Vault Minerals Limited
Vault Minerals (formed by the 2024 merger of Red 5 Limited and Silver Lake Resources; REDLF is the OTC ticker for ASX:VAU) operates three gold operations in Western Australia -- Leonora (King of the Hills + Darlot), Mount Monger, and the Deflector region (Deflector + Rothsay) -- plus an advanced gold-production restart project at Sugar Zone in Ontario, Canada. FY26 gold production was 336,540 oz. On 2026-07-14 Vault agreed to merge with Genesis Minerals (ASX: GMD) in an approximately A$12.6 billion deal, not yet completed as of this writing.
Notable vs. Peers
- Financials score of 8.8/10 is stronger than the peer average of 6.4/10.
- Trading within 0% of its 52-week high — strong recent price momentum.
Lifecycle Milestones
Construction Milestones
5 of 5 reached- Dec 2020 · WA DMIRS approved Red 5's Mining Proposal for construction of the King of the Hills processing plant on 15 December 2020 -- described as "the last major permit needed" before build could proceed, ahead of the plant's 2020-2022 redevelopment/restart (new 4.7Mtpa processing plant + underground mine restart). Distinct from the site's original 1990-2005 open-pit history and from Vault's other assets (Mount Monger, Deflector/Rothsay, Darlot). · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · No standalone dated FID release found for the King of the Hills 2020-2022 redevelopment. Evidence chain establishes the decision was reached in Q3/Q4 2020: a Feasibility Study confirming viability was released 15 Sept 2020; accommodation-village construction began Oct 2020; MACA Interquip was awarded the EPC/mining-services contract Nov 2020; WA DMIRS granted the Mining Proposal approval Dec 2020 (see this miner's PERMIT_GRANTED row); and A$175m financing closed Mar 2021. · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Accommodation-village construction at King of the Hills began October 2020; process-plant bulk earthworks followed December 2020, once the WA DMIRS Mining Proposal permit was in hand (see PERMIT_GRANTED, 2020-12-15). Exact day within October 2020 not found in available sourcing. · Source
- Jun 2022 · First gold pour at the rebuilt King of the Hills plant: two dore bars totaling 1,588oz. Corroborated by Wikipedia's King of the Hills Gold Mine entry ("Q2 2022"). · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Genuinely reached, but no single company-wide commercial-production date exists: Vault Minerals (formed via the 2024 merger of Red 5 Limited and Silver Lake Resources) operates a multi-mine Western Australian portfolio -- Leonora (formerly Red 5's King of the Hills), Mount Monger, and Deflector (both formerly Silver Lake assets) -- each with separate pre-merger production histories under the two predecessor companies. FY2026 (year to 30 June 2026) results reported 336,540 oz gold produced (Leonora 179,666 oz, Mount Monger 79,225 oz, Deflector 77,649 oz), meeting guidance, with King of the Hills Stage 1 processing upgrades commissioned March 2026 and Stage 2 71% complete. This row was missing entirely prior to 2026-08-21 -- a genuine data gap, not a stage error; Miner.stage was already correctly PRODUCTION. · Source
Milestones are recorded only from a company's own dated disclosure. A milestone with no date shown is one we can confirm was reached but for which no date was disclosed — we don't estimate one. "Not yet reached" means exactly that, not that a date is missing. An "Expected" line likewise only ever reflects the company's own guidance (e.g. a study or permit decision targeted for a stated quarter) — most not-yet-reached milestones have none, and that absence means no such guidance has been disclosed, not that one is overdue.
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 the underlying research identifies — whether a major already holds a JV, earn-in, or 5–19.9% strategic stake — isn't tracked yet and is absent from this score.
Your Rankings
Management Team
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Vault Minerals Limited since its formation (19 Jun 2024 merger of Red 5 Limited and Silver Lake Resources, where he had been Managing Director since 2014). Mining Engineering graduate of the Western Australian School of Mines with over 40 years of operations and management experience; past Chairman of the WA School of Mines Advisory Board. Earlier career: senior operational/management roles at WMC Resources and Sons of Gwalia Ltd; Managing Director of Mount Gibson Iron Limited (2005-2011); CEO & Managing Director of Reed Resources Ltd (~2011-2014). STATUS NOTE (Task #513 batch6, 21 Aug 2026): in Aug 2025 Tonkin advised the Vault board of his intention to step down as CEO & MD within 12 months; as of this research pass no successor has been named and Tonkin remains the actual current CEO -- left unchanged pending an actual, confirmed transition. Separately, on 14 Jul 2026 Vault and Genesis Minerals Limited (GMD, already tracked in this DB, covered in Task #513 batch5) signed a binding scheme implementation deed for Genesis to acquire Vault in an approximately A$12.6bn (pro-forma) transaction; completion is targeted for November 2026 subject to shareholder, Federal Court and ACCC approval -- NOT yet completed, Vault remains an independently operating, separately tracked company as of this batch.
Chief Financial Officer of Vault Minerals, in the role since the company's introduction to the market following the Red 5/Silver Lake Resources merger (Jun 2024), having joined Silver Lake as CFO in 2023. Chartered Accountant. Career progression: Senior Accountant at BDO Australia; Manager, Finance at Barrick (already tracked in this DB, ABX); Group Manager, Finance at Independence Group NL (now IGO Limited); Chief Financial Officer at Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia (to 2023).
Insiders, Investors & Smart Money
Notable shareholders and insiders whose involvement is worth knowing about, plus what we're seeing from institutional/large-investor activity.
Checked, and the one substantial holding on record does not survive a closer look. Macquarie Group filed as a 5.29% substantial holder on 22 July 2026, then filed again to say it had ceased to be one on 24 July 2026 -- two days later. The notice itself aggregates Macquarie Bank, several Macquarie investment-management entities and stock borrowing and lending positions, which is the signature of securities-lending and prime-brokerage inventory passing through the 5% line rather than anyone buying the company. No producer holds a stake, no specialist resource fund is disclosed, and there are no insider trading records. A 1 means checked and nothing found, not that anything is wrong with the company.
No notable insiders tracked for this miner yet.
Reports, Presentations & Documents
We haven't parsed this company's PEA/PFS/FS recommendations yet — cut-off grade, mine life, DCF/NPV, and the report's own next-steps guidance are a planned research pass, not live data for every company yet.