Hand-auger drilling has expanded Lion Rock's residual-rutile footprint to 130 km² and defined a developing Mboma–Loum corridor of exceptionally rutile-rich heavy-mineral assemblages Lion Rock Minerals Limited (ASX: LRM) has delivered the results of its completed drilling hand-auger campaign at Mboma and Loum, two priority zones within the 8,800 km² Minta Rutile & Monazite Project in central Cameroon. Some 588 mineralogy intervals from 125 holes have expanded the known residual-rutile footprint to roughly 130 km² and, in the company's words, defined a developing Mboma–Loum residual rutile corridor. The assemblages are strikingly rutile-dominant; rutile makes up as much as 72.7% of the heavy-mineral fraction at Mboma and 65.4% at Loum, and a second accredited laboratory has confirmed natural rutile nuggets grading above 98% TiO₂ (Figure 1). A further 6,494 samples sit in the assay and validation queue, with the company also advancing a separate monazite–rare-earth workstream at Minta Est. Figure 1: Rutile nuggets and Visible Monazite (Source LRM ASX Announcement) . At a Glance Item Description Company Lion Rock Minerals Limited (ASX: LRM) — ASX-listed critical-minerals developer advancing the Minta Rutile & Monazite Project, an 8,800 km² province in central Cameroon (18 granted permits, three applications). Flagship Minta Project, Cameroon — shallow residual and alluvial rutile across a province-scale footprint, with a separate monazite-bearing rare-earth evaluation stream at Minta Est. The news H1 2026 hand-auger drilling at Mboma & Loum returned 588 mineralogy intervals from 125 holes, expanding the residual-rutile footprint to ~130 km² and defining a developing Mboma–Loum corridor; a further 6,494 samples are in the assay queue. Rutile grades — the key distinction Rutile-in-HM (the share of the heavy-mineral assemblage that is rutile) reaches 72.7% at Mboma and 65.4% at Loum. In-situ rutile (the actual rock grade) averages ~0.54% at Mboma and ~0.55% at Loum, peaking at 3.32% and 2.02%. The high figures measure assemblage purity, not rock grade. Rutile nuggets A second accredited laboratory confirmed natural rutile nuggets up to 98.4% TiO₂ — among the highest natural rutile purities recorded, but a selective surface grab sample, not representative of grade or tonnage. Monazite-REE (Minta Est) Crews remobilised to Minta Est; calculated-monazite intervals include 6.0m @ 1.2%, 2.0m @ 3.3% and 5.7m @ 1.0%. Full REE-suite assays directed to an external laboratory, expected Q3 2026. Stage Early-stage exploration; no JORC Mineral Resource anywhere yet. Mboma & Loum are being advanced toward a maiden MRE; mineralogy is via XRF/XRD, and the monazite figures are calculated, not assayed. Leadership Theuns de Bruyn (CEO, Cameroon); Duncan Craib (Chairman, Australia). Competent Person Richard Stockwell (Placer Consulting Pty Ltd, which holds equity in LRM). Next steps Complete Minta Est drilling and analysis; advance REE-suite and deportment work; commission the Yaoundé laboratory (CP-review readiness Q3 2026); Phase 2 infill toward a series of inferred MREs, then an indicated MRE and preliminary mine planning. Company Overview - Lion Rock Minerals Lion Rock Minerals (ASX: LRM) is an ASX-listed critical-minerals developer whose single asset is the Minta Rutile & Monazite Project, an 8,800 km² province in central Cameroon held across 18 granted permits and three applications (Figure 2). The geological premise is straightforward: deep tropical weathering has stripped and concentrated titanium-bearing rutile into shallow residual profiles across the district, with additional heavy-mineral concentrations in the alluvial drainage systems, and a separate monazite-bearing rare-earth opportunity at Minta Est. The company runs two parallel workstreams - residual rutile at Mboma and Loum, being pushed toward a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate, and monazite-REE evaluation at Minta Est - across a pipeline of further targets. The pitch rests on three legs: scale, mineralogy and theme. The land position is province-scale and, on the company's account, under-explored; the heavy-mineral assemblage is unusually rutile-dominant, which matters because rutile is the premium titanium feedstock; and Minta offers exposure to at least 12 of the 60 minerals on the 2025 US critical minerals list, led by titanium and rutile. Figure 2: Location of Minta Project in Cameroon (Source: LRM Website) Mboma–Loum: A Rutile Corridor Takes Shape The headline is scale and consistency. Following the initial 2025 discovery of high-grade rutile-in-HM assemblages at Mboma, scout and infill drilling has extended the residual-rutile discovery toward Loum, and the combined dataset of 588 mineralogy intervals from 125 holes now covers roughly 130 km² (Figure 3). At Mboma, 266 intervals from 52 holes returned rutile-in-HM values ranging up to 72.7%, with 101 intervals above 40%, 56 above 50% and 29 above 60%. At Loum, 322 intervals from 73 holes averaged 31.0% rutile-in-HM, with 115 intervals above 40% and a peak of 65.4%. The company also notes that higher rutile-in-HM values tend to occur near the ferruginous horizon below the soil profile, which it reads as evidence that enrichment is not confined to the surface and offers a depth-extension target for follow-up drilling. The mineralisation is reported as remaining open along strike and at depth. Here is the distinction that governs how these numbers should be read. "Rutile-in-HM" measures the proportion of the heavy-mineral fraction that is rutile — a gauge of assemblage purity. A figure like 72.7% means the heavy minerals present are overwhelmingly rutile rather than ilmenite, zircon or monazite, which is genuinely favourable: rutile carries roughly 95% TiO₂ and commands a premium over ilmenite, and a clean, rutile-dominant assemblage points to a simpler, higher-value product. What that figure is not is the grade of rutile in the rock. That is the "in-situ rutile" number, and it is far lower — averaging about 0.54% at Mboma and 0.55% at Loum, with the best single samples reaching 3.32% and 2.02% respectively. Across the combined dataset, 271 intervals exceed 0.50% in-situ rutile and 49 exceed 1%. In other words: excellent mineral quality, modest in-ground grade, and — for now — no tonnage, because there is no resource. Figure 3: Mboma and Loum residual rutile target areas and result distribution (Source: ASX Announcement ) The rutile nuggets deserve the same care. A second accredited independent laboratory has confirmed natural rutile nuggets grading up to 98.4% TiO₂ from Mboma and Loum, which the company fairly describes as among the highest natural rutile purities recorded globally. That is a real statement about mineral quality, but it derives from a selective grab sample collected at surface; it speaks to how pure the rutile is, not to how much of it is present or how continuous it is. Taken together, the Mboma–Loum results make a credible case for a large, clean, rutile-dominant residual system — the kind of assemblage that, if paired with adequate in-situ grade and tonnage, can underpin a rutile operation. Those last two conditions are precisely what the drilling and assays still have to demonstrate. Minta Est: The Monazite-REE Workstream Running alongside the rutile is a second, earlier-stage story. Field focus has shifted back to Minta Est, where Lion Rock is chasing monazite-bearing rare-earth mineralisation in first-order alluvial basins. The company has remobilised crews to follow up previously reported intervals of calculated monazite — including 6.0m at 1.2% monazite from 3.0m, 2.0m at 3.3% from 8.0m, and 5.7m at 1.0% from 4.0m — and initial drilling across the neighbouring Yong basin (229 holes for about 1,341m) recorded visual monazite through the alluvial samples, with rutile and zircon also observed in panned concentrates. Two caveats matter more here than anywhere else in the announcement. First, the monazite figures are calculated — derived from XRF via an oxide formula and a phosphorus cross-check — rather than directly assayed, and the visual observations are exactly that. The company's own cautionary language is unambiguous: visual estimates are uncertain, provide no information on impurities or deleterious properties, and are no substitute for laboratory analysis. Second, the actual REE assays that would give this workstream substance have not yet been reported; Minta Est samples are being directed to an independent external laboratory for full REE-suite analysis, with results expected in Q3 2026. The monazite–REE angle broadens Minta's critical-minerals exposure — potentially to neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and others — but it is best treated today as an evaluation pathway to watch rather than a defined second string. Why Rutile and Critical Minerals The thematic backdrop is the most durable part of the story. Rutile is the highest-grade natural source of titanium dioxide, used in pigments, titanium metal and, critically, in aerospace and defence applications; both rutile and titanium sit on the US critical minerals list, and Minta offers exposure to at least a dozen of those 60 listed minerals, extending through zirconium to a suite of rare earths. Cameroon itself has a rutile pedigree: artisanal miners produced an estimated 15,000 tonnes of high-purity (>95%) rutile from the broader region between 1935 and 1955, which lends the district a degree of geological credibility even before modern work. Set against that are the realities of the jurisdiction and the stage. Cameroon is a frontier mining jurisdiction, and a province-scale program there carries permitting, infrastructure, logistics and sovereign considerations that a comparable project in Australia or North America would not. Lion Rock is building its own in-country laboratory in Yaoundé to control sample throughput and cost — sensible for a high-density hand-auger campaign, but a facility still in commissioning and not yet at full Competent-Person-review capacity. The critical-minerals theme is a genuine tailwind, and a rutile-dominant assemblage is a real asset; converting both into value depends on execution in a demanding operating environment. Management Commentary CEO Theuns de Bruyn framed the results as defining a corridor rather than a collection of isolated hits. "Defining the Mboma–Loum corridor is significant for Lion Rock's exploration strategy and builds on our drilling success in 2025 across a large, under-explored 8,800 km² critical minerals district in central Cameroon," he said. He was careful to place the peak numbers in context: "Mboma's high-grade rutile assemblage values of 72.7% rutile in HM and Loum returning 65.4% rutile in HM are not isolated points; they sit within a broader distribution of high-grade intervals that support disciplined testing of a developing Mboma–Loum residual rutile corridor." He also pointed to the confirmation of natural rutile nuggets grading above 98% TiO₂ from both areas. On strategy, de Bruyn signalled a near-term pivot to the rare-earth workstream before returning to rutile with better geological control. "Our field focus now shifts back to Minta Est, which is proving to be an exciting and substantial pipeline of additional residual, alluvial and critical-mineral targets," he said. "Our immediate priorities are clear: complete the current Minta Est drilling and sample-analysis programme, advance REE suite and deportment work, and then return to the strongest residual rutile targets within the broader Minta tenements with better geological control, a clearer ranking framework and a stronger understanding of rutile-in-HM distribution." Concluding Comments The Lion Rock story is starting to regain some tracton. This 130 km² corridor, confirmed by two laboratories to contain natural rutile of exceptional purity, within a province-scale land position is a reminder of the potential. The key to a rutile led heavy mineral story is a clean, rutile-rich assemblage. Rutile is the premium titanium feedstock, and as we have learnt over the last 12 months, a system dominated by it, points toward a simpler, higher-value product than the ilmenite-heavy deposits that make up much of the sector. Rutile-in-HM of 72.7% is all about mineral quality so the main story is still only about modest in-situ grades. I am concerend that the project is still sahring grab samples and the monazite numbers are still calculated rather than assayed, and there is no resource anywhere yet to anchor tonnage. A low-cost hand-auger drilling approach lets Lion Rock sample at high density cheaply. The market still need to see how prospectivity can convert into value, such as a defined resource that is supported by assays, metallurgy and product-quality work. While it is good to see some news but I fear timing may not be kind to the Lion Rock Mienral story in 2026. Cover photo: Rutile (20241027), Fumikas Sagisavas. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rutile_(20241027).jpg) The Samso Way – Seek the Research Here at Samso, we pride ourselves on delivering content for investors that is independent and informed by over three decades of experience in the industry. 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The gold price has fallen roughly 28% from its January 2026 record high, and the share prices of small gold companies have fallen even harder. This Insight walks through twelve ASX-listed gold small-caps, one by one, in plain language. For each company we ask two simple questions. Does the project stack up as a real, money-making mine? And does the company look like the kind of business a bigger gold miner would want to buy? The evidence suggests the sell-off has been applied to strong and weak companies alike. In my experience, conditions like these have usually preceded the strongest recoveries. Samso Insights Research Investors Samso Market Strategy WHAT THIS PIECE COVERS 1.00 · THE SETUP Gold fell 28 per cent. Gold shares fell a great deal further. 2.00 · THE TWELVE One table, twelve companies, each on its own announcements. 3.00 · COMPANY BY COMPANY The new producers, who poured gold while their shares fell. 4.00 · THE DISCOUNT QUESTION Whether these companies were really marked down, and on what. 5.00 · TWO PATHS TO VALUE The company builds the mine, or somebody buys the company. 6.00 · CLOSING THE LOOP The milestones happened. The share prices have not caught up. 1.00 · THE SETUP Gold Price fell 28%. Gold shares fell much further. Gold peaked at about US$5,597 an ounce on 29 January 2026. By mid-July 2026 it was trading around US$4,000 to US$4,100, a fall of roughly 28%, although the price is still about 20% higher than it was a year ago. The main reason for the fall is favoired to be caused by gloabal interest rate uncertainty. Fresh conflict between the US and Iran has pushed oil prices up, markets now expect the US Federal Reserve to raise rates rather than cut them, and higher interest rates generally make gold, which pays no interest, less attractive to hold, theoritically. Now the part that matters for Australian gold companies. Australian miners sell their gold in Australian dollars, and in our currency the price is still remarkably high, and ain mid July, that is roughly A$5,700 per ounce, as of 19th July 2026. That figure moves every day, so check a live price before relying on it. Why does it matter? Because the cost of digging up an ounce of gold at most of the projects in this note sits somewhere between about A$1,400 and A$3,400. Even after the correction, the profit margin per ounce remains very large by historical standards. Every mine plan discussed below was designed and tested using a gold price of A$5,000 to A$6,000 an ounce or lower, which means every one of them still works at today's price. Since January, investors have sold ASX gold companies far harder than the metal itself fell. On 23 March 2026 alone, a sector-wide sell-off reduced some of these share prices by more than 10% in a single day, with no bad news from the companies themselves. By June, gold shares were trading as if the gold price had collapsed, when in reality it was still above US$4,000. FIGURE 1 · The gold price over the last 24 months: weekly closing prices of COMEX front-month gold futures in US$ per ounce, July 2024 to 14 July 2026. The rise through 2025, the peak in early 2026 and the fall back toward US$4,000 are all visible. Weekly closes understate the extremes; the intraday record was about US$5,597 on 29 January 2026. Source: Yahoo Finance price history, accessed 14 July 2026. Verify against a live price feed. That gap between what the companies have actually achieved and what their share prices say is the subject of this note. When nervous investors sell "gold" as a category, they sell everything. Companies that spent the past year raising money, finishing mine studies, winning approvals and pouring their first gold are sold down alongside companies that achieved nothing. Our July note argued the gold price is settling into a base, not collapsing. If that is right, the discounted small-cap end of the ASX offers the greatest leverage to a recovery. Samso take · why a watchlist, why now The twelve companies below come from a working watchlist rather than a quantitative screen. They cover the whole life cycle of a gold company, from early-stage explorers still drilling holes through to brand-new producers that poured their first gold bar this year (Figure 2). What they share is this: each one delivered a real, verifiable milestone during the exact months the market was marking them down. That gap between delivery and share price is where patient investors have historically built their best positions. It is also where larger gold companies, which have been acquiring ASX gold developers since 2024, look for acquisitions. 1.50 · BEFORE WE START How to read the numbers in this note Mining has its own language, and it can make simple ideas sound complicated. Below is a plain-English guide to every term used in this note. If you read nothing else in this section, read the first three entries. Ounces (oz, koz, Moz) Gold is measured in troy ounces. "koz" means thousand ounces and "Moz" means million ounces. A Mineral Resource of 1Moz means geologists estimate about a million ounces of gold sit in the ground, worth roughly A$6 billion at today's price before the very large cost of getting it out. Grade (g/t) How much gold each tonne of rock contains, in grams per tonne. Around 1g/t is low-grade (you need to move a lot of rock), 2 to 3g/t is solid, 4g/t and above is high-grade, and anything over about 10g/t is exceptional. Higher grade generally means more profit per truckload. Mineral Resource: inferred, indicated, measured An estimate of the gold in the ground, prepared under the JORC Code, the Australian reporting standard. The three categories describe confidence. Inferred is the rough first estimate, indicated means enough drilling has been done to plan a mine around it, and measured is the highest confidence. Banks and buyers pay far more attention to indicated and measured ounces. Scoping study → PFS → DFS The three levels of study that assess whether a mine would be profitable, in increasing detail and cost. A scoping study is the first rough sketch. A Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) is a serious engineering estimate. A Definitive (or Bankable) Feasibility Study (DFS) is detailed enough for banks to lend against. NPV (net present value) The headline number from a mine study: all the future profit the mine is expected to make, converted into today's dollars, because a dollar earned in ten years is worth less than one earned now. The small subscript, such as NPV8, is the discount rate used in that conversion. A rough rule of thumb: if a company's entire sharemarket value sits well below its project's NPV, the market is either doubting the study or ignoring it. Note that "pre-tax" NPVs look bigger than "post-tax" ones, and this note flags which is which. IRR (internal rate of return) The project's annual rate of return on the money invested to build it. Anything above about 25% is considered attractive. Several projects here report over 70%, which is exceptional and reflects today's high gold price. AISC (all-in sustaining cost) The most honest cost measure: roughly what it costs, all things included, to produce one ounce. If AISC is A$3,000 and gold sells for A$6,000, the miner keeps about A$3,000 per ounce before tax and growth spending. Toll milling / toll treatment Paying to process your ore through someone else's plant instead of building your own. Building a processing plant costs hundreds of millions of dollars, so toll milling lets a small company start earning gold revenue quickly and cheaply. The trade-off is paying fees and depending on someone else's schedule. Capex, placement, SPP, FID Capex is the money needed to build the mine. A placement is a share sale to big investors to raise cash, and an SPP (share purchase plan) is the version offered to existing everyday shareholders. FID, the final investment decision, is the board formally saying "we are building it." Market capitalisation The sharemarket's total price tag on the company: share price multiplied by the number of shares. Comparing market cap with project NPV, cash in the bank, or ounces in the ground is how investors judge whether a stock looks cheap or expensive. 2.00 · THE TWELVE One table, twelve stories The table below (Table 1) summarises each company using its own ASX announcements, with dates given in each profile in Section 3. Treat every number as approximate and check it against the original announcement before acting on it. Resource estimates, study results and funding details are exactly as the companies reported them. Share prices and company valuations change daily, which is why there is no market-value column here. Each profile in Section 3 instead includes a 24-month share price chart, so the rise to the early-2026 high and the fall since can be seen directly. TABLE 1 · The twelve watchlist companies, summarised in plain language from their own ASX announcements. Every study value quoted in this note was calculated by the company at a gold price lower than today's, an important point we return to in Section 4. Source: company ASX announcements; Samso compilation. Verify all figures against the original releases. FIGURE 2 · The watchlist spans the full life cycle of a gold company, from explorer to producer. That spread matters, because recoveries rarely lift all stages at once. Producers usually recover first and explorers last. Source: Samso framework; company disclosures. 3.00 · COMPANY BY COMPANY The new producers: they poured gold while their shares fell Three of the twelve produced their first gold during the very months the gold price was falling, an unlucky accident of timing that has limited the market response to the milestone. For a small company, the first gold pour marks the transition from development story to operating business. ASX: WWI West Wits Mining: a new producer in the Witwatersrand Basin Qala Shallows, near Johannesburg, South Africa · 7.24 million oz at 4.0g/t West Wits is restarting mining in the Witwatersrand Basin, the goldfield beneath Johannesburg that has produced more gold than anywhere else on Earth. On 17 March 2026 the company poured its first gold, making Qala Shallows the first new underground gold mine built in South Africa in more than fifteen years. Its ore is processed at neighbouring giant Sibanye-Stillwater's plant under a toll milling arrangement (see the guide above), so West Wits did not need to build its own. The numbers behind it are substantial: a gold estimate of 7.24 million ounces at a healthy 4.0g/t grade, upgraded 44% in February 2026, and a completed mine study valuing the project at US$500 million after tax. That valuation was calculated at a gold price of US$2,850/oz, which is about US$1,150 below today's price. In June 2026 two major South African banks, Absa and Nedbank, signed off a ZAR1.115 billion loan package (very roughly A$95m) that fully funds the build-up toward the target of around 70,000 ounces a year from late 2028. A study on expanding to around 200,000 ounces a year, called Project 200, is due around the end of July 2026. Is it a real mine? Yes, and the strongest proof is that two big banks put their own money behind it. The risk now is the ramp-up. The gold grade coming out of the ground must rise toward 3g/t as mining moves into the richer ore zones, and South African projects always trade at a discount with Australian investors because of the country's political and power-supply history. Takeover appeal: a 7.2-million-ounce deposit next door to Sibanye, already using Sibanye's plant, is an obvious fit for its giant neighbour. The bank funding reduces the pressure to sell, because West Wits no longer needs a buyer to fund development. ASX: CEL Challenger Gold: first gold, a US$1.1 billion study, and Peter Marrone joining the board Hualilan, San Juan province, Argentina · 2.8 million oz (gold-equivalent), plus projects in Ecuador Challenger illustrates the pattern described in this note. The shares reportedly fell about 48% in the six months to May 2026. In that same window the company started mining, poured its first gold in June 2026 (about 500oz of gold and 6,000oz of silver from the first batch of ore, processed through neighbour Austral Gold's plant). The compnay then published a study on the full-scale mine showing a value of roughly US$1.1 billion after tax at a US$3,500/oz gold price, with a build cost of about US$232m and steady production of 135,000 ounces a year. In May the company raised A$85 million at 12 cents a share, led by Peter Marrone, the founder of Yamana Gold, who invested roughly A$10m of his own money and will become chairman, bringing Yamana's former operations chief with him. A 20-for-1 share consolidation is planned, which changes the share price but not the company's value. Challenger also holds a separate 4.5-million-ounce project in Ecuador, right beside a deposit that China's CMOC recently bought, and the market currently gives it almost nothing for that. Is it a real mine? The sequencing is the notable feature. The small-scale processing deal brings in cash now, without borrowing or issuing more shares, while the big mine study is finished. The discount is Argentina itself, meaning currency and political risk, though San Juan is that country's most mining-friendly province. Takeover appeal: when one of the industry's most respected mine builders personally buys in and takes the chairman's seat while the shares sit near their lows, it indicates that experienced industry figures assess the asset as worth substantially more than the current price. Whether Challenger ends up as acquirer or target, that positioning occurred before any share price recovery. ASX: WGR Western Gold Resources: a small, near-term toll-mining operation Gold Duke, near Wiluna, WA · 277,000oz Western Gold's plan is straightforward: mine ore from four small, already-approved open pits and truck it 46km to someone else's plant for processing. The board formally approved mining in December 2025, a decision that briefly sent the shares to a four-year high, after drilling 35,000m of closely spaced holes to confirm exactly where the gold sits. This "grade control" drilling reduces the risk of the mined ore differing from the plan. Funding needed only a modest A$6.75m share sale plus an arrangement where the mining contractor defers part of its fees. The company's own numbers for this first stage point to about 42,800 ounces of production, generating an estimated cash surplus of roughly A$109.7m. That is a large figure relative to the company's small size, though it assumes the Australian-dollar gold price stays high and everything runs to plan. Site works began in early 2026 with first gold targeted for around mid-2026, and readers should check the company's latest quarterly report to confirm timing. Is it a real mine? Yes, but a small and unforgiving one. At this scale a single problem, whether the ore carries less gold than expected or the plant runs late, can remove much of the profit. The heavy up-front drilling may provide some form of insurance. Takeover appeal: at 277,000oz, Gold Duke is more likely to be bought as extra plant feed by a bigger Wiluna-district player than as a company-making prize. That outcome would still deliver value to shareholders, provided mining confirms the estimated gold. The funded builders: money in the bank, processing plants on the way In WA's goldfields, ownership of a processing plant separates small toll-treatment operators from substantial mining businesses. Paying to use another company's plant works, but the fees and scheduling limits reduce profits. The three companies below raised, between them, well over half a billion dollars during the sell-off to build or refurbish their own plants. Their share prices received little benefit. ASX: BTR Brightstar Resources: fully funded to build its own plant Laverton–Menzies and Sandstone regions, WA · more than 4 million oz in total Brightstar already earns gold revenue from two small underground mines, with its ore bought and processed by larger neighbour Genesis Minerals. The planned development is larger. Its January 2026 mine study, a full bank-quality DFS, maps out a Brightstar-owned processing plant at Laverton producing about 75,000 ounces a year, worth A$606m before tax at an assumed gold price of A$6,000/oz. That assumption is below today's price, and the study says the plant would pay for itself in about 17 months. Crucially, the money is already raised: roughly A$383 million in total, made up of about A$193m from share sales (including an offer to everyday shareholders that proved so popular it was upsized) plus a US$120m bond. Construction was slated to begin mid-2026 with first gold from the new plant targeted for mid-2027. Behind that sits a second act at Sandstone, where Brightstar has bought up neighbouring companies to assemble 2.4 million ounces, most of it shallow and cheap to mine, with the first serious study due around September 2026. The company's stated ambition is 200,000 ounces a year across both hubs. The share price was sold down to about 30 cents in the 23 March sector rout, a near-12% fall in one day with no company news, while an independent research firm published valuations several times higher. That is one firm's opinion rather than a market consensus, but it gives a measure of the gap. Is it a real mine? This is one of the most complete packages on the ASX at its size: gold in the ground with high confidence, a finished bank-grade study, permits, all the money, and revenue already coming in. What remains is execution, which means building the plant on time and on budget. What is an overhanging issue is the market feels that the grades may be a problem to come in "lower" gold pricing and rising costs. Takeover appeal: Brightstar has been the one doing the buying so far. Even so, a fully funded, 4-million-ounce, two-region gold business trading well below the value of just one of its projects is exactly the maths that attracted takeover bids for De Grey, Spartan and Gold Road. It could end up as buyer and target at the same time. ASX: MRT Maritana Minerals: converting a nickel plant into a gold plant Black Swan plant and several gold deposits around Kalgoorlie, WA · ~1.9 million oz Regular Samso readers know this one. We covered it as Horizon Minerals and again after its April 2026 rename. The plan is straightforward: instead of spending years and hundreds of millions building a new processing plant, Maritana bought an existing nickel plant (Black Swan, just outside Kalgoorlie, connected to grid power and sealed roads) and is converting it to process gold. The mine study around that plan points to about 102,000 ounces a year for an initial five years, worth roughly A$631m before tax at an assumed A$5,500/oz gold price. The money is done, for now. A A$175m share placement in February 2026 plus a shareholder offer left about A$114m cash and no debt in March. While the plant is converted, existing small-scale mining continues to generate revenue, and drilling at the old Burbanks mine has returned very high grades, including one interval of 4.2 metres at 42g/t with a slice at 127g/t. Remember from the guide that 4g/t counts as high-grade. First gold through Black Swan is targeted for late 2026. In mid-April the sharemarket valued the whole company at about A$333m, roughly half the study's stated project value, for a business that is funded and already earning. Is it a real mine? The numbers are strong, with the honest caveats we have flagged before. Its production cost of about A$3,353 an ounce is comfortable while gold is above A$6,000, but it leaves less cushion than lower-cost peers if the price falls, and converting a nickel plant to gold is a substantial engineering task. Takeover appeal: a permitted, grid-connected processing plant near Kalgoorlie is genuinely scarce, since companies wait years for approvals to build one. Comparable plants have historically attracted corporate buyers when the share market has not valued them. ASX: TGM Theta Gold Mines: building a mine in a historic South African goldfield TGME Project, Pilgrim's Rest, South Africa · 6.1 million oz Theta is reviving a cluster of historic gold mines around the old town of Pilgrim's Rest, north-east of Johannesburg. Its updated mine study (3 February 2026) describes a 13-year operation producing about 871,000 ounces in total at a strong grade of 4.28g/t, generating A$1.4 billion of free cash and worth A$689m after tax. All of that was calculated at a gold price of US$2,884/oz, barely 70% of today's price. Construction is underway with more than 140 people on site, and first gold is targeted for early 2027. The funding was completed in June 2026 through a US$90m bond plus final share placements, including roughly US$15.6m from an investment group associated with Chengtun Mining, a multi-billion-dollar Chinese-listed miner. Open conversations has linked possible future deals together. Beyond stage one sit more than forty historic mines and a further 3.6 million ounces, supporting a long-term ambition of 160,000 ounces a year. Is it a real mine? The high grade and shallow, walk-in tunnel access (no expensive deep shafts) are real advantages. The risks are the standard South African set: layered permitting, the requirement that local empowerment partners hold 26% of the operating companies, and restarting a district that has not operated at scale in living memory. Takeover appeal: a strategic Chinese miner taking a position on the register during construction indicates corporate interest in the asset. Watch whether Chengtun's stake grows. The study-stage developers: the homework is done, the decision comes next ASX: BGD Barton Gold: large early cash margins from the starter pits Tunkillia and Tarcoola, outback South Australia · 2.2 million oz gold plus 3.1 million oz silver Barton's Tunkillia project is a big, bulk-mining story. The gold grade is modest at 0.87g/t on average, but there is a lot of it, and the key detail is that the first pits to be mined are much richer than the average. The company's May 2025 study sketched a mine producing about 120,000 ounces of gold a year plus silver, worth roughly A$1.4 billion before tax, with the first two pits alone modelled to generate about A$1.3 billion of operating cash in just the first 27 months. That was calculated at A$5,000/oz, now, not so well below today's price. The work in 2026 has been about turning that sketch into a bankable plan. The drilling program was expanded to about 40,000m in June after early results suggested more gold at better grades inside the planned pits. According to the company, specialist drilling for engineering and processing data has been running since April, the formal Pre-Feasibility Study is due before the end of 2026, and a mining licence application and funding talks follow in 2027. Two potential extras the simple comparisons miss: Barton owns the only gold processing plant in its region, and it has made a promising high-grade silver discovery called Tolmer that it is now drilling. Similarly, the market consensus point to a long drive to the Challenger MIll and the old phrase, "Grade Is King", especially in a lowering of the gold price. Is it a real mine? Plausibly, on scale and those rich starter pits. A 120,000-ounce-a-year mine costs serious money to build, however, and that financing hill still lies ahead after the study. The end-2026 PFS is the key document. Takeover appeal: South Australia's gold country has barely been consolidated, and a 2.2-million-ounce deposit plus the region's only plant is the natural centrepiece. Realistically, Barton is more likely to be bought at the study stage than to build alone, and that may be the strategy. ASX: PGL Pilbara Gold: 2.1 million ounces of easy-to-process ore in the Pilbara Mt York, the Pilbara, WA (plus Roe Hills near Kalgoorlie) · 2.1 million oz Formerly Kairos Minerals, the company renamed itself Pilbara Gold in April 2026 to match its main asset: Mt York, a 2.1-million-ounce deposit that was partly mined in the 1990s. Two things make it attractive. First, the ore is "free-milling", meaning the gold comes out easily with standard, cheap processing and none of the complex treatment some ores demand. Second, the mineralisation runs continuously for 4.2km inside a single planned pit. An initial study in late 2024 pointed to a conventional open-pit operation, and 2026 is the year of the serious work: about 50,000m of drilling to grow the deposit and lift confidence before a Pre-Feasibility Study, plus first-time gold estimates at its second project near Kalgoorlie. The shares were caught in the sector's June selling despite no bad news from the company, a pattern that recurs throughout this note. Is it a real mine? Possibly, after this year's drilling. The easy processing and existing Pilbara roads and services help, but the deposit needs more high-confidence ounces before a build decision could stand up. Samso is sceptical at this stage as the project had every chance to have been at this stage several yuears ago, priro to the recent gold price hike. THe lack of devotion to it under current management makes me feel that there are some deposit issues. What is great for PGL is the rising gold price. Takeover appeal: the Pilbara has already produced the template, with De Grey's Hemi discovery taken over by Northern Star for billions. A growing deposit of over 2 million ounces in the same region is precisely what mid-sized acquirers screen for. ASX: SMS Star Minerals: a very small, near-term toll-mining plan Tumblegum South, near Meekatharra, WA · small deposit, approval-ready Star Minerals holds a very small, approval-ready gold deposit that the company plans to mine in a short campaign, trucking the ore to a nearby third-party plant for processing. Approvals, agreements and early site work have been reported through late 2025 and 2026, and market commentary has noted renewed speculative interest as first mining approaches. We deliberately quote fewer numbers here. The deposit is modest and the economics are of the short-campaign kind, so readers should take scale and profit expectations directly from the company's own announcements rather than from any second-hand summary, including this one. Is it a real mine? A real but tiny one. A short toll-milling campaign can produce meaningful cash next to a very small company value at today's gold price, but there is no margin for error. One batch of ore grading below plan, or a processing delay, changes the whole outcome. Takeover appeal: realistically a small bolt-on acquisition for a larger Meekatharra-region miner rather than a target in its own right. Its location in the Meekatharra district, which it shares with Great Boulder below, is the relevant factor. The explorers: drilling through the downturn ASX: GBR Great Boulder Resources: a million ounces beside existing processing plants Side Well, right beside Meekatharra, WA (plus the newly acquired Peak Hill) · 1.02 million oz at 2.0g/t In December 2025 Great Boulder's Side Well project reached 1.02 million ounces. The quality matters as much as the quantity. Some 61% of those ounces are in the higher-confidence "indicated" category that mine plans are built on, about 90% sit shallow enough for open-pit mining (the cheap kind), and the main Mulga Bill deposit contains a rich core of 441,000oz at 5.3g/t. Drilling since then has returned exceptionally high grades, including a March 2026 interval of 1.93 metres at 574 grams per tonne with a section at 4,434g/t. Mining lease applications are lodged, the company reported about A$12m in the bank at 1 March, and in mid-2026 it agreed to buy the neighbouring Peak Hill project, funded by a roughly A$40m share raising. Location is the other key point: Side Well is directly beside Meekatharra's established processing plants, owned by companies that require ongoing ore supply. Is it a real mine? Not yet, and deliberately so. The strategy appear to be one of growing the deposit until either a development decision or a takeover offer becomes the logical outcome. The A$40m raising dilutes existing holders, and that is the price of the Peak Hill option. Takeover appeal: a million-plus ounces, high confidence, shallow, high-grade, sitting beside operating plants. This matches the profile of recent WA gold takeover targets. The Peak Hill purchase indicates management intends to be the acquirer, although either outcome remains possible. ASX: AKA Aureka: growing both ounces and grade in Victoria Irvine (Stawell district) and Comstock (St Arnaud), western Victoria · ~455,000oz in total Aureka, the renamed Navarre Minerals, has done something most juniors never manage: it has grown its gold ounces and its grade at the same time. Usually, adding ounces means adding lower-grade material around the edges, and the average grade drifts down. A mid-2026 update lifted the company's total estimate 26% to about 455,000oz, with the flagship Irvine deposit rising to 398,000oz at 2.59g/t, up from 2.43g/t, after a new geological interpretation of a structure called the Tenacity Fault. The company achieved that from only about 5,000m of drilling, which is remarkably efficient. Recent months added a new drill target 900m from the existing deposit and an experienced recruit in Dr Barry Murphy, whose targeting work helped Predictive Discovery find a 5.5-million-ounce deposit in Africa. The near-term option is Comstock, an old open-pit mine at St Arnaud where a mid-2026 concept study outlined a fast, cheap restart using the existing pit ramp and a nearby third-party plant. Two honest caveats apply. All of Aureka's ounces are still in the lowest-confidence "inferred" category, and processing tests have not been done, though the 5-million-ounce Stawell Gold Mine, 16km up the road, has processed the same style of ore for decades. Is it a real mine? Comstock could become a small, self-funding starter operation while Irvine grows toward the company's stated million-ounce ambition. Upgrading resource confidence and completing processing tests are the outstanding homework. Takeover appeal: Victoria's established gold operators, including Stawell's owners just up the corridor, permanently need ore close to their plants. At the roughly 10-cent share level reported in June, this optionality looks cheaply priced relative to the geology. ASX: GA8 GoldArc Resources: an early-stage explorer in the Leonora district Mt Stirling and surrounds, Leonora district, WA · ~200,000oz at 1.82g/t GoldArc, rebranded from Asra Minerals in September 2025 alongside a share consolidation and a A$3.2m raising, is the earliest-stage company here: about 200,000oz across a large ground position around Leonora, one of the busiest and most frequently transacted gold districts in WA. The 2026 drilling news has been genuinely encouraging, with a high-grade gold system confirmed at the Eclipse prospect in April, followed weeks later by bonanza-grade results along a 5km trend called Niagara. The shares traded around 6 cents in early July. Investors should recognise what this is: high-risk discovery investing. The existing 200,000oz is too small to build anything on, and the investment case rests on one of these new prospects turning into something much bigger. Is it a real mine? Not at this size. A deposit of 200,000oz is plant feed for a neighbour, not a mine of its own. Takeover appeal: the real asset is the land, positioned between Leonora's active acquirers. A genuine discovery at Eclipse or Niagara would likely draw corporate interest almost immediately. Without one, the company depends on share markets that are currently very tough on explorers. 4.00 · THE DISCOUNT QUESTION Have these companies really been marked down? Yes, and mostly without discrimination. Exact share-price falls for each company change daily and belong in a live spreadsheet, not a published note, so pull up the charts yourself. But the documented markers through this correction tell one consistent story, in three parts. 1. The selling was about "gold", not about these companies. Brightstar fell nearly 12% in one session (23 March 2026) in a sell-off explicitly attributed to the gold sector, in the same quarter it finished raising A$383m. Pilbara Gold was sold down in June with, on public information, nothing wrong at the company. Challenger fell roughly 48% over six months while becoming a gold producer. When fully funded builders and brand-new producers fall alongside explorers that have found nothing yet, the market is selling the category rather than judging the businesses. 2. The share prices now sit below the studies' own assumptions. Every mine study quoted in this note was calculated at a gold price below today's: Theta used US$2,884/oz, West Wits US$2,850, Challenger US$3,500, Brightstar A$6,000, Maritana A$5,500 and Barton A$5,000, against a mid-July spot price around US$4,000 to US$4,100, or roughly A$6,000 and above. The project economics published in those studies therefore remain valid at current prices. What has changed is the share prices, which in some cases have fallen below the values the studies support. Maritana is the clearest documented example: in April the market valued the company at about A$333m, roughly half the A$631m pre-tax value stated in its own funded project study. 3. Institutional and strategic capital continued to flow in. During the same months the shares were being sold, Brightstar raised about A$383m, Maritana about A$180m, and Challenger A$85m in a placement led by Peter Marrone. Theta closed roughly US$186m of equity plus a US$90m bond, with a strategic Chinese miner subscribing. West Wits signed a ZAR1.115bn debt package with two major banks, and Great Boulder raised about A$40m to fund an acquisition. Institutions, banks and strategic investors committed capital at prices the broader share market was rejecting. The two views cannot both be correct. The bear case · read this before the bull case Sometimes a discount is deserved. If gold breaks below the US$3,800 to US$4,000 floor our July note argued for, the Australian-dollar cushion shrinks, and the higher-cost operations on this list (those producing at roughly A$2,850 to A$3,350 an ounce) lose their profit margin fastest. Mine builders can exceed their budgets, since construction costs in WA have been rising for years, and every "first gold in 2026 or 2027" date above is a forecast, not a fact. The South African and Argentine projects carry country risk that studies do not capture. The explorers at the bottom of the list are spending cash into a market that currently punishes companies for issuing new shares. Readers wnating to invest like "Professionals" should manage this end of the market with position sizing, holding small positions in several names rather than a large position in one. Samso take · the pattern beneath the twelve This watchlist shows one pattern repeated twelve times: companies that used the 2024–2025 gold boom to permanently reduce their risk by raising money, winning permits, buying plants and pouring first gold, and were then re-priced as if none of it happened, because the sellers were trading the gold chart rather than the companies. In thirty years of gold cycles, that specific set-up, with milestones going up while the share price goes down, has been the most reliable precursor to the next re-rating, provided the gold price itself settles rather than collapses. Our companion note argues it settles. 5.00 · TWO PATHS TO VALUE Two ways shareholders win: the company builds a mine, or someone buys the company Since 2024, the big end of the ASX gold sector has been answering cheap developer prices the direct way, by buying the companies. De Grey was taken over by Northern Star, Spartan by Ramelius, Gold Road by Gold Fields, Magnetic by Genesis, and brokers count the 2026 deal tally in the billions. The buyers in this cycle have consistently paid for four things: plenty of ounces in a good mining district, high-confidence resources, closeness to an existing processing plant, and funded near-term production. Here is how the twelve map against those tests. TABLE 2 · Samso's qualitative reading of each company's two possible wins, and the upcoming event that forces the market to decide. These are opinions built from public disclosures, not predictions that any takeover will happen. Source: Samso framework; company ASX announcements. For the two audiences of this note If you already hold these shares and are asking where the value went, anchor on the milestone record rather than the share price. In every case above, the company is objectively further along than it was at the January gold peak: better funded, better permitted, closer to real cash flow, while trading at or below January's prices. If you are considering buying ahead of a potential gold recovery, think of the list as ordered by risk. The producers and funded builders (WWI, BTR, MRT, TGM and CEL) come with business cases already stress-tested below today's gold price. The study-stage names (BGD and PGL) offer bigger upside but still have to find their construction money. The explorers (GBR, AKA and GA8) and micro-developers (WGR and SMS) carry the highest risk and the highest potential return, and positions should be sized accordingly. Note: GBR may be unfaily positioned in the lowest rank. If there was going to be a dark horse, my money is on GBR. None of this is a recommendation; it is a framework for comparison. 6.00 · CLOSING THE LOOP The milestones happened. The share prices haven't caught up. Our July gold note concluded that the metal may have the potential to be settling into a base around US$4,100 to US$4,300, held up by central banks that are still buying, and that settling phases historically reward funded, near-term gold developers with one of two prizes: a re-rating as they pour first gold, or a takeover at a premium. This company note is the practical application of that idea. Twelve businesses, and twelve trails of ASX announcements documenting money raised, studies finished, permits granted and gold poured, set against a share market that has priced them as proxies for the falling gold price. Gaps of this kind have historically closed in one of two ways. Either the gold price recovers and the sector re-rates, or the corporate buyers step in and arbitrage the discount, exactly as they did with De Grey, Spartan and Gold Road at smaller discounts than exist today. Both outcomes favour patient holders of the stronger companies. Neither requires a higher gold price, because none of these business cases assumes one. What to watch from here Five dials for this watchlist. First, first-gold confirmations: WGR (mid-2026), MRT (late 2026), BTR and TGM (2027). Each is a clear pass-or-fail event that materially reduces risk. Second, the study calendar: Barton's PFS (end-2026), Brightstar's Sandstone study (Sep quarter 2026), and West Wits' expansion study (~Jul 2026). Third, strategic investors on the registers: Chengtun at Theta and the Marrone syndicate at Challenger, because increases in these stakes are a stronger signal than company presentations. Fourth, takeover announcements anywhere in ASX gold, since each transaction shows what the industry is willing to pay for discounted ounces. And fifth, the gold price at the US$4,000 line, which determines how long the above may take to play out. References & Sources All company figures come from the companies' own ASX announcements and the secondary sources below, as published at the dates shown. Share prices, company valuations and study figures change constantly and must be checked against each company's official ASX releases before any investment decision. Where this note says "approximately" or "roughly", take it literally. Trading Economics. Gold: ~US$4,001/oz on 13 July 2026; down 7.15% over the month, up 19.7% year on year; US–Iran escalation and ~70% priced probability of a September Fed rate rise (accessed 13–14 Jul 2026). Forbes Advisor / APMEX. Record gold high ~US$5,597 on 29 January 2026. Aureka Limited (ASX:AKA). Resource upgrade to ~455koz (Jun 2026, via Stocks Down Under coverage); "Drilling Continues to Bolster Confidence in Stawell Corridor Prospectivity" (3 Feb 2026); drone magnetics and Dr B. Murphy appointment (5 Jun 2026, via Kalkine); Walkers Pit / Comstock concept study and prospecting licence application (Jun–Jul 2026, via Bulls N' Bears); FY2025 Annual Report (26 Sep 2025); Independent Investment Research initiation (Apr 2026). Barton Gold Holdings (ASX:BGD). "Expansion of Tunkillia Phase 2 Upgrade Drilling" (15 Jun 2026); "Dual Rigs Commence Tunkillia Diamond Drilling" (22 Apr 2026); Tolmer drilling (18 May 2026); Tunkillia Optimised Scoping Study (5 May 2025); JORC resource statement (8 Sep 2025). Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR). Goldfields DFS 2.0 (Jan 2026); SPP upsize/completion and funding summary (Feb–Mar 2026 releases incl. 3 Mar 2026); Menzies resource growth (11 Dec 2025); Lord Byron resource upgrade (12 Jan 2026); East Coast Research report; Kalkine note on the 23 Mar 2026 sector sell-off (share ~A$0.30, down 11.8%). Challenger Gold (ASX:CEL). First gold pour at Casposo (Jun 2026, via Medianet); A$85m placement, Marrone/Bouchard appointments and PFS (May 2026, via Motley Fool AU, Grafa, Kalkine); A$30m placement (Oct 2025); Hualilan resource of 2.8Moz gold-equivalent (company website). GoldArc Resources (ASX:GA8). Rebranding from Asra Minerals, 10:1 consolidation, A$3.2m placement (17 Sep 2025); "High-Grade Gold System Confirmed at Eclipse" (7 Apr 2026); "Bonanza Gold Grades Confirmed across 5km Niagara Trend" (28 Apr 2026); ~200koz global resource (Stockhead profile); share ~A$0.06 (7 Jul 2026, stockanalysis.com). Great Boulder Resources (ASX:GBR). Side Well resource of 1.02Moz (Dec 2025, via mining.com.au); high-grade Mulga Bill results incl. 1.93m @ 574g/t (Mar 2026, via MarketOpen); Peak Hill acquisition and ~A$40m raising; quotation of 145.5m new shares (13 May 2026). Maritana Minerals (ASX:MRT, formerly Horizon Minerals). Black Swan study metrics, A$175m placement, A$114.1m cash (Feb–Apr 2026); Burbanks Phase 1 results and Phase 2 program (4 & 14 May 2026); name change effective 13 Apr 2026; prior Samso Insights coverage (samso.com.au). Pilbara Gold (ASX:PGL, formerly Kairos Minerals). Mt York 2.1Moz within an A$5,500/oz pit shell; Nov 2024 scoping study; 50,000m 2026 program toward a PFS; Roe Hills maiden-resource target (Listcorp/company materials); name change Apr 2026. Star Minerals (ASX:SMS). Tumblegum South development-ready status, toll-treatment strategy, approvals and site preparation (company materials via INN, Morningstar, Market Index; Kalkine commentary Jun 2026). Theta Gold Mines (ASX:TGM). Revised Feasibility Study (3 Feb 2026): 13.1-year mine life, A$689m post-tax value, A$1.4bn free cash; "TGM Secures US$90 Million Bond Issue" (12 Jun 2026); final equity placement to Golden Asian Investment Group / Chengtun Mining (Jun 2026); construction updates (company website; Stockhead profile). Western Gold Resources (ASX:WGR). "Decision to Mine - Gold Duke Project" (Dec 2025); updated 277koz resource and Stage 1 scoping metrics (Jan 2026, via TipRanks summary); Bowerbird production bore and site establishment (Apr 2026); first gold targeted Q2 2026 (Stockhead, May 2026). West Wits Mining (ASX:WWI). First gold pour at Ezulwini (17 Mar 2026); 7.24Moz resource upgrade (+44%, Feb 2026); ZAR1.115bn finance package with Absa/Nedbank executed (Jun 2026); Qala Shallows DFS metrics; Project 200 study timing (Crux Investor, Jun 2026; mining.com.au). Yahoo Finance price history. Weekly closing prices for the twelve ASX tickers and COMEX gold futures, 24 months to 14 July 2026, used for the price charts in this note (accessed 14 Jul 2026). Samso Insights. "The Gold Question: pathways & ASX equity implications" (June 2026) and "The Big Consolidation" (July 2026): gold price framework, consolidation thesis and takeover context (De Grey/Spartan/Gold Road/Genesis; Canaccord deal tallies via Stockhead). Cover photo: Gold panning on Jack Wade Creek (24785190007), BLM Alaska. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gold_panning_on_Jack_Wade_Creek_(24785190007).jpg). Reproduced photograph, shown faded under a navy overlay on the article thumbnail. The Samso Way – Seek the Research Here at Samso, we pride ourselves on delivering content for investors that is independent and informed by over three decades of experience in the industry. Our content is well-researched and is only created if I see merit in discussing the company's story. Our mission is simple: cut through the noise and spotlight what matters—genuine stories, grounded insights, and real opportunity. Our content is well-researched and is only created if the team sees merit in discussing the company or concept. Investors can explore our three core platforms: Coffee with Samso Samso Insights Samso News There may be numerous paths to success in investing, but the common thread among successful individuals is that they remain committed to making informed decisions. Equip yourself with the right knowledge and tools, and you will be well on your way to achieving your financial goals. Most importantly, investors need to be absolutely diligent in understanding their own risk-reward tolerance and capabilities. Never bite off more than you can chew. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the Great Wall stood because it took centuries to complete. The Samso Philosophy: Stay curious. Stay sharp. And remember—digging deeper always uncovers the real value. In Life, there is no such thing as a Free Lunch. Never bite off more than you can chew is my parting comment. 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Brisbane biotech Ceretas is seeking $8 million to take a decade of University of Queensland brain research from the lab bench to the clinic. Ceretas Limited, a Brisbane-based medical device company, is asking Australian investors to help fund the leap from promising brain research to a treatment doctors can actually use. The company wants to raise $8 million by issuing 32 million new shares at 25 cents each, and expects to begin trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the code CTS on or around 28 July 2026. At the offer price, the company would list with an indicative market capitalisation of about $17.8 million. The raise is being run by two Perth joint lead managers, Caravel Securities and Taurus Capital Group, and the offer period was scheduled to close on 13 July 2026. What is Ceretas actually selling? : Not a drug, but a device. The Ceretas Device is a portable, non-invasive headset that aims focused ultrasound beams through the skull at specific parts of the brain, to treat Alzheimer's disease. The technology was developed over more than a decade at The University of Queensland (UQ) and its Queensland Brain Institute, and Ceretas holds an exclusive licence to commercialise it. The company is candid in its prospectus that this is an early-stage, pre-revenue business. It has completed one small first-in-human safety trial and is about to start a larger feasibility study. It does not expect to earn meaningful revenue in the short term, and its own board describes an investment as "highly speculative." The $8 million is designed to last roughly two years. Figure 1: A demonstration of the ultrasound device developed by researchers at QBI (Source: Company Website) The technology: Ultrasound aimed at the brain, two ways Most Alzheimer's treatments are drugs that circulate through the whole body. Ceretas is taking a different route. Its device uses focused ultrasound, sound waves concentrated on a precise target, to interact directly with brain tissue. The system has three main parts: a transducer that generates the ultrasound, a fluid coupling that carries the sound efficiently from the device to the scalp, and an image-guided neuronavigation system that steers the beam using each patient's own MRI scan. The device is designed to work through two distinct mechanisms: Table 1: Ceretas Mechanism The blood-brain barrier presents a major challenge in treating brain diseases. While it shields the brain from harmful substances, it also prevents most drugs from entering. If Ceretas can safely and temporarily open this barrier, it could have significant implications beyond just Alzheimer's, although this aspect of the program is still in the laboratory phase. Management argues the device's edge is practicality. Unlike MRI-guided ultrasound systems, which treat patients inside an MRI machine, the Ceretas Device only needs a single baseline MRI scan for planning and can then be used in ordinary clinics, hospitals and aged-care settings. And unlike implanted ultrasound devices, it requires no surgery. An investment in Ceretas should be considered highly speculative and is subject to a range of risks.— Ceretas prospectus, Letter from the Chair The Ceretas IPO opportunity: A large market driven by an ageing world The commercial logic rests on scale and demographics. Alzheimer's disease affects an estimated 55 million people worldwide and is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60% to 80% of all cases. As populations age, that number is expected to climb steeply. Ceretas points to the global dementia treatment market being worth approximately US$18 billion in 2024, projected to reach roughly US$28 billion by 2030. The company is careful to note these are at the lower end of published estimates. A particular focus is the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, a large group of patients the company says are poorly served by existing treatments. Samso Caution A word of caution on these figures for investors: market-size numbers in early-stage prospectuses describe the total opportunity, not what any single company is likely to capture. Ceretas has no approved product and no sales, so the path from a US$28 billion market to actual revenue runs through years of trials, regulatory approvals and clinical adoption. The evidence so far: One completed trial, one about to begin The clinical story is genuinely early. A first-in-human Phase 1 pilot study treated 12 participants with Alzheimer's disease at the Mater Private Hospital in Brisbane. The trial met its goals of safety, feasibility and tolerability, with no dropouts. It was not designed to prove the treatment works, but an exploratory analysis found a statistically significant improvement in behavioural and psychological symptoms, a result the researchers said warranted further study. The findings were published in the journal Brain Communications in late 2025. The next step is the Company-Sponsored (CERE-CALM) Phase 2 Trial, a feasibility study in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's, which received ethics approval in May 2026. Separately, UQ is running an investigator-led Phase 2 trial in moderate-to-severe patients, funded by a $5 million Queensland Health grant, with all resulting intellectual property flowing to Ceretas. Where the money goes: Trials and device development take the lion's share Combining the $8 million raised with $1.6 million of existing cash reserves gives Ceretas IPO about $9.6 million to spend over its first two years as a listed company. More than a third is earmarked for its flagship Phase 2 trial. Table 2: Use of funds The numbers: Pre-revenue, grant-funded, and loss-making As you would expect for a company at this stage, the financial statements show losses and no product revenue. What income there is comes from a government grant and bank interest, not from selling anything. The figures below are drawn from the company's reviewed and audited historical accounts. Table 3: Income statement On the balance sheet, the picture improves markedly once the raise is factored in. As at 31 December 2025 the company held $2.89 million in cash and reported net assets of $2.26 million. On a pro forma basis, after the offer, cash rises to around $10.1 million and total assets to roughly $10.5 million. Share structure: Who owns what after listing On listing, Ceretas expects to have about 71.4 million shares on issue, alongside roughly 9.6 million options and 2.5 million performance rights held mainly by management and the joint lead managers. Table 4: Capital Structure Early backers did well on paper. Founding investors bought in at prices as low as $0.0001 per share in October 2024, rising through subsequent placements at $0.01, $0.08 and $0.16, to the $0.25 IPO price. To stop early holders selling immediately, the ASX is expected to place roughly 32% of the shares into escrow for up to 24 months. No single shareholder is expected to control the company after listing. The largest holders on admission are expected to be UniQuest (UQ's commercialisation arm) with around 8.4%, and two investor entities associated with the founders and lead manager, each holding under 6%. The people: A board with medtech exits behind it For a company this small, the board carries notable healthcare and capital-markets experience, including several people with prior ASX-listed track records. Table 5: The Board The risks: What could go wrong The prospectus devotes an entire section to risk, and the company repeatedly stresses that this is a highly speculative investment. The main themes an investor should weigh: ◆ Key risk factors flagged by the company Going concern & funding: the company needs further capital beyond this raise; that funding may not be available, or may dilute shareholders. Clinical trial risk: trials are expensive and can fail. Early results may not translate to larger studies, and the historical failure rate in drug and device development is high. Regulatory risk: there is no guarantee the device will win regulatory approval, in any market, within any timeframe. Commercialisation risk: even with approval, the device must be adopted by clinicians and patients in a competitive market. Limited operating history: Ceretas was incorporated in October 2024 and has never commercialised a product. Intellectual property risk: the business depends on a licensed patent portfolio that must be protected and maintained. Liquidity risk: with about a third of shares in escrow, freely tradeable stock is limited early on. Key dates: The road to market The bottom line: A high-risk, high-conviction science bet Ceretas offers investors a clean version of the early-stage medtech proposition: a genuinely differentiated technology backed by a decade of university research and an experienced board, wrapped around a business with no product revenue, one small completed trial, and an explicit dependence on future funding. The $8 million raise buys roughly two years of runway to turn a promising Phase 1 signal into Phase 2 evidence. If the CERE-CALM trial reads out well and the regulatory path opens up, the addressable market is large. If it does not, the company is upfront that the downside is significant. As with any speculative float, the right amount to allocate is the amount you can afford to lose. The the global dementia treatment market is lucrative however, the jury is still out on most treatments that I have read. However, this does not mean that we are being pessismictic on any new ventures, it is more a cautionary thought as serious DYOR is required. No doubt, Samso will be following this business closely. Samso has been covering this space for a while: Cover photo: Medical instruments, Saltanat. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Medical_instruments.JPG) The Samso Way – Seek the Research Here at Samso, we pride ourselves on delivering content for investors that is independent and informed by over three decades of experience in the industry. Our content is well-researched and is only created if I see merit in discussing the company's story. Our mission is simple: cut through the noise and spotlight what matters—genuine stories, grounded insights, and real opportunity. Our content is well-researched and is only created if the team sees merit in discussing the company or concept. Investors can explore our three core platforms: Coffee with Samso Samso Insights Samso News There may be numerous paths to success in investing, but the common thread among successful individuals is that they remain committed to making informed decisions. Equip yourself with the right knowledge and tools, and you will be well on your way to achieving your financial goals. Most importantly, investors need to be absolutely diligent in understanding their own risk-reward tolerance and capabilities. Never bite off more than you can chew. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the Great Wall stood because it took centuries to complete. The Samso Philosophy: Stay curious. Stay sharp. And remember—digging deeper always uncovers the real value. In Life, there is no such thing as a Free Lunch. Never bite off more than you can chew is my parting comment. Happy Investing, and the only four-letter word you need to know is DYOR. To support our independent nature of our work, please head over to our Support Page and give us a helping hand in any of the ways listed. This is a new initiate for the Samso Platform, and it was always the concept of Samso when we started this journey in 2018. Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer, or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase, or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information. I try to write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value. It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation sees the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and has a need to share your journey, please contact me at noel.ong@samso.com.au. About Samso Samso is a trusted platform that equips dedicated investors with up-to-date industry knowledge and insigh0ts from top CEOs and thought leaders. By staying informed on business advancements and market trends, investors can enhance their financial decisions through a combination of expert guidance and their own research. Samso News | www.samso.com.au | An Investor Lens on ASX-Listed Companies

A first-time explorer wants to raise $6 million to hunt for gold and copper across two historic grounds of Western Australia. Gwardar Resources Limited is asking investors for at least $5 million, and up to $6 million, to list on the Australian Securities Exchange and hunt for gold and copper in Western Australia's historic gold fields. The company plans to issue 25 million shares at 20 cents each to raise the minimum, with room to accept another 5 million shares if demand is strong. If it lists, it will trade under the code GRS, with an indicative market value of roughly $5.6 million to $6.6 million on day one. The pitch is straightforward. Gwardar Resources IPO lined up the right to buy, outright, two exploration projects in Western Australia: the Doolgunna Project in the Murchison region, prospective for copper and gold, and the Kurnalpi Project in the Eastern Goldfields near Kalgoorlie, prospective for gold. Both sit in districts that have produced metal for decades. Neither has been drilled by Gwardar yet. In fact, the company was only incorporated on 17 December 2025 and has no revenue or operating history. That combination, established mining postcodes paired with a brand-new company and unproven ground, is the whole story. The rest of this article walks through the numbers, the two projects, where the money goes, who is running it, and the risks the prospectus asks you to weigh. Section 1 What is being offered- Gwardar Resources IPO The core offer is 25 million shares at 20 cents to raise $5 million before costs, which the prospectus calls the Minimum Subscription. The company can also accept oversubscriptions of up to a further 5 million shares to raise an extra $1 million, taking the maximum to $6 million (the Maximum Subscription). Applications start at $2,000, or 10,000 shares, and rise in parcels of 2,500 shares after that. Alongside the main offer sits a smaller, separate “Secondary Offer” of 2 million shares. These are not for the public. They go to the vendors who are selling the two projects to Gwardar, as part of how the company is paying for them, and are covered here so those shares can trade freely once the escrow period ends. The offer is conditional. It proceeds only if three conditions are met: the $5 million minimum is raised, the ASX agrees to admit the company, and the two project purchase agreements become unconditional. If any of these fall over, the offer does not proceed, and the application money is refunded without interest. Table 1: Key offer statistics Section 2 The two projects Everything Gwardar is raising money to do centres on two project areas, both in Western Australia, and both being bought in full from their current owners. The map below shows how far apart they are: Doolgunna sits in the Murchison, well to the north, while Kurnalpi lies out east near Kalgoorlie (Figure 1). Figure 1: Location of Gwardar’s Doolgunna and Kurnalpi projects in Western Australia. Both sit within “greenstone” belts (shown in green), the ancient rock formations that host most of the state’s gold. (Source: Gwardar Resources prospectus) Doolgunna: chasing a DeGrussa-style copper story The Doolgunna Project sits in the Murchison Mineral Field, about 750 kilometres north-east of Perth and 100 kilometres north-east of the town of Meekatharra. It is made up of four exploration licences covering roughly 372 square kilometres, or 120 graticular blocks. (Figure 2). Only one of those four licences has actually been granted; the other three are still applications, which the prospectus flags as a risk. Figure 2. The Doolgunna Project licences (outlined) in relation to the DeGrussa mine and known gold and copper occurrences (yellow and orange dots). (Source: Gwardar Resources prospectus) Geologically, this is copper-and-gold country. The area is known for what the industry calls VHMS deposits, short for volcanic-hosted massive sulphide, a type of ore body rich in copper and gold that forms around ancient underwater volcanic vents. The region’s headline example is DeGrussa, a high-grade copper deposit discovered by Sandfire Resources in 2009 that reshaped exploration across the district. Gwardar’s ground is described as prospective for the same style of mineralisation, and for structurally controlled gold as well. Prospective is the key word: it means the geology looks favourable, not that a deposit has been found. What has past drilling actually found? On the granted licence, historical reverse-circulation drilling at a prospect called Halloween West returned intercepts including 6 metres at 561.7 ppm copper, 4 metres at 0.18 g/t gold, and 6 metres at 1,029 ppm copper. These are modest, early-stage numbers that point to a mineralised system worth testing further, rather than an economic discovery. The prospectus is careful to frame Doolgunna as an early-stage project inside a mature, well-explored region. Figure 3. Regional geology and mineral occurrences around Doolgunna. The district hosts several known copper-gold (VHMS) deposits and numerous fault-controlled gold occurrences. (Source: Gwardar Resources prospectus) Table 2: Doolgunna Project Tenements Kurnalpi: under-explored ground near Kalgoorlie The Kurnalpi Project lies in the Eastern Goldfields, about 90 kilometres north-east of Kalgoorlie, reached by sealed road to Kanowna and then gravel. It covers roughly 90 square kilometres, or 29 graticular blocks, across two granted licences and one pending application. This is squarely gold country: the surrounding district is what the prospectus calls a “world-class” gold and nickel province, with major mines within 50 kilometres. Figure 4. The Kurnalpi Project (outlined) north-east of Kalgoorlie, among the well-known deposits of the Eastern Goldfields. (Source: Gwardar Resources prospectus) Here the target is orogenic gold, the classic Kalgoorlie style of gold that forms in fault and shear zones deep in the earth’s crust. Table 3: Kurnalpi Project Tenements Gwardar argues that the ground has been overlooked: it is buried under a thick blanket of younger surface material, which blunted the older, shallow sampling techniques earlier explorers relied on. In other words, previous crews may have looked, but not looked properly. “The Company considers the Project area is inadequately explored for gold using contemporary techniques.” There is something to build on. Earlier work outlined a gold-anomalous zone about 600 metres long, known as the SW003 or “Cessna 3” anomaly. A 2012 drilling program by a company called Pioneer put down 97 shallow holes for 4,309 metres, with a best result of 3 metres at 0.91 g/t gold from 15 metres depth. The company sees that anomaly as a priority worth drilling with modern methods. Figure 5. Historical gold-in-soil results and drill intercepts over the Kurnalpi (Cessna) target. Warmer colours show stronger gold-in-soil readings; labels show past drill hits such as 15 m at 0.291 g/t gold. (Source: Gwardar Resources prospectus.) Section 3 How Gwardar is buying the projects Here is a detail that matters: as at the prospectus date, Gwardar did not yet own either project. It had signed binding agreements on 3 June 2026 to acquire 100 per cent of both, but the purchases only complete (“settle”) once conditions are met, including the company successfully listing. So buyers of shares are backing a company that is acquiring its assets at the same time as it floats. The prices are small, and mostly paid in shares rather than cash. For Doolgunna, Gwardar agreed to issue 1 million shares (valued at $200,000 at the offer price) plus up to $50,000 cash, to vendors Cuvier Resources and Tasex Geological Services. For Kurnalpi, it agreed to issue another 1 million shares ($200,000) plus up to $100,000 cash to Australian Nickel Company Limited. Those 2 million vendor shares are the “Secondary Offer” mentioned earlier, and they will be subject to ASX escrow. Table 4: Project Acquisition terms Section 4 Where the money goes If the raise lands at the $5 million minimum, a little under 56 cents in every dollar goes directly into exploring the two projects. Drilling, sampling and geophysics dominate the two-year work plan. The rest covers the cost of the float itself, corporate and administration costs, the small cash portion of the acquisitions, and a working-capital buffer. Table 5: Use of funds over the next two years The exploration budget itself, about $2.86 million at the minimum raise and $3.41 million at the maximum, is spread across data review, land access and heritage work, geochemistry, geophysics and drilling. Drilling is the single biggest line item, which is what you would expect from a company whose whole reason for listing is to test whether these two areas hold something worth mining. Table 6: Two-year exploration budget by activity (minimum raise) Section 5 Who is running it Gwardar is led by a three-person, all-non-executive board, with day-to-day geology handled by a consultant principal geologist. Several of the directors hold current roles at other ASX-listed resource companies, which the prospectus presents as a sign of relevant experience. The three directors are each on $40,000 a year in fees, starting only once the company lists. Each already holds about 100,000 shares from the pre-float seed round, roughly 10 per cent each of the tiny existing share register, which shrinks to a fraction of a per cent once the new public shares are issued. All three have signalled an intention to buy more under the offer: Mr Hardcastle up to $100,000, and Mr Rovira and Mr El Sayed up to $350,000 each, subject to how the offer is allocated. Table 7: Two-year exploration budget by activity (minimum raise) Section 6 The finances, and the risks There is not much of a financial history to examine. Gwardar was incorporated in December 2025 and, to the end of that month, recorded a loss of just $5,491 and held $100 in assets. It has no revenue and does not expect to pay dividends for the foreseeable future. Table 8: Pro Forma Financial Position at Listing On a pro forma basis, that is, adjusted to show the position as if the raise and acquisitions had already happened, the company would hold roughly $5 million in cash at the minimum raise, or about $6 million at the maximum, and net assets of about $4.99 million to $5.93 million. The prospectus does not shy away from risk; it devotes a long section to it and tells readers plainly that the investment is speculative. The most important risks for a would-be investor to understand are these: No track record. The company is months old, has never explored its ground, and has no revenue. It expects to keep making losses until, and unless, it finds something valuable. It does not own the projects yet. The acquisitions must still settle. If a vendor fails to complete, Gwardar may not end up with the project, or may get it on different terms. Several tenements are only applications. Three of the four Doolgunna licences and one Kurnalpi licence are pending. They may not be granted, or only partly granted. The prospectus singles out E27/676 as facing a competing prior claim. Exploration usually fails. Most exploration ground never becomes a mine. Even a promising result may prove uneconomic to dig up. Native title and heritage. The tenements overlap registered native title claims and land-use agreements. Access, approvals and heritage surveys can delay or restrict work. More money will likely be needed. The cash is budgeted for about two years. Beyond that, Gwardar will probably need to raise again, which can dilute existing shareholders, and there is no guarantee funding will be available. Commodity prices and thin trading. Returns depend on gold and copper prices the company cannot control, and small explorers often trade in low volumes, which can make shares hard to sell at a good price. Section 7 The Samso Concluding Comments - The bottom line Strip away the geology and Gwardar Resources is a familiar kind of proposition: a small, first-time explorer raising a modest sum to test two parcels of ground in proven mining districts. The appeal, as the prospectus frames it, is a portfolio of gold and copper ground in established Western Australian provinces, an experienced board, and enough cash to run two years of exploration. The catch, which the prospectus states just as clearly, is that nothing has been found yet, the company does not formally own the projects at the point of listing, several licences are still applications, and the whole thing is expressly “highly speculative.” For a retail investor, the practical takeaway is that this is your typical mineral explorer that is really a listed vehicle for now. Some credentialed names on the Board and Karl Jupp is a experienced campaigner. The common feature of early mienral explorer with no glaring upside is to try and see if you are investing in the future and going for that "punt" or for managemnet to bring in a glory project in the coming future. The issue with the second option is that the IPO price may be "expensive" as time normally dewvalue the IPO price. Waiting and picking something up later at a market discount could be the play. However, as most of us retail players don't have the wisdom of the "purple circle" this is always hard to decide. For now, I think a wait and see is a safer option but if you feel that there is a FOMO happening, take a punt. The good news is that you can always average down if things take a turn for the worst. Cover photo: Gold bullion 1, Szaaman. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gold_bullion_1.jpg) The Samso Way – Seek the Research Here at Samso, we pride ourselves on delivering content for investors that is independent and informed by over three decades of experience in the industry. Our content is well-researched and is only created if I see merit in discussing the company's story. Our mission is simple: cut through the noise and spotlight what matters—genuine stories, grounded insights, and real opportunity. Our content is well-researched and is only created if the team sees merit in discussing the company or concept. Investors can explore our three core platforms: Coffee with Samso Samso Insights Samso News There may be numerous paths to success in investing, but the common thread among successful individuals is that they remain committed to making informed decisions. Equip yourself with the right knowledge and tools, and you will be well on your way to achieving your financial goals. Most importantly, investors need to be absolutely diligent in understanding their own risk-reward tolerance and capabilities. Never bite off more than you can chew. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the Great Wall stood because it took centuries to complete. The Samso Philosophy: Stay curious. Stay sharp. And remember—digging deeper always uncovers the real value. In Life, there is no such thing as a Free Lunch. Never bite off more than you can chew is my parting comment. Happy Investing, and the only four-letter word you need to know is DYOR. To support our independent nature of our work, please head over to our Support Page and give us a helping hand in any of the ways listed. This is a new initiate for the Samso Platform, and it was always the concept of Samso when we started this journey in 2018. Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer, or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase, or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information. I try to write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value. It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation sees the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and has a need to share your journey, please contact me at noel.ong@samso.com.au. About Samso Samso is a trusted platform that equips dedicated investors with up-to-date industry knowledge and insigh0ts from top CEOs and thought leaders. By staying informed on business advancements and market trends, investors can enhance their financial decisions through a combination of expert guidance and their own research. Samso News | www.samso.com.au | An Investor Lens on ASX-Listed Companies

The company has released its first Pre-Feasibility Study for its namesake magnetite project in Canada's Labrador Trough, together with a maiden Ore Reserve of 3.3 billion tonnes. Iron Bear Resources Limited (ASX: IBR) released the maiden Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) for the Iron Bear Project in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and with it the project's first Ore Reserve. The headline numbers are large by any standard: A maiden Probable Ore Reserve of 3.3 billion tonnes at 29.1% iron; A post-tax net present value of USD 9.0 billion. A 44-year mine life producing 23 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of high-grade iron ore products. A development partner in Vale S.A., one of the world's largest iron ore producers. Table 1: Ore Reserve Summary Plain English first: what is a PFS? A Pre-Feasibility Study is the middle stage of mining project studies. It sits between a Scoping Study (a first-pass concept) and a Bankable Feasibility Study or BFS (the detailed document lenders rely on). Iron Bear's PFS has been completed to what engineers call AACE Class 4 accuracy, meaning the cost estimates carry a stated accuracy range of roughly plus or minus 30%. In other words, the numbers are considered robust enough to decide whether to keep spending money, but not yet precise enough to build from. The maiden ore reserve on a giant mineral resource The distinction between a Mineral Resource and an Ore Reserve matters more here than in most stories. A Mineral Resource is mineralisation that has been measured and modelled with reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction. An Ore Reserve is the smaller, harder-won subset that has been put through what the JORC Code calls modifying factors: pit designs, schedules, costs, prices and processing recoveries. A reserve is a statement that this material can be mined economically under the stated assumptions. Iron Bear's overall Mineral Resource Estimate stands at 13.6 billion tonnes at 30.03% iron, using a cut-off of 12.5% magnetic iron (MagFe, the portion of the iron sitting in magnetite, the magnetic iron mineral that this style of processing recovers). Of that, 4.5 billion tonnes is in the Indicated category, and 9.1 billion tonnes is Inferred, the lowest-confidence category. Table 2: Iron Bear Mineral Resource Estimate at 12.5% magnetic Fe cut-off grade The new maiden Ore Reserve converts the Indicated material inside the designed pit into 3.3 billion tonnes of Probable Ore Reserve at 29.1% total iron and 19.8% MagFe. The reserve was signed off by TME Mine Consulting, working from the Mineral Resource prepared by Snowden Optiro, and was evaluated at a long-term 62% Fe iron ore price of USD 100 per tonne. Figure 1: Process Feed Quantities and Grade by classification (Source: ASX Announcement) Two things stand out. First, there are no Proved Reserves, only Probable. That is normal at the PFS stage and reflects the confidence level of the underlying resource. Second, and more striking, the entire 44-year mine plan draws on less than 25% of the total Mineral Resource. Table 3: Iron Bear Mineral Resource Estimate at 12.5% magnetic Fe cut-off grade The 3.4 billion tonne mill feed inventory is 95% Probable Ore Reserve and 5% Inferred material. Managing Director Paul Berend makes the implication explicit in the announcement: significantly higher production scenarios can be envisaged in future economic studies. The company is careful, as it must be, about the Inferred component. The Inferred material makes up just 4% of mill feed during the payback period and 9.4% during the first 20 years, peaking at up to 15% in some years between years 16 and 21. The cautionary statement is blunt: there is a low level of geological confidence associated with Inferred Mineral Resources and no certainty they will convert. The company's position is that the 5% inclusion is immaterial to the economics, and the reserve itself is stated to be not reliant on the Inferred material. Why the Labrador Trough location matters The Iron Bear Project sits in the Labrador Trough, a 1,600 km long belt of iron-rich rocks that has supported mining since 1954. The project comprises eleven licences totalling 11,025 hectares across 441 mineral claims in Newfoundland and Labrador, roughly 30 km northwest of the town of Schefferville and about 1,200 km northeast of Montreal. The mineralisation is described as typical Labrador Trough taconite, a hard, fine-grained rock carrying magnetite and hematite. Location is doing a lot of work in this study, in three specific ways. First, rail and port. The study assumes concentrate moves on existing heavy-haul rail infrastructure to the open-access port of Pointe-Noire, near Sept-Iles on the St Lawrence.(Figure 1). Port of Sept-Iles has an annual cargo handling capacity of 100 million tonnes, which it describes as the largest mineral port in North America. Products are planned to be sold into Rotterdam, Corpus Christi or North Africa. For a bulk commodity, not having to build a railway or a port from scratch is a major point of difference against greenfield peers. Figure 2: Connectivity of Iron Bear Project (Source: ASX Announcement) Second, power. The process plant is designed to run entirely on renewable hydropower from Churchill Falls, approximately 350 km from the mine site, delivered by three 315 kV powerlines added in step with each production stage. The highlights page quotes hydropower at a very low USD 0.0315 per kWh, while the financial model applies a delivered levelised cost of energy (LCOE) of USD 0.148 per kWh, a figure that also recovers the cost of the transmission infrastructure, assumed to be built and owned by a third party. Cheap, clean power flows through to both the cost line and the emissions line: Scope 1 emissions are estimated at 29 kg of CO2 per tonne of sales, which the company describes as among the lowest in the industry. Third, policy. The study leans on a supportive Canadian backdrop: high-purity iron ore was added to Canada's Critical Minerals list in June 2024, the Building Canada Act of June 2025 created an accelerated federal approvals pathway for projects of national significance, and in May 2026 the company applied to the Major Projects Office for that recognition. The mine plan, DR pellets and the green steel story The mining method is conventional and large: open pit, truck and shovel, 15 metre benches, electric rope shovels and 360 tonne class trucks, moving up to roughly 150 Mtpa of material at peak. The life-of-mine strip ratio, the amount of waste moved for every tonne of ore, is just 0.44 to 1. The announcement frames this as driving efficient, low-cost open pit mining, and it is genuinely low for the scale involved. Processing is staged. Three identical process trains, each rated at 8.3 Mtpa of concentrate output, are built in sequence: the first over five years, with trains two and three commissioned in years 5 and 9. Full nameplate production of roughly 24.9 Mtpa of concentrate arrives around year 11. The flowsheet is conventional for magnetite: three-stage crushing, grinding to 32 microns, and wet low-intensity magnetic separation, with a reverse flotation step on trains two and three to lift a portion of the concentrate to Direct Reduction grade. Two straight-grate pellet plants at Pointe-Noire, each with a nominal capacity of about 9.3 Mtpa, turn that DR concentrate into pellets. BF concentrate and DR pellets, decoded. Blast Furnace (BF) concentrate is a high-grade magnetite product, here 69.1% Fe with 3.5% combined silica and alumina, sold to conventional steel mills. Direct Reduction (DR) pellets are the premium product: the concentrate is upgraded to 71% Fe and just 1.2% impurities, then rolled and fired into pellets for Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) steelmaking. DRI plants replace metallurgical coal with natural gas (and eventually hydrogen), and the announcement puts their carbon footprint at half that of the blast furnace route. The catch is that DRI plants need very high-purity feed, above 67 to 68% Fe, which the study says is achievable only with beneficiated magnetite concentrate of the type Iron Bear will produce. At steady state, the product split is 4.5 Mtpa of BF concentrate and 18.4 Mtpa of DR pellets. That weighting toward pellets is the commercial heart of the study. The announcement cites independent estimates of global DR pellet demand at about 180 Mtpa in 2024, growing to 447 Mtpa by 2050 as steelmaking decarbonises, and notes that DR pellets currently command premiums of over USD 70 per tonne above the 62% Fe benchmark. It also points to a regulatory tailwind: the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism entered its definitive phase in January 2026, progressively pricing carbon into imported steel through to 2034. One relationship is worth pausing on. Vale, Iron Bear's development partner, is the largest producer of DR pellets globally, controlling approximately 60% of the merchant DR pellet market. The partner funding the studies is also the company that knows this exact product market better than anyone. Iron Bear PFS economics: NPV, IRR and the three scenarios The Base Case financials are built on a discounted cash flow at an 8% nominal weighted average cost of capital (WACC), on an unleveraged, post-tax basis. In plain English: the value of the project's future cash flows, brought back to today's dollars, before any debt structuring, after Canadian taxes, and including tax holidays and credits available in the resource regions of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec. The capital and operating cost build-up is presented by stage, and the staging is the point: the study spreads USD 11.2 billion of life-of-mine production capital across three stages over 13 years, so that later trains are funded into an operating business rather than all upfront. Three scenarios, one variable at a time Rather than a single configuration, the PFS models three, each changing exactly one strategic variable so its effect can be read cleanly. Scenario 1 is the Base Case with rail transport and a wet, centreline-raised tailings facility. Scenario 2 replaces rail with a 600 km buried slurry pipeline, including a return-water loop. Scenario 3 keeps rail but swaps to filtered dry-stacked tailings. The slurry pipeline delivers the highest value (post-tax NPV of about USD 9.5 billion in Table 5) and the lowest operating costs, but requires the most capital upfront at USD 6.7 billion pre-production. The dry tailings option is framed as the most environmentally sustainable, removing the reliance on a wet tailings dam, but costs more to build and run, and notably is not covered by the reserve statement because its mine plan and modifying factors are not presented in this announcement. The Base Case is described as the most capital efficient with the lowest capital at risk. Figure 3: PFS Scenarios (Source: ASX Announcements) Who funds the Iron Bear Project? The Vale agreement explained This is the section where the project story and the company story part ways, and readers should hold both in mind at once. The company estimates USD 138 million is needed to reach Decision to Mine (DTM), the point at which construction is committed. Under the binding Development Agreement executed with Vale on 17 February 2025, that entire amount can come from Vale, in two phases. Phase 1 sees Vale contribute USD 18 million to fund the PFS, resource drilling and environmental baseline studies; the announcement notes Vale has contributed A$25.8 million (US$16.7 million) to date. If Vale elects to trigger Phase 2, a joint venture is formed, Vale takes an initial 30% interest, and funds up to a further USD 120 million of development activities including the BFS, environmental impact studies and Impact Benefit Agreements with First Nations. Here is the number that defines the corporate equation: upon conclusion of Phase 2, Vale will have earned a 75% equity stake in the Iron Bear Project, and it is Vale, not IBR, that takes the Decision to Mine. The DTM will not occur until the roughly USD 4.2 billion of pre-production capital has been secured, and the study is explicitly prepared on the assumption that this financing will leverage Vale's financial capacity. For scale, the announcement notes Vale reported capital expenditure of USD 5.5 billion in 2025 and revenues in excess of USD 38 billion. The trade is therefore clear in both directions. IBR shareholders carry a project of this magnitude to DTM with no further study funding required from the company, backed by a partner who is the world's largest DR pellet producer. In exchange, IBR's share of the project reduces to 25% if the agreement runs its full course. The announcement is equally clear about the alternative path: if Vale elects not to proceed to Phase 2, the project remains 100% IBR's, and alternative funding through debt, equity, strategic partnerships or partial divestment would need to be pursued, with no certainty of success. The cautionary statement adds that such strategies could be dilutive or could materially reduce the company's ownership of the project. What happens next: PVI, BFS, permitting and people The development plan targets DTM in four to six years, with the caveat that approvals timelines sit outside the company's control. Before the BFS begins, a Project Value Improvement (PVI) phase will chase specific upside: flowsheet optimisation and further metallurgical variability test work, higher-throughput scenarios that better sweat the rail and pipeline infrastructure, power cost trade-offs, pellet plant location alternatives, and a mine plan that brings more magnetic iron into the early years. An updated Version 2 of the PFS is expected after that work. Permitting is on the critical path. The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for the mine, concentrator, tailings and power infrastructure is expected to take up to six years from commencement. The company will seek a National Interest designation for the rail component to streamline federal timelines, and permitting for stages 2 and 3 is planned to run in parallel with Stage 1 construction and operations. Just as critical is the social licence work. The study names the five Indigenous groups engaged since October 2024: the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach, Nation Innu Matimekush-Lac John, Innu Takuaikan Uashat mak Mani-utenam, Innu Nation, and NunatuKavut Community Council. Impact Benefit Agreements with these communities are described as a critical component of the environmental approvals, and the company has committed to co-designing the operation with them, including cleaning up legacy drill sites. The PFS risk register identifies 26 project risks, 16 of them rated High, with permitting and social acceptability, groundwater and tailings, processing and infrastructure delivery, and funding among the key categories. What the PFS means for Iron Bear Resources Strip the PFS document back and three facts carry the story. The resource is enormous and now partially converted to a maiden reserve that supports 44 years of production while touching less than a quarter of the deposit. The product strategy is aimed squarely at DR pellets, the fastest-growing and highest-premium corner of the iron ore market, with cheap hydropower underwriting both the cost position and the green-steel credentials. And the funding structure means the project's fate now rests substantially on Vale's Phase 2 election and, ultimately, Vale's Decision to Mine. The company's own cautionary statement deserves the last factual word: the PFS is based on material assumptions that remain subject to refinement, there is no certainty the outcomes will be realised, approximately USD 4.2 billion of funding will likely be required, and investors should not make investment decisions based solely on the results of the study. Summary What did Iron Bear Resources (ASX: IBR) announce? The maiden Pre-Feasibility Study for the Iron Bear Project, including a maiden Probable Ore Reserve of 3.3 billion tonnes at 29.1% Fe, a post-tax NPV of USD 9.0 billion, a 15.2% post-tax IRR and a 44-year mine life producing 23 Mtpa of high-grade iron ore products. How big is the Iron Bear mineral resource? 13.6 billion tonnes at 30.03% Fe under JORC 2012, comprising 4.5 billion tonnes Indicated and 9.1 billion tonnes Inferred at a 12.5% magnetic Fe cut-off. The current mine plan draws on less than 25% of it. How much will the Iron Bear Project cost to build? Approximately USD 4.25 billion in pre-production capital for the Base Case, within USD 11.2 billion of life-of-mine production CAPEX spread across three stages, estimated to AACE Class 4 accuracy of roughly plus or minus 30%. Who is funding the Iron Bear Project? Vale S.A., under a binding Development Agreement signed in February 2025, can fund up to USD 138 million through to Decision to Mine and in doing so earn a 75% stake in the project. The study assumes the USD 4.2 billion construction bill will then leverage Vale's financial capacity. If Vale does not proceed to Phase 2, IBR retains 100% and must find alternative funding. What are DR pellets and why do they matter? Direct Reduction pellets are a very high-purity iron ore product (here made from a 71% Fe concentrate) used in Direct Reduced Iron steelmaking, which the announcement says has half the carbon footprint of the blast furnace route. The study cites forecast demand growth from about 180 Mtpa in 2024 to 447 Mtpa by 2050, with current premiums above USD 70/t over the 62% Fe benchmark. When could Iron Bear reach a Decision to Mine? The plan targets four to six years, subject to approvals. The environmental assessment alone is expected to take up to six years from commencement, and a Project Value Improvement phase plus a Bankable Feasibility Study sit between here and any construction decision. Samso Concluding Comments For shareholders, like me, this is a significant step in realising the potential of the Iron Bear story. This is what the market needs to see and I dont think there are any surprises. Iron Bear management has been telling everyone that this is a major project and the release of the PFS is prove. The startegy of tagging Vale as a partner is the reason why management got that startegy right from the start. You need a big brother to come along this journey. How many mineral resource stories have we heard that their project is Tier-1 but ther eis no realistic funding strategy. How many times have we seen great project get stalled because of funding. I think this sets a lot of doubts aside and with the DR pellet potential. the incentive for the "real" players of the iron ore industry to get along the ride should be starting to be real. Time for some serious DYOR in my opinion for those that have not taken positions. With a current market capitalisation of AUD 77M, Iron Bear Resources is way too undervalued in the scheme of things. As I always say, DYOR and do your own thorough check. Cover photo: Magnetite - Magnetite, Darla Sondrol. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Magnetite_(GeoDIL_number_-_1386).jpg) The Samso Way – Seek the Research Here at Samso, we pride ourselves on delivering content for investors that is independent and informed by over three decades of experience in the industry. Our content is well-researched and is only created if I see merit in discussing the company's story. Our mission is simple: cut through the noise and spotlight what matters—genuine stories, grounded insights, and real opportunity. Our content is well-researched and is only created if the team sees merit in discussing the company or concept. Investors can explore our three core platforms: Coffee with Samso Samso Insights Samso News There may be numerous paths to success in investing, but the common thread among successful individuals is that they remain committed to making informed decisions. Equip yourself with the right knowledge and tools, and you will be well on your way to achieving your financial goals. Most importantly, investors need to be absolutely diligent in understanding their own risk-reward tolerance and capabilities. Never bite off more than you can chew. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the Great Wall stood because it took centuries to complete. The Samso Philosophy: Stay curious. Stay sharp. And remember—digging deeper always uncovers the real value. 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Aureka Limited is a Victorian gold explorer that has grown its global Inferred JORC resource to 455koz in under two years on the ASX and has now lodged its first small-scale mining licence application at the Comstock pit near St Arnaud. Samso identified Aureka because it embodies the three questions every investor in Victorian gold should be asking: is the geological model borrowed from a real, producing analogue; can the balance sheet carry the story to the next milestone; and does the leadership have the capital-markets reach to keep the drills turning? The flagship Irvine Project sits 16km from the operating Stawell Gold Mine and applies the basalt-dome model that has yielded more than 5Moz at Magdala. The Comstock restart concept is deliberately small — a sub-5-hectare Prospecting Licence over a previously mined pit with offsite processing. What makes the story worth examining closely is the tension between the ambition of the language and the arithmetic of the accounts. That tension is where this article does its work. Samso News Research Note Depth Not Hype Understanding Samso Company Review — Multiple ASX Releases, 2025–2026 Aureka Limited: The Geology, the Money and the People Behind Victoria's Newest Gold Restart Story Samso News | ASX: AKA | Sources: Aureka Limited ASX Releases 23 June 2026 & 1 July 2026; Interim Report for the half-year ended 31 December 2025 (released 12 March 2026); FY2025 Annual Report (signed 26 September 2025); aureka.com.au Highlights Figure 1: Aureka regional location map showing the Stawell Corridor, St Arnaud and Jubilee project areas relative to Melbourne, Bendigo, Ballarat and the operating Stawell and Fosterville gold mines (from company presentation, June 2026) Introduction This Samso News article is a review of Aureka Limited (ASX: AKA), and it is built around one question: can this company turn the Comstock story into a gold production story? Aureka has set itself an unusual dual ambition for a Victorian micro-cap — a serious greenfield explorer chasing million-ounce potential in the Stawell Corridor, and at the same time a fast-to-market, minimal-footprint gold producer at a previously mined pit two kilometres north of the township of St Arnaud. The Comstock restart is the near-term leg of that ambition, and it has now reached a defined stage: a Concept Study completed, the Walkers Pit selected, a Prospecting Licence application lodged, infill drilling underway with assays pending, and metallurgical test work commencing. Everything from here — a resource classification upgrade, a Scoping Study, licence grant, mill terms and funding — is the distance between a well-told story and an operating gold mine. This review examines whether Aureka has the geology, the balance sheet and the people to close that distance. Samso's approach is deliberate. First, we establish the geological foundations of the company's interpretations and test them against the published record. Second, we work through the accounts and form a view on whether the balance sheet can carry the work program being described. Third, we look at the board, the register, and specifically at Managing Director James Gurry — whose stated position is that the company is backed by high-net-worth investors who will support it. The analysis draws on the company's June and July 2026 releases, the March 2026 quarterly, the half-year accounts to 31 December 2025, and the full ASX announcements record from 2024 to July 2026, including the FY2025 Annual Report and the substantial holding notices, accessed directly from asx.com.au. The reader deserves to know what can be verified, what is credible but unverified, and what remains an open question. We flag each accordingly. Corporate History The Navarre Thread: Where These Assets — and This Balance Sheet — Came From Aureka's own June 2026 presentation states that "the Navarre portfolio was purchased and rebranded by the Aureka team in 2024" — but the ASX record shows something more direct: Aureka Limited is the same legal entity as Navarre Minerals Limited, renamed. The cover of the FY2025 Annual Report (lodged 26 September 2025) reads "Aureka Limited (Formerly known as Navarre Minerals Limited)". Navarre was the Victorian explorer that, over more than a decade, built the basalt-dome exploration thesis along the Stawell Corridor and made the Resolution discovery at the Irvine dome from 2017-2018 onward, before entering a Deed of Company Arrangement following the difficulties of its move into production. As at 10 July 2026, the date of this article, ASX market data showed AKA last trading at $0.082 for a market capitalisation of approximately $12.7M — well below both the December 2025 placement price and that earlier implied figure. The accounts also show negative equity of $1.5M as recently as 1 July 2024, before the recapitalisation raisings restored the balance sheet. This is not a criticism. It is context. The company's own June 2026 presentation notes these assets previously supported a peak market capitalisation of approximately $150M which is a company-stated historical figure relating to 2020, under the prior corporate structure. The question this history poses is whether the new custodians can succeed where the prior corporate structure did not and the honest answer is that the exploration thesis was never the thing that failed. The Geology — Part One Stawell Corridor and the Irvine Project: A Real Analogue, Properly Applied The Irvine Gold Project is the flagship, carrying 398,300oz of the 455koz global Inferred resource at a grade of 2.59g/t Au, split between an open-pit component (Resolution OP 123koz at 2.16g/t; Adventure OP 40.3koz at 1.85g/t) and a Resolution underground component of 235koz at 3.13g/t. The June 2026 update added 94koz at Resolution — a 36% increase to the Resolution MRE — following the identification of the Tenacity Fault, a converging structure whose margins with the Resolution Fault host the highest-grade intercepts on the project to date, including 10m @ 12.1g/t Au from 413m (incl. 0.3m @ 183g/t) in hole RD048. The March 2026 quarterly added texture to that story: hole RD049, reported 3 February 2026, returned a notably wide zone of 18.4m @ 1.54g/t Au from 425.8m (incl. 1.15m @ 9.73g/t and 0.75m @ 10.2g/t), which the company reads as reaffirming the continuity and fertility of the Tenacity Hanging Wall Fault and — in its words — pointing to potentially amenable mining conditions in the extensions of the current resource. The geological model here deserves respect because it is not invented — it is borrowed from a producing mine 16km away. The Stawell Gold Mine's Magdala deposit, with historic production in excess of 5Moz, is hosted on the flanks of a Cambrian basalt dome, where gold mineralisation localises on meta-basalt/meta-sediment contacts. The rheological contrast between the competent basalt and the enclosing sediments focuses shearing and fluid flow, producing high-grade shoots whose geometry follows the attitude of the dome contact. Aureka's stated model at Irvine — a west-dipping shear zone broadly mimicking the strike of the Irvine basalt dome, with gold on or adjacent to meta-basalt/meta-sediment contacts and localised high-grade shoots controlled by contact attitude — is a faithful application of that Magdala template to the next dome south along the corridor. The corridor itself hosts a chain of these domes (Irvine, Langi Logan, Grange, Westmere) largely concealed beneath Murray Basin and Tertiary basalt cover, which is why the company's 50m-line-spaced UAV magnetic survey and IP datasets matter: under cover, geophysics is the primary targeting tool. The regional framework of the Stawell structural zone is well documented in the Geological Survey of Victoria literature and in published academic structural studies of the Magdala system; Samso encourages technically minded readers to consult the GSV's publications on the Stawell zone directly rather than rely on any single company summary. Figure 2: Stawell Corridor schematic long-section showing the Westmere, Grange, Langi Logan, Irvine and Magdala basalt domes, with the 5Moz Magdala system at the southeastern end (from company presentation, June 2026) Now the balancing observations, because a good analogue is not a guarantee. First, the entire Irvine resource is Inferred — the JORC category with the lowest geological confidence, which cannot be converted to Ore Reserves and cannot support production targets. Second, the grade architecture contains small, very-high-grade domains that warrant caution. Within the 358koz Resolution MRE, the "VG Domain" contributes 13koz from just 5,000 tonnes at a reported 55.12g/t, and "Resolution FW East" contributes 7,000oz from 20,000 tonnes at 11.72g/t. Together, roughly 20koz — nearly 6% of the Resolution ounces — comes from around 25,000 tonnes of extremely high-grade material. Visible-gold-bearing, nuggety domains of this kind are notoriously difficult to estimate at Inferred drill spacing, and their ounces should be regarded as the least reliable in the inventory until closer-spaced drilling proves them. Third, depth and cover. The Tenacity discoveries sit at 400-490m downhole; underground ounces at those depths in narrow, structurally complex settings demand grades well above the 3.13g/t underground average to be economic, and the corridor's basalt and Murray Basin cover adds cost to every stage of discovery. None of this invalidates the model. It defines the work between an exciting Inferred resource and a mine. The Geology — Part Two St Arnaud Comstock: A 15g/t Goldfield, a 1.21g/t Resource, and the Distance Between Those Numbers The Comstock Gold & Silver Project lies on the Nelson line of reef, approximately two kilometres north of St Arnaud, within a goldfield the company reports as having historically produced 400koz at an estimated 15g/t Au — a figure Aureka attributes to Krokowski de Vickerod, Moore and Cayley (1997), a Geological Survey of Victoria-era compilation, and which the company itself flags as unverified by its Competent Person and "provided for context only." The geological description is classic western Victorian turbidite-hosted orogenic gold: tightly folded, unfossiliferous Cambro-Ordovician turbidites of the Saint Arnaud Group; a NNW-trending, west-dipping structure (the Comstock Shear) sitting in the hinge zone of a large syncline; stylolitic quartz veining; an apparent association between carbonaceous black shales and higher gold grades; and a sulphide signature of pyrite, arsenopyrite, galena and sphalerite with an Au+As+Ag+Pb geochemical fingerprint. The maiden JORC MRE (June 2025) is 1.45Mt at 1.21g/t Au for 56,500oz, with 2.14g/t Ag for 100,000oz of silver, at a 0.5g/t cut-off — all Inferred — plus an Exploration Target of 3.0-3.5Mt at 1.0-1.2g/t. Post-MRE drilling in 2025 (seven holes, 2,253m) produced legitimately eye-catching intercepts: 1m @ 65.37g/t Au from a shallow 116.2m (25NED002), 0.3m @ 650g/t Ag with 1.91g/t Au from 192m (25NED004, the highest silver grade on the project), and 0.3m @ 31.5g/t Au with visible gold at 127.5m in a new structure (25NED007). Samso's central geological observation at Comstock is the grade contrast, and it should not be skipped past. The historic field produced at a reported ~15g/t; the modern resource grades 1.21g/t. There is no contradiction — the old-timers mined narrow, high-grade quartz reefs selectively, while the modern estimate is a bulk, low-cut-off envelope around sheared reef and stockwork zones — but it means the restart economics will live or die on mining selectivity, dilution control, and the true continuity of the higher-grade shoots inside a 1.21g/t envelope. The company's own concept-study disclaimer concedes the block model "has not been optimised for narrow-vein underground mine design." The second observation is metallurgical, and it is one Aureka itself discloses with commendable honesty: most of the historic St Arnaud mines stopped at the oxide-sulphide interface because of reduced grade and poor recoveries from sulphide ores. Arsenopyrite-associated gold in carbonaceous sediments is the classic recipe for partially refractory behaviour which is the same mineralogy that makes Fosterville's sulphide ore a specialised processing exercise. The infill program's inclusion of metallurgical test work is therefore not a box-ticking item. It may be the single most important technical deliverable of 2026 for the Comstock restart concept. A recent grab sample of 6.04g/t from a new, untested structure on the western pit wall is interesting but it is still just a grab sample. Figure 3: Plan view of the Walkers sub-pit showing the Walkers Main Shear and Walkers West Shear with legacy drill intercepts projected to pit floor surface (Figure 4 of the 1 July 2026 ASX release) The Restart Concept The Walkers Pit Pathway: Small by Design — and Constrained by Design The 1 July 2026 announcement is best understood as a statement of philosophy. Rather than pursue a conventional Mining Licence with its attendant scale, cost and timeline, Aureka has applied for a Prospecting Licence: a small mining licence suited to a footprint under 5 hectares, a life of up to 7 years, entirely within the previously disturbed mine site, with ore trucked offsite for processing. The Concept Study — prepared by Measured Group and Minserve with input from Core Prospecting, the operators of the Wedderburn Mill and the Fiddlers Creek underground mine — found that because the Walkers Pit retains road and ramp access last used in the late 1990s, the upfront capital relates to site establishment and overheads rather than earthworks and pre-mine development. Samso regards this as a genuinely sensible structure for a project of this maturity, with three honest caveats the company itself largely acknowledges. One: the resource is 100% Inferred, so under the ASX Listing Rules Aureka cannot publish a production target or forecast financials until infill drilling delivers a classification upgrade — meaning investors are being asked to back a restart concept whose economics cannot yet legally be quantified in public. Two: the Study identified the possible existence of voids and resource depletion from historic mining — a real risk at any previously worked Victorian pit, and one only drilling and careful reconciliation can retire. Three: the licence is an application, not a grant, and offsite processing depends on commercial terms with a third-party mill owner (Core Prospecting's Wedderburn facility, ~45km away) that have not been disclosed. Two March-quarter developments meaningfully de-risk the surrounding framework: exploration licence EL006819, which hosts the Comstock project, was renewed for a further five years to 2030, securing underlying tenure; and high-accuracy LiDAR and photogrammetry of the Comstock open-cut pit were acquired, producing the terrain and structural dataset that underpins the engineering design work — and the pit imagery used in the concept study itself. The approximately 1,000m, six-hole infill program — with assays pending as at 1 July 2026 — and a potential Comstock MRE update later in 2026 are the near-term catalysts that will tell us whether this concept graduates to a Scoping Study. "It is encouraging to see the Study identify a pathway to re-opening the Comstock project at the Walkers Pit area with low upfront capital and entirely within previously disturbed footprint." — James Gurry, Managing Director, Aureka Limited (ASX release, 1 July 2026) The Accounts Can Aureka Fund the Work It Is Talking About? The financial picture is assembled from two documents: the interim report for the half-year ended 31 December 2025 (the most recent full set of reviewed accounts) and the Quarterly Activities Report and Appendix 5B for the March 2026 quarter, released 30 April 2026. The half-year headline numbers: a loss of $2,274,428; net operating cash outflow of $3,321,074, of which $1,976,418 was exploration and evaluation spend (all expensed, not capitalised — a conservative and transparent treatment Samso notes with approval); a further $881,278 invested in property, plant and equipment (predominantly land and buildings around Irvine) and $286,000 in land deposits; and closing cash of $4,967,582. The half was funded by a $3,539,837 placement at $0.14 in December 2025 and $1,275,000 from the divestment of the 49% Tandarra JV interest to Catalyst Metals. The March 2026 quarterly then extends the picture a further three months: quarterly operating outflow of $1.23M ($661k exploration, $569k staff, administration and corporate), negligible investing and financing flows, and closing cash of $3.671M at 31 March 2026. For the nine months to 31 March 2026, operating outflows totalled $4.6M against $3.59M of equity raised and $1.275M from Tandarra. Data currency note: figures in the table above are drawn from the interim report for the half-year ended 31 December 2025 (released 12 March 2026) and, where indicated, the unaudited Appendix 5B quarterly cash flow report for the quarter ended 31 March 2026 (released 30 April 2026) — the latter being the most current financial disclosure available, itself more than three months old as at the date of this article (10 July 2026). Market capitalisation references in the body of this article are Samso calculations on a 31 December 2025 basis (157,376,591 shares × the $0.14 December 2025 placement price ≈ $22M). For currency: as at 10 July 2026, ASX market data showed AKA last trading at $0.082, for a market capitalisation of approximately $12.7M — materially below the December 2025 placement basis, implying a share count of roughly 159M after the February 2026 rent-settlement shares (452,308), the small February, March and June 2026 issues, and the verified July 2026 issues (206,667 shares from rights/options on 6 July; 614,634 shares to a supplier in lieu of cash on 8 July). Prices move daily; readers should consult the live ASX quote for ASX: AKA before relying on any figure here. Two structural features of the balance sheet deserve particular attention. The first is the land access architecture. Rather than buy the Irvine-area properties outright, Aureka has entered put-and-call option deeds with private partners — RDI Mining Holdings over part of 156 Westgate Road ($780,000 strike) and 366 Property Pty Ltd over 180 Westgate Road ($1,440,000 strike, escalating +30% in the first year and +25% per year thereafter) — while leasing the properties in the interim, partly paying rent and deposits in shares. This is capital-light and clever, and the company is right that it maximises in-ground spend today. But it is also, in substance, vendor financing at a steep implied cost: the escalation on the 180 parcel compounds at 25-30% per annum, and the put options give the counterparties the right to require Aureka to buy — with the 366 put triggered by, among other things, an $80M market capitalisation, a sale, a JV over Irvine, or a decision to mine. Success itself crystallises the obligation. The second is the incentive structure. Director and MD equity incentives issued in December 2025 vest at share price hurdles of $0.25 to $0.40 (against a $0.155 grant-date price), on a doubling of the global MRE from its 30 June 2025 base, and on progression to production or a value-realisation transaction. These sit atop an earlier tranche disclosed in the FY2025 Annual Report: 5,000,000 unvested LTI performance rights held by Mr Gurry with 20-day VWAP hurdles at $0.15, $0.20 and $0.25 against the $0.10 recapitalisation price, vesting to 30 June 2027 — and the annual report shows 57% of his $708,075 FY25 remuneration was share-based rather than cash. Investors can at least be confident management is paid for the same outcomes shareholders want. So — can they fund the work they are talking about? Samso's view: yes for the exploration program being described, no for anything beyond it without new money. The $4.97M at 31 December 2025 comfortably covers the ~1,000m Comstock infill program, continued Irvine drilling and the concept-to-scoping study work through calendar 2026 at the current spend rate — but by our arithmetic the tank approaches reserve some time around late 2026 or early 2027 absent further inflows. We note that in early July 2026 the company lodged applications for quotation of securities and a cleansing notice with the ASX, which indicates new shares have recently been issued; Samso has not reviewed the detail of those issues, and readers should check the announcements directly to establish whether a further raising has already occurred. The company's own concept-study disclaimer says it plainly: there is no certainty Aureka can raise the required funding when needed, such funding may be dilutive, and value-realisation alternatives including a sale, partial sale or JV are possible. That is not boilerplate. At a ~$22M market capitalisation, it is the operating reality. The People The Board, the Register, and James Gurry's Claim The board is small and, for a company of this size, unusually credentialled. The biographies below are drawn from the company's published materials; Samso has not independently audited them, but they are specific, checkable claims of the kind rarely fabricated. Figure 4: Diamond drilling within the Walkers Pit at the Comstock Gold Project, June 2026, utilising the existing pit access ramp highlighted in the Concept Study (Figure 3 of the 1 July 2026 ASX release) Samso's Analysis The Balanced View: A Coherent Story With Its Risks Written on Its Face What Samso likes about Aureka is that the risks are very clear. The concept study, the Inferred resource, the historic production figure is flagged as unreliable, the metallurgical history of the field, mines dying at the sulphide interface, is stated in the company's own words. Aureka Limited is still a ~$22M company carrying a two-project ambition on roughly nine months of cash at the recent spend rate, whose entire 455koz inventory sits in the lowest confidence category, whose flagship's best intercepts are 400m and more below surface, and whose near-term production concept depends on a licence not yet granted, assays not yet returned, metallurgy not yet demonstrated, and a resource-classification upgrade not yet achieved. Whether readers take the view that the Navarre lineage with the same rocks once carried the company to a $150M valuation and is now significantly lower, as a positive or negative reads as a disastrous history or an optimistic opportunity to make the value back with new management. The watch-list for the next twelve months is also very clear. It will be the Walkers infill assays and metallurgical results, a potential Comstock MRE update and any Inferred-to-Indicated conversion, the Prospecting Licence decision, the terms of any Wedderburn tolling arrangement, continued Tenacity Fault drilling at Irvine; and the size, price and participants of the next capital raising, which will test whether the private-capital register documented in the FY2025 Annual Report can keep writing cheques at increasing scale. For investors watching this story, the geology is credible, the structure is deliberate, and the funding question is not a criticism of the company — it is the company's central strategic variable, and management appears to know it. Samso Concluding Comments Aureka Limited is attempting the classic Victorian two-step: fund the big, slow discovery (Irvine) with the credibility generated by a small, fast restart (Comstock). The geological interpretations underpinning both legs appear to be grounded and supported with published analogues, Magdala's basalt-dome model at Stawell and the turbidite-hosted reef systems of the western goldfields. The accounts tell us the company can pay for the work it is currently describing, but not for what comes after it. Management look like that they have the capital-markets machinery to manage the future fund raising propcess. The chairman has run companies a hundred times this size, and a managing director whose entire career has been the interface between mining assets and institutional money has the credentials to handle the work. Whether that machinery can deliver development-scale capital, on acceptable terms, before the Inferred ounces harden into something bankable, is the question the next set of announcements will begin to answer. Samso will be reading them. If you invest in ASX resources, www.samso.com.au is where the story beneath the announcements gets told. About the Company Cover photo: Cetate open-pit gold mine, István Mihály. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cetate_open-pit_gold_mine.jpg) The Samso Way – Seek the Research Here at Samso, we pride ourselves on delivering content for investors that is independent and informed by over three decades of experience in the industry. Our content is well-researched and is only created if I see merit in discussing the company's story. Our mission is simple: cut through the noise and spotlight what matters—genuine stories, grounded insights, and real opportunity. Our content is well-researched and is only created if the team sees merit in discussing the company or concept. Investors can explore our three core platforms: Coffee with Samso Samso Insights Samso News There may be numerous paths to success in investing, but the common thread among successful individuals is that they remain committed to making informed decisions. Equip yourself with the right knowledge and tools, and you will be well on your way to achieving your financial goals. Most importantly, investors need to be absolutely diligent in understanding their own risk-reward tolerance and capabilities. Never bite off more than you can chew. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the Great Wall stood because it took centuries to complete. The Samso Philosophy: Stay curious. Stay sharp. And remember—digging deeper always uncovers the real value. In Life, there is no such thing as a Free Lunch. Never bite off more than you can chew is my parting comment. Happy Investing, and the only four-letter word you need to know is DYOR. To support our independent nature of our work, please head over to our Support Page and give us a helping hand in any of the ways listed. This is a new initiate for the Samso Platform, and it was always the concept of Samso when we started this journey in 2018. Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer, or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase, or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information. I try to write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value. It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation sees the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and has a need to share your journey, please contact me at noel.ong@samso.com.au. About Samso Samso is a trusted platform that equips dedicated investors with up-to-date industry knowledge and insigh0ts from top CEOs and thought leaders. By staying informed on business advancements and market trends, investors can enhance their financial decisions through a combination of expert guidance and their own research. Samso News | www.samso.com.au | An Investor Lens on ASX-Listed Companies

Elk Range Mining Limited, an Australian-incorporated gold explorer, is set to list on the ASX on August, 01,2026, under the proposed code ELL. The company has lodged a prospectus to raise A$7,000,000 (with the ability to accept oversubscriptions of up to a further A$3,000,000, for a maximum of A$10,000,000) through the issue of ordinary shares at 20 cents each, and to list on the Australian Securities Exchange under the proposed code ELK. The money is earmarked to advance the Idaho Gold Project, a district-scale package of gold assets near Elk City in central Idaho, in the United States. The project is anchored by the Friday Gold Mine, a historical high-grade underground mine that sits on care and maintenance (meaning it is idle but maintained rather than abandoned), and includes the Orogrande Processing Plant plus two advanced exploration prospects, Buffalo Gulch and Deadwood. The assets were acquired from Endomines in February 2026. At the offer price, the company would list with a market capitalisation of A$21.9 million to A$25.2 million and pro forma net cash of A$7.4 million to A$10.4 million. The prospectus is explicit that the shares "should be regarded as highly speculative", that Elk Range does not yet generate revenue, and that none of its assets carries a current Mineral Resource estimate compliant with the JORC Code. The only resource work quoted is historical and foreign, and the prospectus does not reproduce any tonnage or grade figures from it. The offer is expected to close on 8 July 2026, with trading anticipated to begin around 1 August 2026. Section 01:The deal - Elk Range Mining IPO The offer, the timetable and where the money goes The capital raising has two parts. Elk Range Mining IPO Offer invites investors to apply for between 35,000,000 and 50,000,000 shares at A$0.20 each, to raise A$7,000,000 to A$10,000,000 before costs. It is split into an Institutional Offer (for professional and sophisticated investors in Australia and certain other permitted jurisdictions) and a Broker Firm Offer (for eligible retail clients of participating brokers who receive a firm allocation). There is no general public offer. A separate Joint Lead Managers Offer issues between 4,000,000 and 6,000,000 unlisted options to Inyati Capital and Euroz Hartleys as part of their fee. The minimum application is 10,000 shares (A$2,000), then multiples of 5,000 shares (A$1,000). No brokerage, commission or stamp duty is payable by applicants. Total expenses of the offer are estimated at A$1,013,570 (at the minimum subscription), covering the joint lead managers' fee, legal, listing and expert-report costs. Table 1: IPO Highlights Where the money goes Elk Range says its existing cash plus the offer proceeds give it enough working capital for the two years following listing. Exploration is the single largest use of funds, taking 43% to 48% of the total. The company draws its use-of-funds on a no-production, no-revenue basis. Table 2: Use of proceeds Section 02: The assets - Elk Range Mining Inside the Idaho Gold Project Figure 1. Location of the Idaho Gold Project near Elk City, central Idaho. (Source: IPO prospectus) Everything Elk Range owns sits within the Orogrande Mining District near Elk City, in Idaho County, Idaho. The assets line up along the Orogrande Shear Zone, a regional-scale fault corridor (a long zone of broken and displaced rock) that the prospectus links to gold mineralisation and a string of historical mining centres. The project spans four elements: the flagship Friday Gold Mine, the Orogrande Processing Plant, and the Buffalo Gulch and Deadwood exploration prospects. Table 3: The four components of the Idaho Project Patented vs unpatented claims. Under the US Mining Law of 1872, a patented claim is one where the US government has passed full title to the holder. An unpatented claim gives only a possessory right to extract minerals; the underlying land stays under what the prospectus calls "the paramount title of the United States", and the holder must pay annual maintenance fees to keep it alive. The Friday Gold Mine and its lease Friday is the centrepiece. Previous operators built underground access through a portal and decline (an access tunnel that slopes down into the mine), and underground mining most recently restarted under prior owner Endomines in May 2020. After two short mining periods and roughly 7,200 tonnes of ore, the mine was placed on care and maintenance in February 2022, which the prospectus attributes to Covid-19 and broader operational factors. Figure 2: Friday Project location (Source: IPO Prospectus) Elk Range does not own Friday outright. It holds the mine through the Friday Lease, under which its US subsidiary Elk Range Minerals LLC is the lessee and Premium Exploration USA, Inc. is the lessor. The lease grants Elk Range the right to mine underground mineralisation averaging 2 grams of gold per tonne or higher. Premium retains the rights to lower-grade material below 2 g/t, including potential future open-pit mining. The lease began on 23 April 2015, runs for an initial 20 years to April 2035, and carries an option to extend for a further 20 years. Figure 3: Friday Project leases (Source: IPO Prospectus) The Orogrande Processing Plant gives the company optionality. The prospectus describes it as able to process sulphide ore at about 6.4 tonnes per hour through crushing, grinding, gravity and flotation circuits, with supporting infrastructure that includes an assay laboratory, workshops, a camp and mobile mining equipment. Whether the plant is ever restarted depends on permit transfers, technical studies, funding, economics and board approval. Figure 4: The Orogrande Processing Plant (Source: IPO Prospectus) Buffalo Gulch and Deadwood The two satellite prospects add what the prospectus calls district-scale exploration upside. Both sit on the Orogrande Shear Zone, both carry historically identified gold mineralisation, and both are described as prospective for near-surface oxide gold (weathered, more easily leached material) and deeper sulphide gold. No exploration at either is currently planned; the near-term drilling budget is directed at Friday. Figure 5: Claim map (Source: IPO Prospectus) Section 03 — Strategy and work program The plan: de-risk the historical data, then drill Elk Range frames its strategy as disciplined, staged advancement rather than a production rush. Over the 12 to 24 months after listing, it intends to validate, digitise and reinterpret decades of historical geological, drilling and production data, then run modern drilling, geological modelling and quality-control programs aimed at supporting a future JORC-compliant Mineral Resource estimate where the results justify one. The company states its initial focus is on exploration, technical evaluation and resource growth, not near-term mining. The JORC Code is the Australasian standard for publicly reporting exploration results and resources. A "Mineral Resource" under that code is a concentration of minerals with reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction, classified by geological confidence. Elk Range does not have one yet; producing one is the central goal of the work program, and it is the trigger for several of the company's incentive and vendor payments (covered later). The first drilling program at Friday The company plans an initial exploration and validation program of 10 diamond drillholes totalling 11,900 feet, drilled from surface and focused on the five patented lease claims at Friday. The holes are designed to test and confirm historical high-grade intersections, improve confidence in the known mineralised zones, and probe extensions down-plunge and along-strike from the existing underground workings. Elk Range estimates an all-in cost of about US$892 per metre and a total program budget of roughly A$3.21 million. Table 4: Drilling Budget The independent geologist notes that a LiDAR survey (airborne laser mapping for accurate topography) would be worthwhile but is not included in the planned budget. No exploration at Buffalo Gulch or Deadwood is currently planned. Section 04 — Geology, history and historical drilling A century of mining, and a large historical dataset Gold has been worked in the Orogrande district for a long time. The prospectus records placer gold (loose gold in stream gravels) first found in the 1850s, and hard-rock mining beginning in 1903 at the Hogan mine on Friday ground. The independent geologist, AMC Consultants, describes the mineralisation across the assets as a low-sulphidation mesothermal vein system, meaning gold deposited from warm mineralising fluids moving through fault and shear structures at moderate depth. At Friday, gold sits mainly between two faults (named the Friday and Monday faults) and comes in two styles: broad zones of lower-grade disseminated gold, and higher-grade gold and silver where the rock is more intensely sheared, particularly next to a non-mineralised dacite dyke (a sheet of volcanic rock cutting across the host). The long section below shows the historical underground development, the base of oxidation, and a plunging high-grade shoot that the geologist notes is "not in resource", a reminder that these are historical intercepts rather than a classified resource. A long line of past operators The project has passed through many hands, each of which added to the exploration record. The prospectus lists Bema Gold in the 1980s, Idaho Consolidated Metals from the early 1990s, Cyprus in 1996 to 1997, Kinross in 1998, Canden in 2002, Beartooth Platinum in 2004, Premium Exploration from 2009 to 2014, and Endomines from 2018 to 2022. In total the geologist reports about 386 drillholes and more than 145,000 feet of drilling at Friday alone, with a further 180 holes (31,816 feet) at Buffalo Gulch and 65 holes (21,371 feet) at Deadwood. The resource position: historical and foreign, not JORC A resource estimate was prepared for Friday and Buffalo Gulch by Hard Rock Consulting in 2017, but the prospectus and the independent geologist are clear that it is both a "foreign estimate" and a "historical estimate": it was prepared under Canadian (CIM) standards, not the JORC Code, before Endomines owned the project. Elk Range and its Competent Person have not done enough work to classify any of it as a Mineral Resource under JORC, and the prospectus does not reproduce any tonnage, grade or ounce figures from it. There is no current JORC Mineral Resource for any Elk Range asset. Investors are cautioned that historical estimates should not be relied upon. Historical drilling highlights The geologist reports a table of significant historical intersections at Friday. These are exploration results, not a resource, and AMC states it has not independently verified them. They do, however, illustrate the high-grade character the company is chasing. A selection (grade shown as grams of gold per tonne, "g/t", over a drilled interval): Table 5: Historical drilling Highlights Historical metallurgical testwork is also encouraging on paper. At Friday, 2011 bottle-roll leach tests on 13 samples averaged 86.2% gold recovery, and 2016 flotation composites averaged 94.3% and 95.6%. At Buffalo Gulch, a 1989 agglomerated heap-leach test recovered 95% of the gold over 32 days. The company presents these as supportive of future processing routes, not as guarantees. Section 05 — People Board and management Elk Range lists on admission with a four-person board, three of whom it considers independent, plus a chief executive. The prospectus notes the company will not have separate audit and risk or remuneration committees at listing, given the board's size, with the full board carrying out those functions. Table 6: Board and Management Fees are annual and exclusive of superannuation. Leanne Kite's A$260,000 comprises A$200,000 for the CFO role and A$60,000 for the executive director role. Section 06: Capital, ownership and the acquisition The capital structure and who owns what Before the offer, Elk Range has 29,329,004 shares on issue. On admission, that grows to between 109.4 million and 126.1 million shares once the IPO shares, the conversion of a A$5 million convertible note, the shares to vendor Endomines, and smaller issues are added. Shares sold under the IPO will represent roughly 32% of the enlarged capital at the minimum subscription and 39.6% at the maximum. The company's free float is expected to be at least about 63% (minimum) to 66% (maximum). Table 7: Capital Structure The convertible notes were a pre-IPO raise: A$5,000,000 across 5,000 notes of A$1,000 each, carrying 8% annual interest and converting into shares at the lesser of 80% of the IPO price or A$0.58. They are expected to convert on listing. Directors and management hold both shares and some of these notes. Table 8: Convertible Notes A large share of the register is expected to be subject to ASX escrow (a mandatory holding lock): roughly 26.7 million shares, 14.3 million performance rights and the lead manager options for up to 24 months, and a further 13.8 to 15.4 million shares for 12 months. None of the shares issued under the IPO offer are subject to escrow. The Endomines acquisition: about A$20 million, mostly deferred Elk Range acquired the Idaho Gold Project from Endomines under an asset purchase and sale agreement, completed on 24 February 2026. The headline consideration is roughly A$20 million, but only A$3.5 million was paid in cash upfront. The rest is spread across share issues, milestone payments tied to defining a JORC resource, and time-based cash payments, with the whole obligation secured against the project. Crucially, several of the large payments are only triggered if the company succeeds in defining substantial gold resources. Table 9: Edomines Acquisition payments "Moz" means million ounces; "0.4 g/t cut-off" is the minimum grade counted in a resource. Endomines' shareholding is capped at 10%. Elk Range granted security (a mortgage of US$14,142,000) over the project in Endomines' favour. Performance rights tied to finding gold Elk Range has 17,000,000 performance rights on issue, held by directors and the CEO. Performance rights are a right to be issued a share for no payment once conditions are met. Most of these conditions mirror the vendor milestones: defining JORC resources of 0.5 million and 1.0 million ounces, plus acquiring Premium's lower-grade rights, and each also requires the share price (20-day average) to be at least A$0.20. All expire on 30 November 2030. Table 10: Performance Rights Recipients: Campbell Baird 5,000,000; Leanne Kite 5,000,000; Edward Keys 4,000,000; Frazer Tabeart 1,500,000; Rafael Moreno 1,500,000. The independent expert notes that if every performance security converted, they would represent about 65.79% of issued capital on a minimum-subscription basis. Royalties over the project The Idaho Gold Project carries a stack of third-party net smelter return (NSR) royalties, a share of revenue from any gold sold. Most are capped. The company would also have to deliver the first six 10-ounce gold bars from each mine placed into production to certain historical beneficiaries. Section 07: Financials Financial position As an exploration company, Elk Range has no revenue and expects losses for the foreseeable future. For its first reporting period (16 February 2025 to 31 December 2025) it recorded a loss after tax of A$201,864 and held A$227,499 in cash at 31 December 2025. The picture that matters for investors is the pro-forma balance sheet, which restates the position as if the acquisition, the convertible note and the offer had all happened by that date. Table 11: Financial Position The plant and equipment was independently valued at US$1.4 million. The A$12.8 million deferred consideration is the accounting value of the future Endomines milestone and time payments. The auditor issued an unmodified opinion on the historical accounts but drew attention to a material uncertainty related to going concern; the directors state that, with the offer proceeds, the company will have the funds to operate as a going concern. Section 08: Risks What the prospectus flags as the key risks The prospectus devotes a full section to risk and stresses the shares are highly speculative. The list below summarises the company and industry-specific risks it identifies. It is not exhaustive, and general market risks (economic conditions, equity market volatility, currency movements, commodity prices and public-health events) apply on top. Mineral rights and lease structure: Elk Range can only mine underground gold averaging 2 g/t or higher; Premium keeps the lower-grade and potential open-pit rights, and has a conditional agreement to sell the underlying patented claims. Mineral claims and title: Unpatented claims sit under the paramount title of the US government and can be challenged; a successful challenge could void or shrink them. Acquisition and deferred consideration: Large future payments are owed to Endomines and secured against the project; failure to meet them could affect the company's interest in the assets. Title, tenure and permits: Some permits remain in a previous owner's name and are still being transferred; there is no guarantee they will all transfer or renew on time. Environmental and historical mining: Old workings and waste rock may carry liabilities; a Phase I environmental assessment identified certain "Recognised Environmental Conditions". Royalties and production obligations: Multiple third-party royalties and a historical gold-delivery obligation could affect the economics of any future mining. Nature of exploration: Exploration is inherently speculative; there is no assurance it will define an economic resource. Historical and foreign estimates: The historical resource data is not JORC-compliant and may not convert into a JORC resource. Operational and infrastructure: The mine and plant are on care and maintenance; there is no assurance they can be restarted on acceptable terms. Liquidity and escrow: Existing holders will own a large share of the register, much of it locked in escrow for up to 24 months, which may limit trading liquidity. Foreign operations: All the material assets are in the United States, exposing the company to US federal, state and local law, permitting and currency movements. Funding and going concern: The company has no revenue and will need ongoing funding; there is no assurance further capital will be available on acceptable terms. Section 09: Independent reports What the independent experts concluded Four independent reports are attached to the prospectus. In brief: Table 12: Independent Report Samso Concluding Comments Elk Range Mining is seeking A$7 million to A$10 million at 20 cents per share to list on the ASX and fund the next phase of work in a historical gold district in Idaho. The pitch, in the company's own words, rests on a rare combination of established infrastructure (a high-grade underground mine and a processing plant), a large historical dataset, and district-scale exploration ground, all in a mining jurisdiction familiar to investors. Against that, the prospectus is candid about what has not yet been proven. There is no JORC resource today; the historical estimates are not compliant, and no figures are disclosed; the flagship mine and plant are idle; the company holds Friday under a lease that restricts it to higher-grade underground ore; a substantial deferred consideration is owed to the vendor; and much of the register is locked in escrow. The document repeatedly describes the shares as highly speculative and urges investors to read it in full and seek professional advice. This coverage is a guide to what it says, not a substitute for that reading. Cover photo: Gold bullion bars, Stevebidmead. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gold_bullion_bars.jpg) The Samso Way – Seek the Research Here at Samso, we pride ourselves on delivering content for investors that is independent and informed by over three decades of experience in the industry. Our content is well-researched and is only created if I see merit in discussing the company's story. Our mission is simple: cut through the noise and spotlight what matters—genuine stories, grounded insights, and real opportunity. Our content is well-researched and is only created if the team sees merit in discussing the company or concept. Investors can explore our three core platforms: Coffee with Samso Samso Insights Samso News There may be numerous paths to success in investing, but the common thread among successful individuals is that they remain committed to making informed decisions. Equip yourself with the right knowledge and tools, and you will be well on your way to achieving your financial goals. Most importantly, investors need to be absolutely diligent in understanding their own risk-reward tolerance and capabilities. Never bite off more than you can chew. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the Great Wall stood because it took centuries to complete. The Samso Philosophy: Stay curious. Stay sharp. And remember—digging deeper always uncovers the real value. In Life, there is no such thing as a Free Lunch. Never bite off more than you can chew is my parting comment. Happy Investing, and the only four-letter word you need to know is DYOR. To support our independent nature of our work, please head over to our Support Page and give us a helping hand in any of the ways listed. This is a new initiate for the Samso Platform, and it was always the concept of Samso when we started this journey in 2018. Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer, or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase, or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information. I try to write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value. It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation sees the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and has a need to share your journey, please contact me at noel.ong@samso.com.au. About Samso Samso is a trusted platform that equips dedicated investors with up-to-date industry knowledge and insigh0ts from top CEOs and thought leaders. By staying informed on business advancements and market trends, investors can enhance their financial decisions through a combination of expert guidance and their own research. Samso News | www.samso.com.au | An Investor Lens on ASX-Listed Companies

The company behind the core systems of some of Australia's largest life insurers hit the boards at midday, priced at $1.10 a share and valued at approximately $103.5 million at the offer price. Monvia Limited (ASX: MNV), the Sydney-headquartered software company behind the core administration systems of some of Australia's largest life insurers, began trading on the ASX under the ticker MNV at midday AEST today, capping a $17.5 million initial public offering priced at $1.10 per share. The debutante traded as high as A$1.150 before settling at A$1.125 by 1:55 pm AEST, up 2.27% on its $1.10 IPO price, with 458,071 shares traded (Figure 1). Figure 1: Monvia's reception on listing day (Source:ASX:com) Monvia is not a startup. The operating business, formerly known as Axe Group Pty Limited, was founded in 1997 and has spent nearly three decades supplying technology to the life insurance sector. Its flagship product, the Monvia Life Platform, launched in 2020, is a cloud-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) system, meaning clients pay recurring subscription fees to use software hosted and maintained by Monvia rather than buying and running it themselves. The company hit the boards on a soft day for the broader market. The Australian sharemarket opened lower this morning after Wall Street fell overnight on renewed concerns over heavy AI spending by major technology companies and an oil price spike driven by geopolitical tensions. The offer: A measured path to market for Monvia IPO The Monvia IPO values the company at approximately $103.5 million at the offer price, based on 94,133,636 shares on issue at completion. Monvia was formally admitted to the ASX's Official List on Wednesday, 22 July, with quotation commencing today under the code MNV and the trade abbreviation MONVIALTD. A total of 53,272,342 fully paid ordinary shares are quoted, with a further 40,861,286 shares held in escrow as restricted securities, the longest tranche locked up until 24 July 2028. Escrow is a restriction that prevents certain existing shareholders, typically founders and pre-IPO investors, from selling their shares for a set period after listing. Table 1: IPO Timetable The shareholder register at listing is a tight one. As at 20 July, Monvia reported 295 registered holders of ordinary shares, with approximately 32 underlying shareholders holding through a single custodian or broker arrangement. The prospectus stated the company expected a free float of 54.90 per cent at admission, comfortably above the ASX's 20 per cent minimum. Free float is the proportion of shares available for public trading rather than locked up by insiders or escrow arrangements. Use of funds: Where the money goes Of the total $19.4 million in funds available after the raise (the $17.5 million from the offer plus approximately $1.9 million of cash on hand), the single largest allocation is not growth spending. Some $12.5 million, or 64.45 per cent of available funds, goes to redeeming the Series B Preference Shares at the time of admission. Those securities were issued in lieu of $12.5 million in cash to the vendors of the operating business, Monvia Australia, as part consideration for its acquisition in July 2025, so the redemption effectively settles a deferred purchase debt. Table 2: Use of Funds The remainder is allocated as follows: $1.7 million (8.77 percent) to sales, marketing and international expansion within 12 months of admission; approximately $1.39 million (7.14 percent) to the costs of the offer; and approximately $3.81 million (19.64 percent) to general working capital, which the company intends to split 50 percent towards research and development, 22 percent towards staff costs and 28 percent towards administrative expenses. Monvia also carries a $6 million loan facility, not due until 30 June 2027, which it intends to repay from operating cash flow rather than offer proceeds. Separately, the listing triggered the automatic conversion of 32.5 million Series A Preference Shares into 45,454,546 ordinary shares at $0.715 each, a 35 percent discount to the offer price. The prospectus disclosed that this conversion delivers holders of those securities an aggregate financial benefit of $17.5 million above the face value of their preference shares. The business: Three decades in a specialist niche Monvia is not a startup. The operating business was founded in 1997, formerly known as Axe Group Pty Limited, and has spent nearly three decades supplying technology to the life insurance sector. Its flagship product, the Monvia Life Platform, launched in 2020, is a cloud-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) system, meaning clients pay recurring subscription fees to use software hosted and maintained by Monvia rather than buying and running it themselves. The platform acts as the core system of record for a life insurer, spanning four modules: New Business (streamlining risk assessment for new customers), Policy Administration, Claims Management and the Monvia Life Hub: which connects the platform to other systems. The company employs more than 100 staff, mostly in Australia with a small team in Manila, and services clients including MetLife, AIA Group, the Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation, Hollard, Hannover Life Re and US-based Propeller Inc, part of Arch Insurance Group. While Monvia itself is not subject to industry-specific regulation, its clients must comply with prudential standards such as APRA CPS 230 and 234, and Monvia holds SOC 2 and ISO 27001 security certifications. The corporate structure is recent. Monvia Limited was incorporated on 24 March 2025 as Axe Group Holdings Pty Ltd specifically to acquire the operating business and list it, completing the acquisition in July 2025 and adopting the Monvia name in December 2025. Financials: The numbers Monvia comes to market profitable, a rarity among smaller ASX technology floats. On a pro forma basis (figures adjusted to show the business as if the current corporate structure had been in place throughout), revenue grew from $23.4 million in FY23 to $24.4 million in FY24 and $27.1 million in FY25, with the company forecasting $27.4 million for the financial year ending 30 June 2026. EBITDA, meaning earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, a common measure of underlying operating profitability, was $6.2 million in FY25 at a 22.9 per cent margin, forecast to rise to approximately $6.6 million at a 24.0 percent margin in FY26. The half-year to 31 December 2025 delivered pro forma revenue of $14.0 million and EBITDA of $3.6 million. Table 3: Financial Figures The company anticipates a five-year compound annual growth rate of 27 percent in annual recurring revenue (ARR, the contracted subscription revenue in place at the start of each year) to 30 June 2026. Its average net revenue retention over the past five years was 121 percent, meaning existing clients on average spend 21 percent more each year than the year before, while gross revenue retention averaged 95 percent. The company says it has been cash flow positive for five consecutive years. After the offer, pro forma cash stands at approximately $8.4 million, or approximately $2.4 million net of the $6 million loan facility, giving an enterprise value of approximately $101.2 million. The company does not intend to pay dividends in the immediate future, prioritising expansion of its core software locally and internationally. Key risk: The MetLife question The prospectus is candid about the defining feature of Monvia's revenue profile: concentration. MetLife, a client since 2020 and described as Monvia's anchor client, accounted for approximately 62 percent of total pro forma revenue in FY24, 70 percent in FY25, and is expected to account for approximately 71 percent in FY26. Any loss of, or reduction in services from, that client would materially affect the company's operations, earnings and financial condition. The company's mitigation is a freshly renegotiated contract. A replacement Master Procurement Agreement with MetLife commenced on 1 April 2026 for a five-year term running to 30 March 2031, accompanied by a new statement of work covering the Monvia Life Platform, support, maintenance and hosting. MetLife has agreed to a minimum spend for the first two years and nine months of the term, although it retains the right to terminate for convenience on at least 180 days' notice, or 30 days' notice in the event Monvia is acquired by a competitor. Beyond client concentration, the prospectus lists risks including the need to retain and attract clients, maintain and develop the platform, retain key personnel, execute the growth strategy, and manage cybersecurity threats. It also addresses AI directly, arguing the risk of AI-enabled competition is low because the platform's role as a regulated system of record, with auditable decisioning and embedded governance guardrails, is difficult for general-purpose AI tools to replicate. The company positions AI as more likely to enhance its platform than displace it. People: Board and register The board carries a strong thread of shared history at Empired Ltd, the ASX-listed IT services firm. Non-Executive Chairman Russell Baskerville founded and led Empired, building it to more than 1,200 staff, and currently chairs Bravura Solutions and One Click Group. Chief Executive Officer Simon Bright was previously Chief Operating Officer of Empired and, most recently, Chief Operating Officer and Services Lead for Capgemini Australia and New Zealand, having begun his career in insurance at Norwich Union. Chief Client Officer Stuart Strickland, also an executive director, founded Conducive Pty Ltd, acquired by Empired in 2012, and later held senior roles at Capgemini and DUG Technology. Non-executive directors Robert McCready (former Empired and ASG Group COO) and Mark Waller (Empired's CFO from 2005 to 2016) extend the connection, joined by Shan Kanji and Stephen Tucker, the former MLC chief executive and co-founder of Koda Capital. Ajesh Raithatha serves as Chief Financial Officer and Nina Mlinarevic as Company Secretary. Post-listing, the substantial shareholders are Baskerville's Tidal Opportunities vehicle at 13.28 percent, Microequities Asset Management at 11.89 percent, Monvia Australia vendors Kimberley Anne Lathe and Martin John Stewart at 9.29 percent each, Kanji at 8.07 percent, and Strickland and Raithatha at 5.31 percent apiece. A number of existing shareholders have entered voluntary escrow deeds restricting the sale of their shares for 12 months from admission, while the ASX admission notice records a larger pool of restricted securities across two escrow classes, with the final tranche released 24 months from quotation. Table 4: Substantial shareholders after the offer Outlook: What happens next Today's session is only the first data point. The shares issued under the offer trade freely, but the substantial escrowed holdings mean liquidity may be limited in the near term, a factor the prospectus itself flags as capable of influencing the prevailing market price. The prospectus describes the shares as a speculative investment and directs investors to the full risk disclosures before making any decision. For a 29-year-old business making its public debut, the pitch to the market is straightforward and comes directly from the chairman's letter: "a proven, deeply embedded platform, long-term blue-chip client relationships generating recurring revenue, a long history of profitability and free cash generation, and a leadership team with deep domain expertise." Whether the market prices it that way from day one is the question the tape will answer over the sessions ahead. Cover photo: An office table and computers (Unsplash), Patryk Sobczak patryksobczak. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:An_office_table_and_computers_(Unsplash).jpg) The Samso Way – Seek the Research Here at Samso, we pride ourselves on delivering content for investors that is independent and informed by over three decades of experience in the industry. Our content is well-researched and is only created if I see merit in discussing the company's story. Our mission is simple: cut through the noise and spotlight what matters—genuine stories, grounded insights, and real opportunity. Our content is well-researched and is only created if the team sees merit in discussing the company or concept. Investors can explore our three core platforms: Coffee with Samso Samso Insights Samso News There may be numerous paths to success in investing, but the common thread among successful individuals is that they remain committed to making informed decisions. Equip yourself with the right knowledge and tools, and you will be well on your way to achieving your financial goals. Most importantly, investors need to be absolutely diligent in understanding their own risk-reward tolerance and capabilities. Never bite off more than you can chew. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the Great Wall stood because it took centuries to complete. The Samso Philosophy: Stay curious. Stay sharp. And remember—digging deeper always uncovers the real value. In Life, there is no such thing as a Free Lunch. Never bite off more than you can chew is my parting comment. Happy Investing, and the only four-letter word you need to know is DYOR. To support our independent nature of our work, please head over to our Support Page and give us a helping hand in any of the ways listed. This is a new initiate for the Samso Platform, and it was always the concept of Samso when we started this journey in 2018. Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer, or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase, or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information. I try to write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value. It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation sees the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and has a need to share your journey, please contact me at noel.ong@samso.com.au. About Samso Samso is a trusted platform that equips dedicated investors with up-to-date industry knowledge and insigh0ts from top CEOs and thought leaders. By staying informed on business advancements and market trends, investors can enhance their financial decisions through a combination of expert guidance and their own research. Samso News | www.samso.com.au | An Investor Lens on ASX-Listed Companies

Raising to $15m to explore newly reopened Sweden and the Athabasca Basin — timed to a uranium market near multi-year highs. Neu Horizon Uranium Limited (proposed ASX: NHU) is raising to $15 million to chase uranium in two of the more interesting addresses on the map: the structurally-controlled and black-shale uranium districts of northern Sweden, and the basement rocks along the northern rim of Canada’s Athabasca Basin — the highest-grade uranium district on earth. The float lodged its prospectus on 19 May 2026 and is targeting an ASX listing on 07 July 2026, with Canaccord Genuity as Lead Manager. The pitch lands at a moment that is hard to ignore. Uranium has run back toward multi-year highs, the nuclear-power narrative has rarely been louder and, most specifically of all, Sweden lifted its uranium mining moratorium in November 2025, reopening a country that has long sat on known uranium but banned anyone from mining it. (Figure 1). Neu Horizon is positioning to be there as the door opens. Figure 1: Uranium Futures dated 06/07/2026 (Source:Investing.com) At a Glance Item Description Company Neu Horizon Uranium Limited Proposed Ticker ASX: NHU The offer 60–75 million shares at $0.20 to raise $12m–$15m (before costs) Indicative market cap ~$31.99m (min) / ~$34.99m (max) on listing Enterprise value ~$20m either way (market cap less cash) Key dates Lodged 19 May 2026; offer closed 18 June; expected ASX quotation 07 July 2026 Lead Manager Canaccord Genuity (Australia) What it is A two-jurisdiction uranium explorer — northern Sweden (5 projects, 22 permits, 110,000+ ha) and the Athabasca Basin, Canada (option over 80% of 4 projects, 35,000+ ha) The timing hook Sweden lifted its 2018 uranium moratorium on 5 November 2025 — NHU is positioned to explore as the country reopens to uranium The Canada angle Basement-hosted uranium (plus a uranium-REE project) on the northern rim of the Athabasca Basin; held via option from Fortune Bay Corp Stage Pre-discovery — early work has confirmed anomalous uranium; no JORC resource yet. The prospectus states an investment should be considered “highly speculative” Use of funds ~65% (min) to ~80% (max) to exploration, Sweden-weighted, including maiden and follow-up drilling Strategic investor Aura Energy (ASX: AEE) made a $100k pre-IPO investment (Aura holds Swedish alum-shale uranium) Board Exec Chair Martin Holland (has listed 5 ASX explorers, raising >A$200m); Technical Director Adam Wooldridge; NED Michael Addison; CFO Brian Nizette; proposed CEO Conrad Ocker Capital structure 97.5m existing shares; ~160–175m on listing; ~18.9–19.3m options (incl. 13m director options); free float ≥20% Uranium backdrop Spot uranium has traded near multi-year highs, having reached ~US$100/lb, on nuclear-renaissance demand The 60-Second Pitch - Neu Horizon Uranium IPO Neu Horizon is a pre-discovery uranium explorer with a clean, thematic idea: get into premier, newly accessible uranium jurisdictions early, and use modern geophysics to chase district-scale targets that have known historical uranium but have never been properly explored with today’s tools. The portfolio splits across two countries. In Sweden, the company holds 22 active permits across five projects covering more than 110,000 hectares — three of them (Arvidsjaur, Hotagen and Berg) targeting structurally controlled, granitic-hosted uranium, and two (Vilhelmina and Krokom) targeting alum-shale (black-shale) uranium (Figure 3) Figure 3: Neu Horizon's Swedish Projects (Source: Company Website) In Canada, it holds an option to acquire 80% of four projects on the northern rim of the Athabasca Basin, including the Fir uranium-REE project and the Pine, Spruce and Aspen basement-hosted uranium projects (Figure 4). Figure 4: Neu Horizon's Swedish Projects (Source: Company Website) What you are buying is timing, ground position and a team - not a resource. Early work has confirmed anomalous uranium, but there is no JORC resource, and the prospectus is explicit that this is a highly speculative investment. The appeal is the setup: a uranium price near multi-year highs, a Swedish market that has just reopened after seven years closed, and a foothold in the world’s best uranium basin. The Offer, and the Dilution The IPO seeks a minimum of 60 million and a maximum of 75 million shares at $0.20, raising $12m–$15m before costs. On top of $0.5m of existing cash, that funds the company with roughly $12.5m–$15.5m. Indicative market capitalisation is $31.99m (min) to $34.99m (max) - and since the raise is $12–15m, the implied enterprise value lands at around $20m either way. That is the number to anchor on: the market is being asked to value Neu Horizon’s early-stage ground and team at about $20m before any resource exists. Table 1 — Capital structure on listing Capital structure Minimum Maximum Existing shares 97,466,669 97,466,669 New IPO shares 60,000,000 75,000,000 Consideration shares 2,500,000 2,500,000 Total shares on listing 159,966,669 174,966,669 Options on issue 18,875,667 19,325,667 Implied market cap $31.99m $34.99m On dilution, new IPO investors will own roughly 37.5% (min) to 43% (max) of the company on listing, with existing holders (97.5m shares) retaining the majority. Worth noting is the option overhang: about 18.9–19.3 million options, including 13 million director options — a meaningful incentive package that will dilute further if exercised. Free float will be not less than 20%. Use of Funds The spending plan is appropriately exploration-heavy. On the minimum raise, around 65% of funds go to exploration and development, with the balance on lead-manager fees, offer costs and working capital. On the maximum raise, the exploration share rises to about 80%. Either way, Sweden is the priority, and the budget explicitly covers maiden and follow-up drilling at priority targets — the activity most likely to generate news flow. Table 2 — Use of funds (two years post-listing) Use of funds Minimum Maximum Exploration & development — Sweden $4.81m (40%) $7.61m (51%) Exploration & development — Canada $2.93m (24%) $4.33m (29%) Lead Manager fees $0.62m $0.77m Costs of the offer $0.76m $0.77m Working capital $2.89m $1.53m Total raised $12.00m $15.00m The Swedish Catalyst This is the part of the story that gives Neu Horizon its “why now.” Sweden implemented a moratorium on uranium exploration and mining in 2018, effectively freezing a country that hosts substantial known uranium (its alum shales are among the larger uranium accumulations in Europe). On 5 November 2025, the Swedish parliament voted to lift that moratorium — reopening uranium to exploration and, in time, mining. For an explorer with 110,000+ hectares of Swedish permits already in hand, that is the catalyst the whole Swedish thesis rests on. It is also the risk: a freshly reversed ban means the regulatory and permitting framework for uranium is still being rebuilt, and what parliament gives, a future parliament can revisit. The strategic $100k investment from Aura Energy (ASX: AEE) — a company with its own Swedish alum-shale uranium history — is a small but notable vote of confidence in the jurisdiction (Figure 2). Figure 5: Global Importance of Swedish Uranium Deposits (Source: Company Website) Athabasca Angle If Sweden is the catalyst, the Athabasca Basin is the blue sky. The basin hosts the highest-grade uranium deposits on the planet, and the basement-hosted style Neu Horizon being targeted on the northern rim is the same broad model that produced the modern discoveries that re-rated the district. The company’s exposure here is via an option to acquire 80% of four projects from Fortune Bay Corp, with about 2.5 million consideration shares issued as part payment for that option. The important nuance: this is an option and a conditional acquisition, not outright ownership — the projects become the company’s only as the option conditions are satisfied. Figure 6: Image of an optioned project package known as “The Woods.” (Source: Company Website) The Board Neu Horizon’s board leans heavily on capital-markets pedigree. Executive Chairman Martin Holland is a Sydney-based mining executive who has listed five ASX exploration companies and collectively raised more than A$200m for greenfield exploration; he is also Executive Chairman of Cobre Ltd (ASX: CBE). Technical Director Adam Wooldridge is a geophysicist and geologist with 25+ years across Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and is CEO of Cobre. Non-Executive Director Michael Addison founded Endocoal, Carabella Resources and Genex Power, and is a former Rhodes Scholar. Brian Nizette is CFO, and the proposed CEO, Conrad Ocker, is an exploration geologist who has spent the past eight years working in the Nordics, particularly Sweden — directly relevant for the flagship. One observation worth making plainly: much of the board (Holland, Wooldridge, Addison) is drawn from Cobre Ltd, so this is a closely-linked management group rather than an assembly of independents — common in junior floats, but worth knowing. The Uranium Backdrop The macro tailwind is real. Uranium has been in a structural bull market, with spot prices trading near multi-year highs after touching roughly US$100/lb, driven by a global re-embrace of nuclear power, life-extensions and new builds, small modular reactor ambitions, and the surge in electricity demand from data centres. (Figure 1) Against that backdrop, primary uranium supply has been slow to respond - which is precisely the gap a pipeline of new explorers is trying to fill. A rising uranium price lifts sentiment across the whole exploration cohort; the flip side is that the same sentiment can reverse quickly if the price rolls over. The Risks / Points of Friction ● Pre-discovery. There is no JORC resource. The company has anomalous uranium and prospective ground, and the prospectus itself flags the investment as highly speculative. ● Uranium price. As a pre-revenue explorer, sentiment and funding access are tightly tied to the uranium price, which is volatile and impossible to predict. ● Swedish regulatory risk. The moratorium was lifted only in November 2025; the permitting framework for uranium is nascent and politically reversible. ● Canada is an option. The Athabasca projects are held under a conditional option to acquire 80% — not outright ownership — until conditions are met. ● Dilution and options. ~19m options (including 13m director options) sit over a ~160–175m share base; further raisings are likely for a capital-hungry, two-country drilling program. ● Two jurisdictions at once. Running exploration across Sweden and Canada simultaneously stretches a junior’s management and capital. ● Related board. Much of the team comes from the same company (Cobre Ltd). Samso Concluding Comments Neu Horizon is an interesting IPO in that the Uranium sector for small-caps have had a flirtatious time with investors on the IPO. The uranium narrative has been more of a miss than a hit recently as the promise of a hot market has largely been ignored and in some ways forgotten. The seasoned investors who have been following the uranium story will attest that although the uranium news should be hot, it is very lukewarm. New Horizon does have the right theme of being in a good jurisdiction, with a team that knows how to list and fund explorers, but is 2026 the right timing? The key consideration is the Swedish timing - a 110,000-hectare permit position in a country that has just reopened to uranium after seven years is a genuine point of difference, and the Athabasca optionality adds blue-sky in the world’s best basin. At an enterprise value of around $20m, the market is paying for ground, theme and team rather than ounces. Samso’s job is to keep the market noise balanced so while this pre-discovery explorer do have the prospective permits with encouraging uranium anomalies are, nothing has been defined, and appropriately, the prospectus do says so in plain terms. The Swedish catalyst is real but young, and a newly-lifted ban is not the same as an established, predictable permitting regime. The Canadian ground is an option, not yet an asset. And the path from here runs through more capital and a lot of drilling. Hence, for investors who understand the uranium cycle and the nature of early-stage exploration, Neu Horizon offers leverage to a strong theme at the riskiest, earliest point of the curve. The things to watch are concrete: the first drilling programs in Sweden, progress on satisfying the Athabasca option conditions, the uranium price, and how quickly the Swedish permitting framework firms up now the moratorium is gone. Right theme, right addresses, right moment and all the work still ahead. Cover photo: Pitchblende371, Geomartin (talk). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pitchblende371.JPG) The Samso Way – Seek the Research Here at Samso, we pride ourselves on delivering content for investors that is independent and informed by over three decades of experience in the industry. Our content is well-researched and is only created if I see merit in discussing the company's story. Our mission is simple: cut through the noise and spotlight what matters—genuine stories, grounded insights, and real opportunity. Our content is well-researched and is only created if the team sees merit in discussing the company or concept. Investors can explore our three core platforms: Coffee with Samso Samso Insights Samso News There may be numerous paths to success in investing, but the common thread among successful individuals is that they remain committed to making informed decisions. Equip yourself with the right knowledge and tools, and you will be well on your way to achieving your financial goals. Most importantly, investors need to be absolutely diligent in understanding their own risk-reward tolerance and capabilities. Never bite off more than you can chew. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the Great Wall stood because it took centuries to complete. The Samso Philosophy: Stay curious. Stay sharp. And remember—digging deeper always uncovers the real value. In Life, there is no such thing as a Free Lunch. Never bite off more than you can chew is my parting comment. Happy Investing, and the only four-letter word you need to know is DYOR. To support our independent nature of our work, please head over to our Support Page and give us a helping hand in any of the ways listed. This is a new initiative for the Samso Platform, and it was always the concept of Samso when we started this journey in 2018. Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer, or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase, or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. Share to Grow: Your Bonus Samso has just released an eBook: How to Add Value to your Share Portfolio |A lesson on geological models sought by mining companies that gives insight and an understanding of which portfolios are better - and potentially more lucrative – investments. Click here to download this eBook.| Download eBook If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information. I try to write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value. It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation sees the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and has a need to share your journey, please contact me at noel.ong@samso.com.au. About Samso Samso is a trusted platform that equips dedicated investors with up-to-date industry knowledge and insigh0ts from top CEOs and thought leaders. By staying informed on business advancements and market trends, investors can enhance their financial decisions through a combination of expert guidance and their own research. Samso News | www.samso.com.au | An Investor Lens on ASX-Listed Companies

Samso News | Perth, Western Australia | Reference: CSIRO, International Symposium on Mafic-Ultramafic Mineral Systems 2026 The world's best minds in magmatic ore deposits just spent a week in Perth. Most ASX investors never heard about it and yet their portfolios are built on the science discussed in that room. ISMUMS2026 covered the mineral systems behind Ni, Cu, Co, PGEs, V, Ti and Cr: the metals of the energy transition, and the bread and butter of the ASX junior sector. Samso's job is to carry that knowledge across the gap as research, not promotion, for investors who want to understand the story beneath the announcements. Samso News Research Note Depth Not Hype Understanding Samso Introduction This week in Perth, some of the world's leading minds in magmatic ore deposits gathered at the International Symposium on Mafic-Ultramafic Mineral Systems 2026 (ISMUMS2026), hosted by CSIRO from 29 June to 3 July. Most ASX investors have never heard of it. That gap between where the science lives and where the investment decisions are made is precisely the space in which I feel is lacking in the market. ISMUMS2026 is the latest in a series of conferences that stretches back more than 50 years. Thirty meetings have been held across Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, China, Finland, Zimbabwe and South Africa, historically alternating between the International Ni-Cu Symposia and the International Platinum Symposia. Over the decades the two themes have converged, and the 2026 meeting in Perth encompassed all mineral systems associated with mafic and ultramafic rocks, with a prime emphasis on the platinum group elements. Three days of talks were interwoven with two days of field trips, alongside the Wager and Brown Layered Intrusion Workshop. The commodities at the centre of the program read like a strategic shopping list for the energy transition: nickel, copper, cobalt, PGEs, vanadium, titanium and chromium. These are the metals governments are scrambling to secure, and the metals a large slice of the ASX junior sector is out there trying to find. The Science Is the Playbook Here is the thing most investors miss, and that is the science discussed at conferences like ISMUMS is not academic wallpaper. It is the playbook for where the next generation of discoveries will come from. It is also the critical asset in the playbook for making the right investments in a sector that is renown for being compared to a casino. The models of how magmatic sulfide systems form, where PGEs concentrate in layered intrusions, why some komatiite belts deliver Kambalda-style nickel and others deliver nothing, this is the knowledge that separates a well-targeted drill program from an expensive lottery ticket. Every exploration model an ASX junior presents to the market is, whether stated or not, a hypothesis built on this body of science. The quality of that hypothesis determines the quality of the drill targets, and the quality of the drill targets determines what shareholders' money is actually buying. There will be investors that say that they don't need to know the detail, they just want to know who is going to run the share price upwards. This is not untrue and this is also one way of making money, however, for honest investors, the investors or the participants of the casino that actually share the occurrences of a losing bet, the sure bets that is commonly shared in the market space, rarely gets it right. The researchers speak in mineral systems, sulfur saturation and chalcophile element behaviour. The market speaks in announcements, intercepts and share prices. Between the two sits the retail investor. And that is the translation problem. The people who understand how these deposits form rarely write for investors. The people who write for investors rarely sit in the room when the science is presented. Between the two sits the retail shareholder, trying to work out whether the company they hold actually understands the geology it is drilling. Where Samso Fits - Independent Research That translation gap is where Samso (www.samso.com.au) does its work. Samso is an independent research media house producing depth-led video and written content on ASX-listed companies. The philosophy is simple and, frankly, unfashionable: we do not promote, we research. We do not simplify for effect, we explain for understanding. When Samso sits down for a Coffee with Samso conversation with a managing director, or publishes an Insight on a nickel, PGE or critical minerals explorer, the aim is to ask the questions a geologist would ask. The main reason why Samso is a good read is because the analysis comes from someone who has logged core, walked the ground and sat on the company side of the table. What is the mineral system? What does the geochemistry actually say? Is the exploration model consistent with what the science community — the ISMUMS community — understands about how these deposits form? Those are not gotcha questions. They are the questions any institution with an in-house geologist asks before committing capital. Samso's role is to ask them in public, on the record, in language an investor can use — and to let readers draw their own conclusions from the answers. Three Reasons This Matters 1. The ASX is where these bets are placed. The ASX hosts the world's deepest pool of junior explorers hunting exactly the commodities ISMUMS2026 was built around. If you invest in this end of the market, you are, whether you realise it or not, making bets on mafic-ultramafic mineral systems. Knowing how those systems work is not optional context; it is the substance of the investment case. 2. Information asymmetry is the retail investor's biggest handicap. Institutions have in-house geologists who can interrogate an exploration model before a dollar is committed. Most retail investors have a two-page announcement and a social media feed. Independent, depth-led research does not eliminate that gap, but it narrows it — and narrowing it changes the quality of the decisions that follow. 3. Credibility compounds. Samso's value to the companies it covers comes from the trust it builds with readers — not the other way around. That is the model of an editorial charter, not a promotion mill. Content built to inform holds its value long after content built to excite has been forgotten, and an audience that trusts the analysis is worth more to everyone — company, investor and publisher — than an audience that has merely been reached. Samso Concluding Comments The green revolution will be built on the metals discussed in Perth this week. The companies that find them will mostly be listed on the ASX. And the investors who do best will be the ones who understand the story beneath the announcements — the mineral system, the geochemistry, the exploration logic — not just the headline intercept. To put in simply, investors should know to a degree that the "story" has some chance of being correct. That is the research Samso produces: independent, geology-literate, and written for the investor who wants to build a case rather than chase a narrative. Events like ISMUMS2026 are a reminder that the knowledge exists. The job of a research media house is to carry it across the gap. If you invest in ASX resources, www.samso.com.au is where that translation happens. Disclaimer: This article is a perspective piece produced by Samso for general information purposes only. It does not constitute financial product advice and has been prepared without taking into account the objectives, financial situation or needs of any individual. References to ISMUMS2026 are drawn from publicly available conference information published by CSIRO. Readers should conduct their own research and seek independent professional advice before making any investment decision. Samso may receive fees from companies it covers; its editorial content is prepared independently of any such arrangements. Cover photo: Army scientist finds research illuminating (27290265015), U.S. Army RDECOM from Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, USA. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Army_scientist_finds_research_illuminating_(27290265015).jpg) The Samso Way – Seek the Research Here at Samso, we pride ourselves on delivering content for investors that is independent and informed by over three decades of experience in the industry. Our content is well-researched and is only created if I see merit in discussing the company's story. Our mission is simple: cut through the noise and spotlight what matters—genuine stories, grounded insights, and real opportunity. Our content is well-researched and is only created if the team sees merit in discussing the company or concept. Investors can explore our three core platforms: Coffee with Samso Samso Insights Samso News There may be numerous paths to success in investing, but the common thread among successful individuals is that they remain committed to making informed decisions. Equip yourself with the right knowledge and tools, and you will be well on your way to achieving your financial goals. Most importantly, investors need to be absolutely diligent in understanding their own risk-reward tolerance and capabilities. Never bite off more than you can chew. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the Great Wall stood because it took centuries to complete. The Samso Philosophy: Stay curious. Stay sharp. And remember—digging deeper always uncovers the real value. In Life, there is no such thing as a Free Lunch. Never bite off more than you can chew is my parting comment. Happy Investing, and the only four-letter word you need to know is DYOR. To support our independent nature of our work, please head over to our Support Page and give us a helping hand in any of the ways listed. This is a new initiate for the Samso Platform, and it was always the concept of Samso when we started this journey in 2018. Disclaimer The information or opinions provided herein do not constitute investment advice, an offer, or solicitation to subscribe for, purchase, or sell the investment product(s) mentioned herein. It does not take into consideration, nor have any regard to your specific investment objectives, financial situation, risk profile, tax position and particular, or unique needs and constraints. Read full Disclaimer. If you find this article informative and useful, please help me share the information. I try to write about topics that are interesting and have the potential to be of investment value. It is not easy to find stories that fit those parameters. If you or your organisation sees the benefit of what Samso is trying to achieve and has a need to share your journey, please contact me at noel.ong@samso.com.au. About Samso Samso is a trusted platform that equips dedicated investors with up-to-date industry knowledge and insigh0ts from top CEOs and thought leaders. By staying informed on business advancements and market trends, investors can enhance their financial decisions through a combination of expert guidance and their own research. Samso Insights | www.samso.com.au | An Investor Lens on ASX-Listed Companies

On 8 July 2026, Rio Tinto told Sovereign Metals it will not exercise its option to become operator of the Kasiya rutile-graphite project in Malawi, handing back full control of one of the largest critical-minerals discoveries of the decade. Read one way, that looks like a vote of no confidence from the world's second-largest miner. Read against Rio's own books, it looks like something narrower: a portfolio simplification that had already put Rio's own titanium business up for sale months earlier. This note works through what actually changed on 8 July, what the titanium and graphite markets look like right now, and what Rio's decision and what it kept actually tells us. Samso Insights Research Titanium & Graphite Samso Portfolio Strategy WHAT THIS PIECE COVERS 1.00 / THE ANNOUNCEMENT Rio hands back the keys and keeps the equity. 2.00 / READING RIO'S OWN BOOKS FIRST Three businesses, not five, and what that reframes. 3.00 / THE TITANIUM MARKET Two stories sitting inside one commodity. 4.00 / THE GRAPHITE MARKET A market China still owns, for now. 5.00 KASIYA ON ITS OWN NUMBERS The DFS that Rio's own technical committee helped build. 6.00 READING THE SIGNAL A portfolio decision wearing a commodity-market costume. 7.00 / CLOSING THE LOOP The chapter that closed, and the one that opens. 1.00 / THE ANNOUNCEMENT Rio hands back the keys, keeps the equity Start with what the announcement actually says, because the framing in the first wave of headlines ("Rio Tinto hands Sovereign full control") undersells how narrow the change really is. Under the 2023 Investment Agreement between the two companies, Rio Tinto held an option to become operator of Kasiya once Sovereign completed a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) which it did on 16 April 2026. Rio had a window (90 days from the DFS, extendable to 180) to exercise that option. On 8 July, with roughly a week left on the initial clock, Rio told Sovereign it would not exercise it. That single decision triggers three separate lapses. Rio's option to operate the mine lapses. Rio's exclusive right to market more than 40% of Kasiya's annual production lapses. And Rio's pre-emption and consent rights over any third-party offer for the project lapse. Sovereign becomes sole operator, sole marketer and sole financier of its own project and keeps the roughly US$60 million Rio has already invested, non-repayable. What does not change is that Rio remains Sovereign's largest shareholder at approximately 18.2%, and retains the right to nominate a director for as long as it holds at least 15%. Figure 1: What actually lapsed on 8 July 2026 versus what Rio Tinto kept. Only the rights tied to operating and marketing the project lapsed; the economic exposure did not. Sources: Mining.com (8 Jul 2026); Mining.com.au (8 Jul 2026); Yahoo Finance/ADVFN (8 Jul 2026); Proactive Investors (8 Jul 2026). Figure 2: Three years of technical collaboration preceded the decision — the DFS itself was built with input from the joint Sovereign–Rio Tinto Technical Committee. Sources: Mining.com.au (8 Jul 2026); Investegate DFS announcement (16 Apr 2026); Mining Weekly (17 Apr 2026). Sovereign's own framing, echoed by its Chairman, Ben Stoikovich, is that this does not reflect a change in Kasiya's fundamentals, and that Rio remains a supportive shareholder going forward. The critics will say that is what Sovereign would say as it tackles what appears to be a prickly time. However, there may be some truth as Rio is not selling down, and it is not walking away from the technical work its own committee did on the DFS. The upside for Sovereign is that while Rio may be divesting the operational risk and responsibilities, Sovereign may potentially see more upside when the project delivers. However investors may want to perceive this news, the herd mentality will definitely be more on the downside of the news. Section 6 works through why that distinction matters more than the headline suggests. 2.00 / READING RIO'S OWN BOOKS FIRST Three businesses, not five The most important sentence to come out of the situation is the statement - Rio's decision reflects "a broader shift in corporate strategy and the strategic review of its iron and titanium business." That second clause is the story, and it predates the Kasiya decision by the better part of a year. In August 2025, incoming CEO Simon Trott put Rio's Richards Bay Minerals (South Africa), its Quebec iron-and-titanium smelting business, and its US borates mine under formal strategic review. By late 2025, Rio had reorganised around what it now calls three "world-class businesses": Iron Ore, Copper, and Aluminium & Lithium, with Iron & Titanium and Borates explicitly carved out as units where Rio is "testing the market" for commercial, partnership or ownership options. The consequence shows up in Rio's own numbers: in its Q1 2026 operations review, Rio stated it will no longer provide production guidance for Iron & Titanium, or Borates, while the review is underway — and Yahoo Finance's own company profile of Rio Tinto now lists only three operating segments (Iron Ore; Aluminium and Lithium; Copper). Titanium has, in Rio's own reporting architecture, already been written out of the core business (Figure 3). Figure 3: Rio's own titanium business not Kasiya is the one being tested for sale, partnership or restructuring. Furnace utilisation reflects Rio's Q1 2026 operations review. Sources: Rio Tinto, "Stronger, sharper and simpler Rio Tinto to deliver leading returns" (riotinto.com, 2025); Rio Tinto Q1 2026 operations review (SEC 6-K, 21 Apr 2026); Rio Tinto FY2025 results (Jan 2026). There is a further, more direct data point on Rio's own view of the bulk titanium business it already owns. Reporting on the March 2026 approval of the Zulti South expansion at Richards Bay Minerals, South African outlet Miningmx reported that Trott regards RBM as "low-hanging fruit" for disposal, citing weak titanium mineral pricing and disappointing recent returns as the context for the review. Samso has not seen Rio confirm in its own words, and which should be read as reported commentary rather than a company statement. Rio has already begun acting on the broader review in smaller ways: in March 2026 it transferred a Quebec titanium exploration project (Garneau) to junior explorer SAGA Metals under a royalty structure, ending a lithium joint venture with SAGA in the same transaction, a template (retain a royalty, hand over operations and capital risk) that rhymes with what just happened at Kasiya, on a much larger scale. Reading the pair together "Titanium" in a headline can mean two very different products, and the gap between them is the whole story here. Rio's own titanium business — Richards Bay Minerals in South Africa and the Quebec smelters — mines and processes ilmenite, a lower-grade titanium ore (roughly 45–65% TiO2) that has to be smelted into TiO2 slag before it's useful to anyone. That slag feeds the "sulphate route" -the older, cheaper way of making titanium dioxide pigment for paint, plastics and paper, and the segment most exposed to Chinese pricing and Chinese overcapacity. It is a bulk, largely undifferentiated commodity, and it is the product most plausibly behind the "low-hanging fruit" and weak-pricing language reported around Rio's internal review. Kasiya's rutile is a different tier of product entirely. Natural rutile comes out of the ground at 95%+ TiO2, which means it needs no smelting and can feed the newer, cleaner "chloride route" pigment plants directly — and, more importantly, it is pure enough to go into titanium metal sponge, the precursor for aerospace- and defence-grade titanium alloys. That is a smaller, tighter, higher-priced market with a mostly different set of buyers. Kasiya's graphite sits in yet another market again — battery and industrial demand, covered in Section 4 — with no real connection to Rio's titanium book at all. So when a headline says "Rio walks from titanium," it is really describing a decision about the bulk, low-margin half of that world. Reading it as commentary on the high-purity, aerospace-grade half which is what Kasiya actually produces is a bit like reading a company's exit from a cheap, oversupplied wine business as a verdict on the world's finest vineyards. Same crop, genuinely different product. 3.00 / THE TITANIUM MARKET Two stories inside one commodity "The titanium market" is not one market. It splits into a bulk, cyclical, largely China-priced feedstock business, sulphate ilmenite and TiO2 slag, the inputs to most of the world's pigment industry and a much smaller, higher-purity, structurally tighter natural-rutile business that feeds chloride-route pigment plants and, critically, aerospace-grade titanium metal. Rio's own operating asset (Richards Bay, Quebec) sits almost entirely in the first category. Kasiya sits almost entirely in the second. The bulk side has been genuinely weak. Ilmenite prices in Mozambique fell around 7.4% in Q1 2026 versus Q4 2025, and Chinese ilmenite prices fell a further ~3.0% in December 2025 alone, as oversupply and soft downstream demand from construction and coatings weighed on the market. China's TiO2 pigment capacity utilisation sat at only 77–78% in 2025, with capacity itself edging down from 5.9 to 5.7 million tonnes, and smaller Chinese producers closing plants on losses even as fourteen major producers pushed through roughly US$100/tonne price increases late in the year on rising sulfuric-acid costs. This is a market defined by overcapacity, not scarcity — and it is the market Rio's existing titanium business is most exposed to. Figure 4: Rio's existing titanium business sits in the oversupplied bulk-feedstock market; Kasiya's product sits in the smaller, tighter, high-purity segment. The ~500kt→~250kt supply projection is drawn from a single industry-analysis source and should be treated as an estimate, not a consensus figure. Sources: price-watch.ai Ilmenite Price Trends (2026); Hushen Titanium (2026); Crux Investor, "China's Output Cuts Tighten Rutile Supply" (Aug 2025); ProcurementResource Titanium Price Trend (2026). The natural-rutile side reads very differently. Supply is genuinely concentrated and genuinely fragile: Sierra Leone's Sierra Rutile has faced recurring flooding, Mozambique's Kenmare Moma operation has faced periodic security disruptions, and one industry analysis (Crux Investor, citing supply data it does not fully attribute) estimates global natural rutile supply at roughly 500,000 tonnes, projected to contract toward 250,000 tonnes within five years absent new production. We flag that figure as a single-source estimate worth independent verification rather than an agreed number but directionally it is consistent with the discontinuation of established rutile pricing benchmarks that the same source describes, which has pushed buyers toward opaque "basket pricing" built from ilmenite, synthetic rutile and TiO2 slag prices. On the demand side, titanium metal pricing showed a genuinely split picture in Q1 2026 — feedstock pressured by high inventories, but steady recovery in aerospace and defence demand even as civilian demand stayed limited to restocking. Aerospace-grade titanium cannot readily substitute feedstocks, which is exactly the kind of inelastic, high-purity demand Kasiya is built to serve. Where the bear case actually lives If there is a genuine demand-side worry in "the titanium market" right now, it sits in bulk ilmenite and TiO2 slag — the market Rio's own Richards Bay and Quebec operations are exposed to, and the one plausibly behind the "disappointing returns" language reported around Rio's internal review. It does not obviously sit in high-purity natural rutile, where the supply story is closer to a deficit than a glut. That distinction is easy to lose in a headline that just says "titanium." 4.00 / THE GRAPHITE MARKET A market China still owns - for now Graphite tells a related but distinct story: extreme geopolitical concentration layered on top of a genuinely oversupplied spot market. China accounts for roughly 65–75% of natural graphite mining and, more importantly, close to 90% of spherical-graphite and anode-manufacturing capacity — the processing step, not the mining step, that actually gates Western battery supply chains. Flake graphite prices fell sharply through 2023–2025 on oversupply and weaker-than-expected EV growth, reaching multi-year lows by late 2025, and a late-2025 US–China trade agreement has since stabilised — but not resolved — the picture. Figure 5: China's share widens at each downstream processing step. Mining diversification (Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania — and Kasiya) does little to fix Western supply security unless matched by processing capacity. Sources: Benchmark Minerals, "Natural graphite Supply Chain & Market Prices" (2026); Metals-Hub, "Graphite Supply Chain in 2026" (2026); IEA (cited via Metals-Hub, 2026). The policy backdrop moved twice in the past year. China tightened graphite export licensing in 2023–2024 (on 9 November 2025), where China's Ministry of Commerce suspended the stricter end-user verification requirements for shipments to the US until 27 November 2026, easing near-term trade friction while leaving the underlying leverage and the expiry date firmly in place. On the US side, the Defense Logistics Agency issued a request for information in May 2025 for a strategic stockpile of 48,000 tonnes of flake graphite over six years, and Traxys, Sovereign's own graphite offtake counterparty for Kasiya was named as one of three commodity traders selected for Project Vault. Project Vault is the US government's US$12 billion Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve programme. Other participants include General Motors, Boeing and Alphabet. Demand itself keeps growing regardless of the policy noise: Wood Mackenzie projects EV-driven graphite demand up 18% year-on-year in 2026, adding roughly 250 GWh of consumption, with battery energy storage systems now a second, independent demand engine. Why Kasiya's graphite is a different animal Kasiya is not primarily a graphite play competing on flake-price economics with the oversupplied Chinese spot market — it is a co-product of rutile mining, which the DFS models at an incremental cost of around US$216/tonne, well below China's reported average cost of roughly US$257/tonne. A project that produces its lowest-cost tonnes as a by-product of a structurally tighter commodity (rutile) is far less exposed to a weak flake-graphite price cycle than a stand-alone graphite miner would be. 5.00 — KASIYA ON ITS OWN NUMBERS The DFS Rio's own technical committee helped build Strip away the corporate-strategy story and Kasiya's economics are valid as they were finalised with Rio's technical input, not despite it. The Definitive Feasibility Study, completed 16 April 2026, models Kasiya as the world's largest single-operation producer of both natural rutile and natural flake graphite, mined by dragline through soft, free-dig material that needs no drilling, blasting, crushing or grinding with an unusually low-complexity orebody for a project of this scale. Figure 6: Kasiya DFS headline economics. Even with rutile and graphite prices simultaneously 25% below DFS assumptions, the study still returns a positive NPV of US$913 million and 15.2% IRR — the sensitivity case Sovereign highlights as evidence of resilience. Sources: Sovereign Metals DFS RNS via Investegate (16 Apr 2026); Crux Investor DFS summary (16 Apr 2026); Mining Weekly (17 Apr 2026); Sovereign Metals March 2026 Quarterly Report. Two details are worth flagging for accuracy rather than headline value. First, the DFS's pre-tax NPV of US$2.2 billion and 23% IRR are lower than the January 2025 Optimised Pre-Feasibility Study's US$2.3 billion and 27%. According to Mining Weekly, the decline that is mostly attributed to rising costs between studies, not to any change in the resource or the commodity outlook. Second, the DFS's headline economics exclude a potential third revenue stream from monazite, a heavy-rare-earth-bearing by-product (dysprosium, terbium, yttrium) that Sovereign is still evaluating. One analyst estimate (Project Blue Group, cited by Discovery Alert) puts a fully developed monazite stream at roughly US$60 million/year of additional EBITDA, a figure we flag explicitly as a third-party forecast outside the DFS base case, not a disclosed company number, and one investors should treat as upside optionality rather than confirmed economics. Samso take — the project, on its own merits Nothing in Rio's decision touches the numbers in Figure 6. The DFS was built with Rio's own technical committee, Sovereign says the decision doesn't change the project's fundamentals, and the sensitivity case (both commodity prices down 25% simultaneously) still clears a positive NPV. If anything, Kasiya's economics are the strongest argument that this is a portfolio story about Rio, not a verdict on the asset. 6.00 — READING THE SIGNAL A portfolio decision wearing a commodity-market costume Lets ask the question: does Rio's decision tell us the rutile-graphite market is turning, and does it tell us what Rio thinks of titanium and graphite? On the evidence assembled above, the answer to both is narrower than the headline implies. On the market question: no, not really. The bulk-titanium market Rio's own Richards Bay and Quebec assets serve genuinely is soft — that part of the "titanium is weak" narrative is real, and it is plausibly the actual driver of the "low-hanging fruit" characterisation reported around Rio's internal review. But Kasiya doesn't sell into that market. Its rutile is a high-purity, aerospace/defence-grade product in a segment several analysts describe as structurally tightening, not loosening, and its graphite is a low-cost co-product rather than a stand-alone bet on the oversupplied Chinese flake market. A single data point, one company declining one operatorship option is thin evidence for a market-wide call in any case; multiplying it against the actual supply and demand data in Sections 3 and 4 gives no support for reading it as a bearish signal on rutile or graphite specifically. On the "what does Rio think" question: the more informative fact is not what Rio declined, but what it kept. An outright bearish view of Kasiya's product mix would be reflected in Rio trimming its stake, not holding it at 18.2% with a board seat attached. Rio's own scale makes the asymmetry obvious which is Kasiya's entire pre-tax NPV of US$2.2 billion is worth roughly 1.5% of Rio Tinto's own market capitalisation, which sat at approximately US$150 billion (A$223–256 billion across its dual listings) in early July 2026. For a company that size, running a Malawian rutile-graphite mine as an operator with the balance-sheet, management-bandwidth and country-risk commitments that implies is a rounding error in strategic value and a real draw on the "simpler" half of "stronger, sharper, simpler." Staying a large, informed shareholder captures most of the economic upside with almost none of the operational overhead. That is a capital-allocation decision about Rio's own bandwidth, not a probability-weighted judgment on Kasiya's mineralogy. The counter-argument, stated fairly The more sceptical read is that Rio has technical staff who worked the DFS in detail and chose not to operate it anyway and that "portfolio simplification" is exactly the kind of explanation a major would offer regardless of its true view. Rio has not published a competing valuation of Kasiya, and there is no way to fully separate "we don't want another titanium asset" from "we don't want this titanium asset." The 18.2% retained stake is consistent with either story; it is not proof of either one. Readers should weigh that ambiguity rather than take Sovereign's framing — or ours — as the last word. 7.00 / CLOSING THE LOOP The chapter that closed, and the one that opens Sovereign's own next moves are the more useful thing to track from here than any further parsing of Rio's motives. The company intends to convert its non-binding rutile MOU with Mitsui & Co. (up to 70,000 t/yr) and its graphite MOU with Traxys (up to 80,000 t/yr) into binding offtake agreements, while continuing to work with the International Finance Corporation, whose largest shareholder is the US government on a development-financing package. Traxys's selection for Project Vault and the project's positioning against two separate US-and-EU-designated critical minerals (titanium feedstock and natural graphite, plus a possible heavy-rare-earth third stream) give Kasiya a genuinely distinctive pitch into Washington, independent of whatever Rio decided about operatorship. What to watch over the next 12 months Four things would meaningfully update this view: (1) whether the Mitsui and Traxys MOUs convert to binding volumes and pricing; (2) whether IFC-led project financing actually lands, and on what terms; (3) whether Rio's 18.2% stake moves — a reduction below 15% (losing the board seat) or below 10% would be the clearer bearish tell this announcement itself is not; and (4) the outcome of Rio's own Iron & Titanium and Borates strategic reviews, since a sale or restructuring there would confirm the portfolio-simplification reading rather than a titanium-demand reading of the Kasiya decision. The honest summary is that 8 July 2026 closed one chapter of Kasiya's history — Rio Tinto as prospective operator — without closing the project's central investment case, which rests on a DFS Rio's own engineers helped write, a product mix aimed at two separate critical-mineral supply gaps, and a shareholder base that still includes one of the world's largest miners. Whether that case converts into binding contracts and financing over the next year is now entirely Sovereign's to prove. References & sources This note draws on primary company/regulatory sources for the Kasiya announcement and DFS, on Rio Tinto's own public disclosures for its portfolio strategy, and on industry market-research and trade-press coverage for the titanium and graphite market context. Figures drawn from single-source market research (flagged in the text) should be independently verified before being relied upon for investment decisions. Primary Mining.com, "Rio Tinto hands Sovereign full control of Malawi graphite project" (8 Jul 2026): strategic review of iron and titanium business; US$60m investment retained; lapsed marketing/consent/pre-emption rights; 18.2% stake and director nomination right. Mining.com.au, "Sovereign pivots to US strategy after Rio declines operatorship" (France Pinzon, 8 Jul 2026): 2023 Investment Agreement date; DFS unaffected; Mitsui & Traxys MOU progression; IFC engagement; Pilot Mining and Rehabilitation programme. Yahoo Finance / ADVFN UK, "Sovereign Metals Takes Full Control of Kasiya as Rio Tinto Withdraws from Operatorship" (Fiona Craig, 8 Jul 2026). Proactive Investors, "Sovereign Metals plans US strategic minerals pivot for Kasiya project as Rio Tinto passes on project option" (8 Jul 2026): "strategic review of its iron and titanium business" framing; Project Vault/Traxys context. Stocks Down Under, "Sovereign Metals (ASX:SVM) loses Rio Tinto and pivots hard into the US" (8–9 Jul 2026): analyst read on the 18.2% retained stake as a portfolio-strategy signal rather than an economics verdict. TipRanks, "Sovereign Metals Gains Full Control of Kasiya as Rio Tinto Steps Back and U.S. Focus Grows" (8 Jul 2026). Rio Tinto, "Stronger, sharper and simpler Rio Tinto to deliver leading returns" (riotinto.com media release, 2025): three world-class businesses framing (Iron Ore, Copper, Aluminium & Lithium); Iron & Titanium and Borates strategic reviews "testing the market." Rio Tinto Q1 2026 operations review (SEC Form 6-K, 21 Apr 2026, via StockTitan): no 2026 production guidance for Iron & Titanium or Borates; Quebec 6-of-9 furnace operation; Richards Bay Minerals 3-of-4 furnace operation; TiO2 slag production data. Rio Tinto FY2025 results and 2026 guidance (SEC 6-K, Jan 2026, via StockTitan). Yahoo Finance, Rio Tinto Group (RIO) company profile: current three-segment operating structure (Iron Ore; Aluminium and Lithium; Copper); market capitalisation ~US$141.7bn (8 Jul 2026, intraday). Business Day (South Africa), "Rio Tinto closes book on years of unrest with nod for Richards Bay Minerals" (3 Mar 2026): confirms RBM, Quebec Iron & Titanium and US borates all under restructuring review; Zulti South expansion approval. Miningmx, "Rio Tinto exits diamonds after half a century" (26 Mar 2026): reported characterisation of RBM as "low-hanging fruit" amid weak titanium mineral pricing and disappointing returns (reported commentary, not a direct Rio Tinto statement); Zulti South project detail. Discovery Alert, "SAGA Acquires Strategic Rio Tinto Titanium Project in Quebec" (26 Mar 2026): Garneau project transfer to SAGA Metals under royalty structure; lithium JV termination. NAI 500, "Rio Tinto's shake-up puts industrial minerals on notice" (28 Aug 2025): background on the origins of the RBM/Quebec/Borates strategic review. Sovereign Metals, Kasiya Definitive Feasibility Study Results, RNS via Investegate (16 Apr 2026): NPV, IRR, capex, EBITDA, revenue, sensitivity analysis, royalty structure, rutile/graphite production targets. Crux Investor, "Sovereign Metals Kasiya DFS Confirms 25-Year, Low-Cost Operation Positioned to Redefine Global Titanium & Graphite Supply Chains" (16 Apr 2026): IRR, life-of-mine capex, sustaining capex, payback period, incremental graphite cost. Mining Weekly, "DFS confirms Sovereign, Rio Tinto's Kasiya project can be world's largest rutile, graphite producer" (17 Apr 2026): comparison of DFS to Optimised PFS economics; monazite excluded from DFS base case. Discovery Alert, "Sovereign Metals' Kasiya Project Simplicity and Competitive Advantage" (Jun 2026): monazite ~US$60m/yr potential EBITDA (Project Blue Group estimate, not in DFS base case); graphite cost vs. China average comparison. Discovery Alert, "Sovereign Metals Kasiya DFS: NPV & Key Findings" (May 2026): dragline dry-mining method; staged 12+12 Mtpa plant design; PFS-to-DFS engineering changes. Rare-earth-mining.com, "Sovereign Metals: Kasiya Project & Key 2026 Guide" (May 2026): Nacala Corridor logistics; Japan's US$7bn corridor investment; Project Vault and Traxys selection (US$12bn US Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve, alongside GM, Boeing, Alphabet); Mitsui and Traxys MOU volumes. Sovereign Metals, March 2026 Quarterly Report, via Investegate: confirms DFS metrics and post-DFS workstreams. DataIntelo, "Titanium Feedstock Market Research Report 2034": global titanium feedstock market ~US$3.8bn (2025) to ~US$6.2bn (2034); Australia's ilmenite/rutile export share; Richards Bay Minerals ilmenite production >750,000 t/yr. Straits Research, "Rutile Market Size, Share, Growth" (2026): global rutile market ~US$5.98bn (2025) to ~US$9.43bn (2034), 5.2% CAGR. Hushen Titanium, "What Directs the Price of Rutile Titanium Dioxide?" (2026): China TiO2 capacity and utilisation data; late-2025 price increases; ilmenite/sulfuric-acid cost pass-through. Price-Watch.ai, "Ilmenite Price Trends" (2026): Mozambique and China ilmenite price declines, Q4 2025–Q1 2026. Crux Investor, "China's Output Cuts Tighten Rutile Supply & Adds Pressure to TiO2 Prices" (Aug 2025): discontinuation of rutile pricing benchmarks and shift to basket pricing; global rutile supply estimate (~500,000 t, projected toward ~250,000 t within five years) — single-source estimate, flagged for independent verification; Sierra Rutile and Kenmare Moma supply disruptions. ProcurementResource, "Titanium Price Trend 2026": Q1 2026 aerospace/defence demand recovery versus weak civilian demand; feedstock inventory pressure. Investing News Network, "Graphite Market Forecast: Top Trends for Graphite in 2026" (19 Jan 2026): 2025 oversupply and multi-year price lows; late-2025 US–China trade agreement; natural graphite output growth 2020–2024; China's projected ~80% share of battery-grade graphite through 2035. Crux Investor, "China's Temporary Easing of Graphite Export Controls & the Shifting Global Supply Outlook for Battery Materials" (25 Nov 2025): MOFCOM Announcement No. 72 (9 Nov 2025); suspension of enhanced US export controls through 27 Nov 2026; China's ~75% natural graphite mining share. AZoMining, "Graphite Mining: What are the Key Trends and Challenges in 2026?" (30 Apr 2026, citing Wood Mackenzie): 18% YoY EV graphite demand growth in 2026; US Defense Logistics Agency 48,000-tonne flake graphite stockpile RFI (May 2025); silicon-carbon composite anode growth. Benchmark Minerals, "What is Natural graphite Supply Chain & Market Prices" (2026): China's mining and spherical-graphite processing shares; natural flake graphite demand growth to 2036; flake price history. Metals-Hub, "Graphite Supply Chain in 2026: Risks and Opportunities" (6 May 2026): China's anode-manufacturing and graphitisation-capacity shares; IEA battery-grade graphite supply projections; Syrah Resources/Tesla qualification timeline. CompaniesMarketCap.com and Investing.com (AU/UK), Rio Tinto market capitalisation data (early–mid Jul 2026): A$223–256bn / ~US$142–152bn across dual ASX/LSE/NYSE listings. Investing.com (UK), Sovereign Metals (ASX:SVM) share price data (8 Jul 2026): ~A$0.58, 52-week range A$0.47–0.94. Note: available data on the announcement-day price move was inconsistent across sources at the time of writing and is not quoted here as a precise reaction figure. Cover photo: Rutile (20241027), Fumikas Sagisavas. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rutile_(20241027).jpg). Reproduced photograph, shown faded under a navy overlay on the article thumbnail. 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A handful of the world's giant copper mines also carry platinum and palladium. They are rarely worth mining on their own — but the story of how they got there is one of the clearest windows we have into how a copper-gold deposit is made. This is that story, told for the curious rather than the credentialled. This Samso Insight is inspired by the International Symposium on Mafic-Ultramafic Mineral Systems. This is pretty much the culmination of Day 1 where the talks were focused on Magmatic Processes. For the general public, an academic conference such as this would put you to sleep. However, I find these talks are the ground work that allow me to gain a greater understanding of the facts and the processess that are used to drive the stories in the business part of the sector. The relevant talk that made me think on a commercial sense was by Jung-Woo Park on "Mechanism and conditions for PGE enrichment in porphyry deposits." Samso Insights Research Insights PGE and A Porphyry Samso Geology Series WHAT THIS PIECE COVERS 1.00 WHAT WE ARE ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT Two metals doing two completely different jobs. 2.00 THE CONVEYOR BELT How a porphyry deposit gets built in the first place. 3.00 THE TWO DIALS Every deposit comes down to size and grade. 4.00 THE FORK IN THE ROAD The sulfide trap, and whether it springs early or late. 5.00 THE SWITCH Oxygen decides when the trap springs. 6.00 THE TECTONIC LEVER Thick crust against thin crust, and why it changes the metal mix. 7.00 THE FINGERPRINT Using palladium to read a magma's history. 8.00 WHERE IT ACTUALLY SITS What the palladium looks like once it is in the rock. 9.00 THE NUMBERS How much is really there, and where. 10.00 THE FRONTIER How the metals hitch a ride upwards when they should sink. 11.00 SO WHAT What an investor takes away from all of it. 1.00 — WHAT WE ARE ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT Two metals, two completely different jobs - Copper and the PGEs - Platinum and Palladium Porphyry deposits are the giants of the copper world — they supply roughly three-quarters of mined copper and a large slice of gold and molybdenum. The platinum-group elements (PGE) are a family of six rare, precious metals (Figure 1). Normally we get them from a totally different kind of rock (layered intrusions like South Africa's Bushveld). So finding platinum and palladium inside a copper porphyry is a genuine curiosity and it turns out to be useful in two very different ways. Figure 1: The six PGE behave as two groups. The "iridium-group" (IPGE: Os, Ir, Ru) stays locked in the deep mantle; the "palladium-group" (PPGE: Pt, Pd, Rh) is mobile enough to travel — and in porphyries it is almost entirely palladium, with subordinate platinum. Source: original Samso illustration of concepts in Park et al. (2021), Nature Reviews Earth & Environment; PGE grouping after Barnes et al. and Economou-Eliopoulos (2005). Almost everything that follows is really a story about palladium and the rare conditions that let it survive the long journey from the mantle to a copper mine near the surface. 2.00 — THE CONVEYOR BELT How a porphyry gets built in the first place Before we can talk about the passengers, we need the vehicle. A very novel and simplistic way to describe a porphyry copper deposit is to imagine the end of a long magmatic conveyor belt that starts where one tectonic plate dives beneath another, what we geologists call a subduction zone (Figure 2). The next step is to imagine water that is in the system being squeezed off the sinking slab, triggering melting in the mantle above it, producing magma that is unusually wet, sulfur-rich and oxidized. That recipe is the whole ballgame. Figure 2: Optimum conditions for development of giant porphyry copper deposits. From Sillitoe and Perello (2005, their Figure 15). (source: USGS Porphyry Copper Deposit Model — John, D.A. et al. (2010), SIR 2010-5070-B.) The metals, copper, gold, molybdenum, and our passengers, are carried up dissolved in the magma and then handed off to that escaping fluid. The fluid cooks the surrounding rock into the tell-tale "potassic" alteration and drops its metal load as veins and disseminated grains. So far, so ordinary. The question that decides everything is: did the metals survive the trip, or get dumped on the way? 3.00 — THE TWO DIALS Every deposit comes down to size and grade Economists and geologists watch two numbers. Size, how much ore is set mostly by how big and how long-lived the magma system was, and how much water it carried. Grade is related to how rich that ore is and that is set by how much metal the magma started with and how efficiently it delivered it. For the platinum-group elements, one process dominates the grade dial above all others and that is the timing of sulfide saturation. Everything in the next three sections is an unpacking of that single phrase. The one idea to keep Copper, gold and palladium are all "chalcophile", meaning that they love sulfur. Given the chance, they abandon the magma and dive into any droplet of molten sulfide that forms. Whether that is good news or a disaster depends entirely on when those droplets appear. 4.00 — THE FORK IN THE ROAD The sulfide trap: early death or late delivery Lets try and go through the geology as simple as possible. As magma rises and cools, sooner or later it becomes saturated in sulfide (Figure 3). The theory is that tiny immiscible droplets of molten metal-sulfide separate out, like oil beading out of water. Those droplets are dense, and they greedily absorb copper, gold and palladium. The fate of the whole deposit hangs on whether this happens early and deep or late and shallow. Figure 3: The sulfide fork — the single most important idea in the whole subject. Sulfide droplets are where chalcophile metals go to hide. Form them too early and deep, and the copper, gold and palladium are buried before they can rise. Hold them off until the magma is shallow, and the metals survive to make ore. Source: original Samso illustration of the sulfide-saturation control central to Park et al. (2021) and Park et al. (2019), Mineralium Deposita 54. This is also why palladium is such a sharp signal. Copper is abundant and somewhat forgiving; palladium is hyper-sensitive to sulfide. If a magma ever dropped a sulfide droplet, the palladium is the first thing to vanish. So a magma that still carries palladium is, almost by definition, a magma that kept its metals intact. So what does this mean for explorers? It turns the timing of an invisible, long-vanished event into something you can actually measure. Because palladium is wiped out the instant sulfide forms, a handful of cheap whole-rock assays on the right igneous rocks can tell an explorer which side of the fork a magma took, long before any expensive drilling. A suite that still carries palladium, sits on the oxidised side, and shows the chemical fingerprints of shallow, late sulfide saturation (the trace-element ratios geologists lean on, such as Sr/Y and La/Yb) is a suite that kept its metal budget. A suite stripped of palladium probably dumped its copper and gold at depth, and no amount of drilling will conjure them back. In practical terms, this is a fertility filter: a way to rank intrusions and prospects and concentrate effort on the magmas that were actually capable of building a deposit, rather than the ones that merely look the part. It is a vector, not a guarantee, remember that you still need size, structure and a well-focused fluid system to make an orebody. Could this be one of the few tools that screens out barren ground early and inexpensively. And what does it mean to the average ASX investor? Mostly, it tells you how to read a company's announcements. First, treat "PGE in a porphyry" with calm rather than excitement: as the rest of this Insight shows, the contained palladium and platinum are almost always modest, so a headline framing PGE as a standalone value driver in a copper-gold project deserves a healthy dose of skepticism. The real signal is the opposite and quieter as when the technical work points to an oxidised, often alkalic magma, evidence of late sulfide saturation, favourable chalcophile-element or Pd/Pt chemistry, and high Sr/Y, that is a company showing genuine evidence its system was fertile. Read palladium as the tell, not the treasure. It is a clue about whether the copper-gold story underneath is real, not a metal you should be valuing the company on. None of this is a substitute for the usual homework such as grade, tonnage, depth, jurisdiction, balance sheet and management all still decide outcomes. This is not financial advice, it is simply a lens for telling a magma that meant business from one that didn't. 5.00 — THE SWITCH Oxygen decides when the trap springs So what holds the sulfide trap off? The biggest lever is oxidation and that is how much free oxygen the magma effectively carries (geologists measure it as "oxygen fugacity"). The trick is what oxygen does to sulfur. In a reduced magma, sulfur exists as sulfide and saturates quickly. Oxidize the magma and the sulfur flips to sulfate, which the melt can dissolve far more of, so it takes much more sulfur before any sulfide droplet appears at all. Figure 4: The oxidation switch. As a magma becomes more oxidised, the amount of sulfur it can dissolve before saturating in sulfide climbs steeply — roughly doubling across the sulfide-to-sulfate transition. A more oxidised magma can hold its sulfur (and its metals) far longer. Arc magmas are naturally oxidised, which is the deep reason they make copper deposits and most other magmas do not. Source: original Samso illustration of the S-content-at-sulfide-saturation vs oxygen-fugacity relationship of Jugo (2009), Geology 37; as applied in Park et al. (2021). Values indicative. That single fact ties the room together. Oxidation lets a magma carry more sulfur and metal; it delays the sulfide trap; and it keeps palladium in play. It is also why the most fertile porphyry magmas are described as "hydrous and oxidized" — water and oxygen are doing related jobs. 6.00 — THE TECTONIC LEVER Thick crust vs thin crust — and why it changes the metal mix Park and colleagues' central contribution is to link all of this to something you can read off a map: how thick the crust is. Thick crust and thin crust send magma on different journeys, and those journeys produce different ore. Figure 5: Two tectonic settings, two recipes. Thick crust holds magma deep for a long time and tends to build supergiant — but often gold-poorer — copper systems. Thin crust lets magma differentiate shallow with late sulfide saturation, keeping gold and palladium in play; this is where the precious-metal-rich porphyries cluster. (Real deposits sit on a spectrum between these end-members.) Source: original Samso illustration of the thick-vs-thin-arc model in Park et al. (2021), Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, key points and Fig. 6. Geologists read crustal thickness indirectly, from the chemistry of the rocks themselves — ratios like Sr/Y and La/Yb rise as crust thickens, because deep, high-pressure crystallisation leaves a fingerprint. So a rock chemistry lab can effectively tell you which journey the magma took, long after the mountains have eroded away. 7.00 — THE FINGERPRINT Using palladium to read a magma's history Now the two threads meet. Because palladium is wiped out the instant sulfide forms, its abundance in a suite of rocks is a direct readout of whether sulfide saturated early or late — which is to say, whether the magma was fertile. This is the heart of why Jung-Woo Park's group cares about PGE in porphyries: not (mainly) as a metal to sell, but as a cheap, sensitive fertility tracer that separates ore-forming magmas from barren ones. Figure 6: Palladium as a fertility ladder. Across barren, copper, and copper-gold systems, the surviving palladium climbs — because higher palladium means sulfide saturated later and the metal budget was preserved. A relatively quick PGE assay can therefore flag whether a magmatic suite was capable of building an ore deposit. Source: original Samso schematic of the chalcophile-fertility relationship in Park et al. (2019), Mineralium Deposita 54; Cocker et al. (2015), J. Petrol. 56 (El Abra). Schematic, not to scale. Not just theory — tested against real deposits That's the idea. The proof is that it has been tested directly against real, drilled, economically proven porphyries and it held up well enough to explain not just whether a deposit formed, but what kind of deposit it became. The flagship case is El Abra, in northern Chile, which forms the basis of the study in this section. Cocker, Valente, Park, and Campbell (2015) conducted the first thorough PGE analysis of a felsic magmatic suite associated with an economic porphyry to determine the onset of sulfide saturation. As they explain, PGEs exhibit extreme partitioning between sulfide-melt and silicate-melt, making them highly sensitive indicators of this timing. Their findings indicate that sulfide saturation occurred shortly before the exsolution of the ore fluid, with only a small amount of sulfide forming. This was sufficient to extract most of the gold from the magma but left most of the copper, as gold partitions into sulfide approximately 5–10 times more strongly than copper. They conclude that this timing is the reason El Abra is a copper-only deposit rather than a copper-gold one. The method provided more than just a "fertile or not" assessment; it offered a detailed reading of the magma's history to explain the ore type. Northparkes, in New South Wales, is the comparison that proves the point. A Macquarie Arc copper-gold system, it was chosen deliberately to test El Abra's logic against a different outcome. According to Hao, Campbell and colleagues (2017), the prediction was that Northparkes' magmas reached sulfide saturation later than El Abra's, so less gold would have been sequestered at depth — and the PGE data bore that out, consistent with Northparkes being a copper-gold deposit rather than copper-only. Two real deposits, the same tool, correctly discriminated by their palladium and PGE fertility signatures. Zoomed out, the broader claim — that this method "separates ore-forming magmas from barren ones" — has its own dedicated test. According to Park and colleagues (2019), across many suites palladium, used as a chalcophile-fertility indicator, tracks with porphyry ore type: barren, copper, or copper-gold. That is precisely the three-way separation this section has been describing, now validated well beyond a single deposit. A fair caveat El Abra and Northparkes are themselves known, economic deposits, so these are retrospective demonstrations — the PGE signature correctly reads the fertility, and even the copper-only versus copper-gold distinction, of magmas we already know made ore. Using it prospectively, to screen undrilled prospects before anyone knows the outcome, is the direction Park's group and others argue for — not yet a long track record of discoveries made this way. Why this is the real prize You will likely never mine a porphyry for its palladium. But palladium chemistry is one of the most honest answers to the hardest question in copper exploration: was this magma ever capable of making a deposit? A tracer that cheap and that sensitive is worth more to an explorer than a few tonnes of by-product metal. 8.00 — WHERE IT ACTUALLY SITS What the palladium looks like in the rock When palladium does make it into the ore, where does it end up? Two recurring habits show up across the world's PGE-bearing porphyries — and both confirm that the palladium arrived early and hot, alongside the copper and gold, not as some late afterthought. Skouries, Greece — palladium riding inside the copper Skouries is a copper-gold porphyry in the Chalkidiki Peninsula of northern Greece (Figure 7.1), currently being developed by Eldorado Gold's Greek subsidiary, Hellas Gold, as an underground and open-pit mine. It's a small, steep, pencil-shaped intrusion — under 400 metres across at surface — but mineralised to a depth of nearly a kilometre, and it happens to be one of the most PGE-enriched porphyries known anywhere in the world. Figure 7.1: Skouries is a copper-gold porphyry in the Chalkidiki Peninsula of northern Greece. According to Eliopoulos and Economou-Eliopoulos (1991) and later confirmed by Cardiff University researchers working directly on Skouries drill core, the palladium isn't spread evenly through the ore. It's concentrated in microscopic grains of a palladium-telluride mineral called merenskyite, and those grains sit inside or right at the edge of the copper sulfide minerals — chalcopyrite and bornite — that geologists mapped out in section 6. In practice, this means the palladium was deposited in the same hot, early mineralising pulse as the copper and gold, not added later by some separate, cooler event. The ore itself even carries the signature in its formal name: geologists now describe Skouries as a "Cu-Au (Pd, Pt, Te) porphyry" — platinum, palladium and tellurium written directly into the deposit's own classification. New Afton, Canada — palladium riding inside the pyrite New Afton, west of Kamloops in British Columbia (Figure 7.2), tells a related but distinct story. It's an alkalic copper-gold porphyry, and unlike Skouries it's not a project under construction — it's an active underground mine, currently owned and operated by New Gold, producing real copper and gold concentrate today. Figure 7.2: The New Afton copper-gold porphyry mine. (Source: N1 43-101 TECHNICAL REPORT – NEW AFTON MINE BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA) According to a pair of 2023 studies in Frontiers in Earth Science, the palladium and platinum at New Afton sit inside crystals of ordinary-looking pyrite — but those crystals are chemically zoned, like the rings in a tree trunk, recording the changing chemistry of the fluid as it cooled. The cores of the pyrite grains, which crystallised first while the fluid was hottest, are enriched in cobalt and platinum; the outer rims, laid down later as the fluid cooled and evolved, are enriched in palladium, nickel, arsenic and selenium. One of the more striking numbers to come out of that work: the cobalt locked into some of these pyrite cores reaches concentrations higher than in any other ore-forming system yet reported, anywhere. That's not a claim about the amount of copper or gold at New Afton — it's a reminder that this "ordinary" pyrite is quietly recording an extraordinary hydrothermal history, one crystal layer at a time. The metal that never shows up A small but telling detail from both deposits: the "stay-behind" iridium-group metals — osmium, iridium and rhodium — are essentially absent. At Skouries, they sit below the detection limit of the instruments used to measure them. This isn't a gap in the data; it's the whole story of section 1 playing out in the assay results. Porphyry PGE is, in practice, an almost pure palladium-and-platinum story, heavily skewed toward palladium — commonly around ten parts palladium to every one part platinum. That lopsidedness isn't a local quirk of these two deposits. It's the inherited fingerprint of the oxidised, sulfide-shy magma the metals came from in the first place, carried faithfully all the way from the mantle wedge to the mineral grain a geologist eventually puts under a microscope. Two deposits, one pattern Skouries and New Afton sit on opposite sides of the world, in completely different tectonic settings, mined by different companies at different stages of development. Yet the palladium in both tells the identical story: it arrived early, alongside the copper and gold, riding inside whichever high-temperature mineral was crystallising at the time, a copper sulfide at Skouries, a pyrite crystal at New Afton, and the iridium-group metals that would mark a colder, deeper origin simply never showed up. Here are real deposits, checked against real drill core, confirming the same magmatic story (Figure 7.3). Figure 7.3: Two homes for porphyry palladium. (A) At Skouries and Elatsite, palladium hides in microscopic telluride/bismuthide grains (the mineral merenskyite) tucked inside copper sulfides and magnetite — high-temperature minerals, meaning Pd, Au and Cu were laid down together. (B) In British Columbia's alkalic porphyries, Pd and Pt ride inside hydrothermal pyrite and magnetite that are chemically zoned core-to-rim (Co-Pt core → Pd-Ni-As-Se rim), recording a fluid cooling through the main ore stage. Source: original Samso illustration of observations in Eliopoulos & Economou-Eliopoulos (1991), Econ. Geol. 86; Tarkian & Stribrny (1999), Min. Pet. 65; and New Afton studies (e.g. Sykora et al., 2018; LeFort et al., 2011). A small but telling detail: the "stay-behind" iridium-group metals (Os, Ir, Ru) are essentially absent from these ores — below detection. Porphyry PGE is a palladium-and-platinum story, heavily skewed to palladium (Pd:Pt commonly around 10:1). That lopsidedness is itself the inherited signature of the oxidised, sulfide-shy magma the metals came from. 9.00 — THE NUMBERS How much is actually there — and where Reality check on the by-product dream. In a typical porphyry, total PGE sits below 10 parts per billion — vanishingly small. Only a special subset, almost all of them alkalic, gold-rich, island-arc systems, carry enough palladium to matter. Even then, the contained tonnage is modest by platinum-mine standards. Figure 8: The PGE-enriched porphyry "club" is small. Skouries — over 200 Mt of ore — holds an estimated 15 t of palladium and 3.5 t of platinum; Elatsite about 13 t Pd and 3 t Pt. Worth recovering as a credit, but a rounding error next to a dedicated PGE mine. The enriched deposits cluster in four regions: the British Columbia Cordillera, the Balkans, Southeast Asia and Central Asia. Source: Economou-Eliopoulos (2005), MAC Short Course 35; Eliopoulos & Economou-Eliopoulos (1991), Econ. Geol. 86; Economou-Eliopoulos & Eliopoulos (2000), Ore Geol. Rev. 16. Figures approximate. The pattern in that table is the whole point of Economou-Eliopoulos's work: the palladium-rich porphyries are the gold-rich, alkalic ones. Across a survey of dozens of porphyries, palladium turned up in most of them at trace levels, but the genuinely enriched cases were nearly all tied to high gold and an oxidised, alkaline magma — exactly the "late sulfide saturation, metals preserved" recipe from the earlier sections, seen from the mine end. 10.00 — THE FRONTIER How the metals actually hitch the ride up One puzzle remains. Sulfide droplets are dense and are expected to sink, not rise, so how do metals that briefly enter sulfide ever get back up to the shallow ore zone? The leading answer is wonderfully simple, and it comes in two parts. According to Mungall and colleagues (2015), whose laboratory experiments first demonstrated the mechanism, the heavy sulfide droplet hitches a ride on a buoyant gas bubble and is carried upward. And according to Park and colleagues (2015), who studied lavas from the Tonga rear-arc, exactly this pairing, sulfide droplets clinging to vapour bubbles, is preserved in nature, confirming the process is real and not just a laboratory curiosity. Figure 9: The bubble lift. A dense sulfide droplet (heavy, would sink) sticks to a buoyant gas bubble; surface tension holds them together and the pair rises, ferrying copper, gold and palladium up to the shallow ore zone. First shown experimentally, it has since been found preserved in natural arc lavas. Source: original Samso illustration of the mechanism in Mungall et al. (2015), Nature Geoscience 8, 216–219; natural evidence in Park et al. (2015), J. Petrol. 56 (Tonga rear-arc lavas). A second frontier idea is worth knowing. According to Holwell and colleagues (2019), in some post-subduction settings an earlier round of subduction enriches the mantle "lid" (the lithospheric mantle) with metals such as palladium and gold. Later, when that region is stretched or peeled away, low-degree melting taps that enriched store and feeds palladium-rich, alkaline magmas, which, they argue, is a plausible reason so many palladium-bearing porphyries are alkalic. As the authors themselves frame it, this remains an active research proposal rather than settled fact, but it fits the global pattern neatly. 11.00 — SO WHAT What to take away Pull the threads together and the platinum-group story in porphyries resolves into one clean idea: palladium is the metal that only survives a perfect journey. It needs an oxidised, hydrous magma, a sulfide trap that springs late rather than early, and a clean handoff to the ore fluid. When all of that lines up, you get a gold-rich copper deposit that happens to carry a little palladium. When it doesn't, the palladium — and usually the deposit — never shows up. Samso take Don't buy a porphyry story for its platinum-group elements — the contained tonnes are almost always modest, and PGE recovery is a by-product credit, not a thesis. The real value of this science is diagnostic. The same conditions that let a porphyry carry palladium — oxidised magma, late sulfide saturation, the right crustal setting — are the conditions that make a fertile copper-gold system in the first place. So when you see Pd/Pt assays, high Sr/Y, an oxidised alkalic suite, or talk of "chalcophile fertility" in the technical work, read them as what they are: a magma showing its receipts. The palladium is the tell, not the treasure. The honest caveat This Insight simplifies a research-grade subject so a non-specialist can follow the logic. The figures are original Samso illustrations of concepts and indicative values from the cited papers — not reproductions, and not a substitute for the primary literature. Specific numbers (grades, depths, tonnages) vary deposit-to-deposit and should always be checked against the original sources and each project's own disclosures. References & sources This Insight is built on two anchor works — a major review of porphyry-forming magmatic processes (Park et al., 2021) and the foundational survey of PGE in porphyries (Economou-Eliopoulos, 2005) — supported by the primary studies below. It also draws on a 2024 conference talk by Jung-Woo Park on PGE in porphyry deposits. All figures are original Samso illustrations of concepts and data drawn from these sources. Primary source (framework) — Park, J.-W., Campbell, I. H., Chiaradia, M., Hao, H. & Lee, C.-T. (2021). "Crustal magmatic controls on the formation of porphyry copper deposits." Nature Reviews Earth & Environment 2, 542–557. doi:10.1038/s43017-021-00182-8. (Crustal thickness, sulfide-saturation history, oxidation and chalcophile fertility; basis for Figs. 02, 04, 05.) Primary source (PGE potential) — Economou-Eliopoulos, M. (2005). "Platinum-group element potential of porphyry deposits." In: Mungall, J. E. (ed.) Exploration for Platinum-Group Element Deposits, Mineralogical Association of Canada Short Course 35, 203–245. (PGE-enriched porphyry framework; Skouries & Elatsite tonnage estimates; basis for Figs. 01, 08.) Eliopoulos, D. G. & Economou-Eliopoulos, M. (1991). "Platinum-group element and gold contents in the Skouries porphyry copper deposit, Chalkidiki Peninsula, northern Greece." Economic Geology 86, 740–749. (Skouries averages ~180 ppb Pd, ~26 ppb Pt.) Economou-Eliopoulos, M. & Eliopoulos, D. (2000). "Palladium, platinum and gold concentration in porphyry copper systems of Greece and their genetic significance." Ore Geology Reviews 16, 28–40. Tarkian, M. & Stribrny, B. (1999). "Platinum-group elements in porphyry copper deposits: a reconnaissance study." Mineralogy and Petrology 65, 161–183. (33-deposit survey; Pd detectable in ~70%, Pt in ~30%; IPGE below detection; merenskyite/sperrylite in chalcopyrite.) Park, J. W. et al. (2019). "Chalcophile element fertility and the formation of porphyry Cu ± Au deposits." Mineralium Deposita 54, 657–670. (Pd as a chalcophile-fertility indicator; basis for Figs. 03, 06.) Cocker, H. A., Valente, D. L., Park, J. W. & Campbell, I. H. (2015). "Using platinum group elements to identify sulfide saturation in a porphyry Cu system: the El Abra porphyry Cu deposit, Northern Chile." Journal of Petrology 56, 2491–2514. Jugo, P. J. (2009). "Sulfur content at sulfide saturation in oxidized magmas." Geology 37, 415–418. (The oxidation control on dissolved sulfur; basis for Fig. 04.) Mungall, J. E., Brenan, J. M., Godel, B., Barnes, S. J. & Gaillard, F. (2015). "Transport of metals and sulphur in magmas by flotation of sulphide melt on vapour bubbles." Nature Geoscience 8, 216–219. (The bubble-flotation mechanism; basis for Fig. 09.) Park, J. W., Campbell, I. H., Kim, J. & Moon, J. W. (2015). "The role of late sulfide saturation in the formation of a Cu- and Au-rich magma: insights from the platinum group element geochemistry of Niuatahi-Motutahi lavas, Tonga Rear Arc." Journal of Petrology 56, 59–81. (Natural evidence for sulfide–bubble association.) Hao, H. D., Campbell, I. H., Richards, J. P., Nakamura, E. & Sakaguchi, C. (2019). "Platinum-group element geochemistry of the Escondida igneous suites, Northern Chile." Journal of Petrology 60, 487–514. Sillitoe, R. H. (2010). "Porphyry copper systems." Economic Geology 105, 3–41. (Porphyry architecture; basis for Fig. 02.) New Afton / British Columbia alkalic Cu-Au PGE studies — e.g. LeFort, D. et al. (2011), Economic Geology 106 (Mount Milligan); Sykora, S. et al. (2018) and the two-part New Afton PGE-in-pyrite studies, Frontiers in Earth Science (2023). (Zoned pyrite/magnetite hosting; basis for Fig. 07B.) Holwell, D. A. et al. (2019). "A metasomatized lithospheric mantle control on the metallogenic signature of post-subduction magmatism." Nature Communications 10, 3511. (Post-subduction Pd enrichment of the lithospheric mantle — discussed as an active hypothesis.) Cocker, H. A., Valente, D. L., Park, J.-W. & Campbell, I. H. (2015). "Using platinum group elements to identify sulfide saturation in a porphyry Cu system: the El Abra porphyry Cu deposit, northern Chile." Journal of Petrology 56, 2491–2514. Open access: researchonline.jcu.edu.au/64318. Hao, H., Campbell, I. H. et al. (2017). "Platinum-group element geochemistry used to determine Cu and Au fertility in the Northparkes igneous suites, New South Wales, Australia." Ore Geology Reviews. sciencedirect.com. Cover photo: Platinum (GeoDIL number - 869), Darla Sondrol. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Platinum_(GeoDIL_number_-_869).jpg). Reproduced photograph, shown faded under a navy overlay on the article thumbnail. 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