Vertex Minerals Limited (VTX.AX) Updated Mineral Resource Estimate Reward Gold Mine
Sydney, Sep 2, 2026 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Vertex Minerals Limited (
ASX:VTX) (VTXXF:OTCMKTS) (JK8:FRA) advises that it has completed a review of the 2023 Mineral Resource Estimate for the Reward Gold Mine at its 100%-owned Hill End Gold Project in the Lachlan Fold Belt, NSW. The estimate was prepared by independent consultants HGS Australia in accordance with the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (the JORC Code).
HIGHLIGHTS
- Updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the Reward Gold Mine completed by independent consultants HGS Australia in accordance with the JORC Code (2012): 274,000 tonnes at 16.68 g/t Au for 146,900 ounces at a 4.0 g/t Au lower cut-off.
- Indicated Mineral Resource of 80,000 tonnes at 21.17 g/t Au for 54,700 ounces - an increase in Indicated grade of 36% over the June 2023 Indicated grade of 15.54 g/t Au.
- The proportion of contained ounces classified as Indicated has risen from 31% to 37%, reflecting improved geological confidence from mine reconciliation, underground mapping and development exposure.
- Overall Resource grade is effectively unchanged at 16.68 g/t Au (June 2023: 16.72 g/t Au), confirming the high-grade character of the deposit
- Total contained ounces have decreased by 35% from the 225,200 ounces reported in June 2023 (ASX announcement 21 June 2023). The reduction is attributable to two factors, described in detail below:
o the application of a 200 g/t Au top-cut to a small number of extreme outlier assays, which the Competent Person considers necessary to avoid over-estimation of grade in a coarse-gold system; and
o a reduction in the number and size of interpreted lodes following mine reconciliation, underground mapping and mine development, and recognition of the controlling structures, where certain lodes no longer meet the JORC Code requirement for reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction.
- Reported on an uncut basis, the estimate would be 276,000 tonnes at 21.57 g/t Au for 192,000 ounces. The difference demonstrates the material influence of a small number of very high-grade samples, and the Company has elected to report the more conservative top-cut estimate.
- There is no material change to the current mine plan, to the underground development schedule, or to the Company's plan to bring the Reward Gold Mine to full production from October 2026. The lodes currently being developed and stoped are unaffected.
- The re-interpretation has defined three priority underground drill target areas: depth extensions below the existing Resource; remnant ultra-high-grade material in and around the historic Hawkins Hill mine directly above Reward; and along strike to the south at Fosters.
- The Fosters Exploration Target previously reported by the Company (ASX announcement 29 August 2023) is unchanged by this estimate: 524,000 tonnes at 12.5 g/t Au for 211,000 ounces (lower range) to 524,000 tonnes at 19.0 g/t Au for 321,000 ounces (upper range). Refer to the cautionary statement under "Fosters Exploration Target" below.
- Vertex plans to drill Fosters, which sits down strike to the south of, and below, the Reward Gold Mine. Fosters will be accessed via the existing Fosters adit, which is only a few hundred metres down strike from the Hill End gravity gold plant.
- Underground diamond drilling is planned to commence in the first quarter of 2027. The move to 24-hour underground operations approved on 20 August 2026 provides the operational capacity to establish a dedicated underground drilling team.
Overview
The June 2023 estimate was prepared before Vertex recommenced mining at Reward. Since that time the Company has recommenced mining and has completed extensive underground mapping and face sampling, substantial underground development that has physically exposed the mineralised structures, and - critically - reconciliation of material actually mined and processed against the modelled tonnes and grade. This work has materially improved the geological understanding of the deposit, and the updated estimate reflects that improved understanding rather than any change in the underlying gold endowment of the Hill End field.
The result is a smaller but better-defined and higher-confidence domained resource, with a significantly higher Indicated grade and a clearer structural framework from which to target future drilling.
Reasons for the change
Mine reconciliation
The single most significant change since June 2023 is that waste grades have been included in the block model waste blocks in the waste outside the vein (0.18m wide) in the minimum mining width of 1m. Reward is now an operating mine. Vertex has developed through the orebody, stoped from it and processed the material through the Gekko gravity plant, and has been able to reconcile the tonnes and grade actually delivered against the tonnes and grade the resource model predicted.
Reconciliation of this kind is the most direct test available of a resource model. It measures the model against physical production rather than against further estimation, and where the two diverge it identifies precisely which lodes and which areas of the model are not performing as interpreted. That information is not obtainable from drilling alone, and it is the principal reason the Competent Person has been able to constrain the 2026 interpretation with materially greater confidence than was possible in 2023.
Re-interpretation of lodes and controlling structures
Vertex has conducted extensive mine reconciliation, underground mapping, underground mine development work and recognition of the controlling structures.
In practical terms, physical access to the orebody has allowed the Company to see the structures directly and help better domaining. Several lodes interpreted in 2023 have been shown to be narrower, shorter or less continuous than modelled, and have been reduced or removed from the estimate. Conversely, the lodes that remain are better constrained are showing better reconciliation to milled grades.
Underground face sampling and further re-interpretation
The Competent Person has identified that a number of the more recent underground face samples do not fall within the currently interpreted lode wireframes. A full re-interpretation of the lode geometry incorporating this face sampling data is required has been completed internally but needs further independent assessment.
(Investors should note that this further re-interpretation may result in changes to the Mineral Resource Estimate, in either direction. The Company will report the outcome of that work to the market in accordance with its continuous disclosure obligations.)
Implications for the mine plan
The updated estimate does not result in any material change to the Company's current mine plan or to the underground development and production schedule previously reported. The lodes presently being developed and stoped - including the Mica Lense currently being mined from Decline 3 by mechanised longhole open stoping.
(The Company has not declared an Ore Reserve for the Reward Gold Mine. Statements in this announcement concerning the mine plan, development schedule and future production are forward looking and are not based on an Ore Reserve estimate. Refer to the ForwardLooking Statements notice at the end of this announcement.)
Where this points the drill: three priority target areas
A principal objective of this work was to establish where Vertex should target future underground drilling at Reward. The improved structural model has defined three priority areas:
1. Depth extensions below the existing Resource
The Reward lodes remain open at depth. The recognition of the controlling structures provides, for the first time, a predictive framework for where those lodes should project below the currently modelled limits of the Resource. Historic mining across the Hill End field rarely extended below the water table at approximately 60 feet (less than 20 metres), and only a limited portion of the strike has been drilled to any significant depth.
2. Hawkins Hill remnants in the upper levels
The historic Hawkins Hill mine sits directly above the Reward workings and is among the highest-grade gold mines recorded in Australia. The upper levels of the Vertex workings provide access to remnant material in and around those historic stopes - blocks left behind by nineteenth-century mining methods that were unable to recover them selectively. The structural work completed for this estimate improves the Company's ability to locate those remnants from underground drill platforms.
(Historic production figures for the Hawkins Hill mine are historical records and are not reported as a Mineral Resource or Exploration Target under the JORC Code. They are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be achieved at Reward.)
3. Down strike to the south at Fosters
Fosters lies approximately 400 metres south of the Reward Gold Mine, sitting down strike to the south of and below the Reward workings on the same structural corridor. It falls within ground already covered by Vertex Mining Licences and existing Development Consent.
Fosters is accessed via the existing Fosters adit and development drive. The adit is only a few hundred metres down strike from the Hill End gravity gold plant, meaning any material subsequently mined at Fosters would have a very short haul to existing processing infrastructure. No new approvals are required to test Fosters from underground.
Fosters Exploration Target
The Exploration Target previously reported by the Company for Fosters (ASX announcement 29 August 2023) is unchanged by this Mineral Resource Estimate and remains current. It was estimated by HGS Australia and is reported in accordance with clause 17 of the JORC Code (2012).
Underground drilling programme
Vertex plans to commence underground diamond drilling at Reward in the first quarter of 2027.
The approval for 24-hour underground operations granted by Bathurst Regional Council on 20 August 2026 (ASX announcement 20 August 2026) is central to this. Available working hours at the mine increase from approximately 9 hours per day to up to 22 hours per day. That additional development capacity allows the Company to cut dedicated drill cuddies and platforms underground without displacing ore development from the production schedule - something that has not been practical under the previous restricted operating hours.
Drilling from underground platforms is materially more effective than surface drilling at Reward: holes are shorter, better oriented to the steeply dipping lodes, and can be positioned to test the depth extensions, the Hawkins Hill remnants and the Fosters corridor from close range.
Drilling at Fosters
Vertex plans to drill Fosters as part of this programme. Fosters sits down strike to the south of and below the Reward Gold Mine and will be accessed via the existing Fosters adit, a few hundred metres down strike from the Hill End gravity gold plant. Because the adit and development drive are already in place and the ground is covered by existing Mining Licences and Development Consent, the target can be drilled without new approvals or new surface disturbance.
The objective of drilling at Fosters is to test the Exploration Target described above with the aim of converting some or all of it to a Mineral Resource. There is no certainty that drilling will result in the determination of a Mineral Resource at Fosters.
*To view tables and figures included in this announcement, please visit:
https://abnnewswire.net/lnk/0C63R568
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.
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