kg of sample from the low-grade stockpile at Reward Gold Mine (Reward) was sorted. The following results were reported;

- Head grade to Sorter weighted average grade (WAG) = 3.70 g/t gold,

- Ore grade WAG after sorting = 16.22g/t gold (337.20% increase on grade),

- Ore/waste split after sorting = 19.31kgs Ore vs 74.54kgs Waste (79% mass reduction),

- Gold lost to waste fraction = 0.03grams (>90% efficiency)

Refurbishment of the plant is well underway, and Vertex anticipates that the plant will be re-installed at Hill End later this year. The Company anticipates production will commence in January 2025.

Vertex acquired a Boart Longyear LM90 underground drill rig to advance exploration at the Reward gold mine below the existing resource.

ORE SORTER TEST WORK AND IMPLEMENTATION INTO THE HILL END GRAVITY PLANT

Pre-concentration technology initiated at the Hill End Gravity Plant to separate highgrade ore from waste before it enters the processing plant.

By processing only high-grade ore, energy consumption can be reduced, water consumption will be halved leading to lower operating costs and reduction of the carbon footprint.

The small sorting unit will be simply incorporated in the existing plant being refurbished by Gekko.

Previous scoping test results from TOMRA suggested that the Greywacke country rock can be efficiently and effectively separated from the high-grade quartz carrying the gold leading to significant head grade uplift and reduced material to be processed.

Test Results

94kg of sample from the low-grade stockpile at Reward Gold Mine (Reward) was sorted.

The following results are reported;

- Head grade to Sorter weighted average grade (WAG) = 3.70 g/t gold,

- Ore grade WAG after sorting = 16.22g/t gold (337.20% increase on grade),

- Ore/waste split after sorting = 19.31kgs Ore vs 74.54kgs Waste (79% mass reduction),

- Gold lost to waste fraction = 0.03grams (>90% efficiency)

ACQUISITION OF A LM90 UNDERGROUND DRILL RIG

Vertex has acquired a Boart Longyear LM90 underground drill rig to advance exploration at the Reward gold mine below the existing resource.

The Vertex team are planning diamond drill programs for the following:

- Below the current JORC-2012 Reward Resource with the aim of expanding upon the existing resource;

- Fosters Exploration Target; and

- South Star prospect area

Acquisition of the LM90 follows an extensive review of the mineralisation potential below the Reward resource, which has only been drilled up to 50m below the Amalgamated Adit. This area targeted is referred to as the 'Reward mid depths' as it is located just 80m to ~200m below the Amalgamated Adit. Refer to Figure 1*

Upon commissioning of the LM90 drill rig, Vertex have planned eight drill holes to target the high-grade Fosters Exploration target.

The LM90 has several advantages well-suited to Vertex's requirements, including:

- The ability to work on surface and underground;

- Safe, Semi-automated, with a rod-handler system which allows for less manual handling;

- Allows greater flexibility in drilling over a number of resource and exploration areas; and

- LM 90 rigs are well-established in the industry as safe and reliable underground drill rigs.

Vertex acquiring its own rig has many advantages;

- Per-metre drill costs will be significantly less than hiring an external drill contractor

- More control and accuracy over precision of drilling.

- Works well with Job sharing

- Reduces pressure on Mining crew to have drill cuddy availability

- The LM90 rig will be accounted for as an asset on the Vertex balance sheet

*To view the full quarterly report, please visit:
https://abnnewswire.net/lnk/CHF6G92O

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 the appointment of Mr Chris Hamilton as the General Manager Operations for the Hill End Reward Gold Mine in NSW Australia. Mr Hamilton will commence with Vertex on the 11th of November 2024, reporting to the Executive Chairman. The General Manager Operations will be responsible for the operational readiness of the Reward Gold Mine and the transition from development to operations. The role includes responsibility for - Ensuring the operation complies with all statutory, regulatory and Licence obligations which apply to the operations - particularly in relation to WHS and environmental requirements.

- Ensuring the operation complies with all corporate policies or guidelines particularly in relation to finance, administration and reporting.

- Developing annual budgets designed to achieve optimal financial and production outcomes and once approved manage the operation to achieve or better those outcomes.

- Developing and maintaining a positive workplace culture that delivers professionalism, efficiencies and high performance with all employees contributing to the success of the operation.

- Ensuring that the operation is regarded positively and maintains effective relationships within the local Hill End community and the various government authorities that regulate the operation.

- Providing effective leadership and management of the operation's team for it to achieve the best possible production, cost, safety and environmental performance

- Developing medium to longer term strategies to increase production, revenues and profitability.

Recent roles include:

Mine manager Aeris Resources, Tritton Operations

Responsibly for tech services and MEM for underground operations at Tritton, a deep underground trucking mine. Managing development of new orebody at Avoca Tank with Contractor and Murrawombie mine operations in flat dipping graphitic stopes.

Mine manager Aurelia, Hera Mine

MEM for Hera Operations at Underground Modified Avoca with contractor workforce, achieving 1 year Injury free.

Operations Superintendent, Acting MEM, Safety and Compliance Advisor Aurelia, Peak Gold Mines Working with the MEM through managing site contractor to achieve safe production.

Mine manager Glencore, CSA Mine

MEM Statutory responsibility for 1.8km deep, 1.2Mt Underground Copper mine with 400 underground employees. Acting General Manager during this period when required. Achieved record Cu production in '16 and '17 and achieved record reduction in TRIFR on site.

Examiner for NSW Resource for Regulator - Mining Engineering Manager (2020 to present) and NSW Underground Supervisor (2018 to present)

Mr Hamilton holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Mining Engineering) with Honors, University of South Australia, and has additional qualifications including First Class Mine Manager (NSW) Metalliferous - Unrestricted

Commenting on the appointment, Vertex Executive Chairman Roger Jackson said:

"We're pleased to welcome Chris to the Vertex team, his extensive underground hard rock mining, operations and leadership experience can only bode well for the success of the High Grade Reward Gold Mine. "

*To view mineral resources figures, please visit:
https://abnnewswire.net/lnk/936Y4I2U

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