Blackstone Minerals Limited
Blackstone Minerals' primary commodity focus has shifted to copper: the Mankayan Copper-Gold Project in Northern Luzon, Philippines is now explicitly the company's flagship asset, with gold as a secondary commodity. The Ta Khoa Nickel Project in Vietnam, previously the company's primary asset, is now a minority/carried interest and no longer the flagship. Mankayan has faced real permitting/regulatory risk this year, including a cease-and-desist history, reflected in the jurisdiction score. Cash of AUD $15.03 million is an aggregator-sourced figure, not independently cross-verified against a primary ASX filing; debt of AUD $99,563 is immaterial.
Notable vs. Peers
- Jurisdiction risk score of 2/10 is meaningfully riskier than the peer average of 7.7/10.
- Financials score of 7.4/10 is stronger than the peer average of 5.5/10.
- Trading within 5% of its 52-week low — weak recent price momentum.
Lifecycle Milestones
Combined view across 2 projects. Figures below are only combined where the underlying basis genuinely matches -- see the notes under each.
Jurisdiction (40%)2/10
Luzon, Philippines (Mankayan) — real, active permitting/regulatory risk this year, including a cease-and-desist history, materially depressing this score below what the underlying deposit quality alone would suggest.
Infrastructure (40%)No verified figure
Researched with nothing found: no source we could cite confirms or rules out an existing mill, road access, grid power, or tailings facility at Mankayan Copper-Gold Project, Northern Luzon, Philippines (checked Oct 1, 2026; recheck due Mar 30, 2027). Counts at a neutral 5/10 until one does.
Nearby producing mine (20%)10/10
Lepanto (Victoria) (Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company) is 0 km away -- within shared-mill trucking range.
Acquisition Susceptibility
A relative ranking of how closely this company matches the profile of juniors that have actually been acquired — not a probability, and not a reason to buy. Acquisitions are rare: only a few dozen significant deals happen a year across a universe of thousands of juniors, so even a high score here describes a long shot. The strongest signal in the research, a producer that already owns part of the company, is scored from its disclosed strategic shareholders. A producer that is a joint-venture or earn-in partner on the project, rather than a shareholder, isn't captured yet.
How this score is built
- Disclosed pending dealSub-score: Not scored
No pending acquisition or merger disclosed (checked)
Not scored: having no deal in flight isn't held against a company.
Weight 26.25% - Producer's strategic stakeSub-score: Not scored
No producer holds a disclosed stake on file (holder register researched) See holders
Not scored: most juniors that do get bought had no prior toehold, so a missing stake says little either way.
Weight 25% - Distance to a producing mineSub-score:10/10
Nearest producing mine: Lepanto (Victoria) (Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company), 0 km
10 next to a producing mine, 8 at 20 km, 5 at 50 km, 0 beyond 200 km.
Weight 22.5% · 46% here - Lifecycle stageSub-score:3.5/10
Stage: Resource Definition
Feasibility and permitting score 10, where deals cluster, and production 5.5; earlier stages score less, down to 1 at grassroots.
Weight 15% · 31% here - JurisdictionSub-score:2/10
Philippines: jurisdiction score 2/10
Our jurisdiction score, used as is: higher means lower political and permitting risk.
Weight 6.75% · 14% here - CommoditySub-score:8/10
Primary commodity: Copper
Gold 10, copper 8, silver 5, nickel and uranium 4, others 2: most majors' deals are for gold.
Weight 4.5% · 9% here
Weight is each input's share of the full score. “Here” is its share of this company's score: inputs that aren't scored are left out and the rest re-weighted, never counted as zero.
Your Rankings
Management Team
Executive Chairman of Blackstone Minerals Limited, appointed effective January 31, 2026 to lead the company while the board searches for a permanent CEO/Managing Director, following Managing Director Scott Williamson's resignation on the same date. 30+ years of leadership in the junior resources sector, including senior executive roles as Managing Director of Amex Resources, Brightstar and Rift Valley Resources, and creation of Andean Resources.
Company Secretary of Blackstone Minerals Limited, appointed from SmallCap Corporate, replacing outgoing joint Company Secretary/CFO Carla Healy; also Non-Executive Chair of Victory Metals Limited. Director and equity partner of SmallCap Corporate; concurrently non-executive director and company secretary to a number of other ASX-listed companies. Broad corporate governance and capital markets experience, including public company listings, M&A transactions and capital raisings for ASX-listed resource companies. Member of the Governance Institute of Australia; Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance; Bachelor of Commerce (accounting and finance).
Insiders, Investors & Smart Money
Notable shareholders and insiders whose involvement is worth knowing about, plus what we're seeing from institutional/large-investor activity.
Blackstone itself is a substantial shareholder in a different company (NiCo Resources), which is not relevant to whether outside smart money has invested in Blackstone. No producer or specialist fund was found holding a position in Blackstone itself.
No notable insiders tracked for this miner yet.
Reports, Presentations & Documents
Blackstone Minerals' flagship is the Mankayan copper-gold project in Northern Luzon, the Philippines, with gold as a secondary commodity. Mankayan's JORC 2012 resource totals 793 Mt at 0.65% copper equivalent, containing 2.8 Mt of copper, 9.7 Moz of gold and 20.4 Moz of silver; the indicated portion, 638 Mt at 0.68% copper equivalent, contains 8,200,000 oz of gold, with 1,500,000 oz inferred. In April 2026 a cease-and-desist order issued by the municipal mayor of Mankayan in November 2025 was lifted, clearing a pre-feasibility drilling program of up to 10 holes of 800-1,000m each, with the study's consulting and engineering contracts still to be awarded. The Ta Khoa nickel project in Vietnam, Blackstone's former flagship, where an expanded pre-feasibility study was completed in February 2022, is now a minority, carried interest after Vietnamese conglomerate Xuan Loc Tho took a majority of the project company under an August 2025 agreement.