Vertex Minerals LimitedV

Notable vs. Peers

• Financials score of 1.8/10 is weaker than the peer average of 6.5/10.
• Jurisdiction risk score of 10/10 is meaningfully safer than the peer average of 7.8/10.

Lifecycle Milestones

1. Permit granted

   Jun 2024 · Vertex Minerals' ASX release 'Reward Mining Leases Renewed for Maximum Term' (4 June 2024, confirmed against ASX's own VTX announcement listing and reported contemporaneously by Mining.com.au) states NSW granted the renewal of six of Vertex's ten Hill End mining leases (ML 49, 50, 315, 316, 317, 913, 914, 915, 1116, 1541 cover the Hill End Gold Project) for the maximum permissible 21-year term under the Mining Act 1992 (NSW), plus gold lease GL 5846 for a 20-year term. Executive Chairman Roger Jackson said this gave the 'strongest security' of tenure and was what let the company commit the resources to commence operations at the Reward Gold Mine -- the company itself ties this permitting event to the PRODUCTION-stage claim. This is the most recent, dated, ASX-disclosed permitting event for the project, NOT the leases' original historical grant -- Hill End has been under some form of mining title since the 19th-century goldfield era, and this pass could not pin down the original grant date for these specific lease numbers via web sourcing (would need an NSW Mining Titles Register lease-by-lease lookup, as used for the GDM row in this same batch). Recorded to the 4 June 2024 renewal because it is real, dated and government-recognised -- a grant of a further term under the Mining Act -- not a placeholder. · Source
2. Construction decision (FID)

   Reached — date not disclosed · Implied by the decision to bring the Reward Gold Mine into production ahead of first gold (Aug 2025) -- a brownfield restart within the historic Hill End goldfield, not a new-build FID; no separate formal construction-decision date was confirmed against a primary source this pass. · Source
3. Construction start

   Reached — date not disclosed · Site development/mine preparation ahead of first gold (Aug 2025); a specific start date was not confirmed against a primary source this pass. · Source
4. First pour / production

   Aug 2025 · First stope-block ore at the Reward Gold Mine was blasted and bogged on Thursday 21 August 2025, following commissioning of the ventilation fan, per Vertex's own ASX announcement 'Reward Gold Mine Production Update' lodged 25 August 2025 (500 tonnes blasted and bogged to the Amalgamated portal as at that update). This replaces a prior achievedDate of 2025-07-31 whose note conceded only the month was confirmed ('reported as August 2025 (month confirmed; exact day not confirmed against a primary source this pass)') and cited only the company's bare homepage -- note the prior date was not even in August, so this corrects both the precision and the month. One earlier event is deliberately NOT merged into this row: Sharecafe (11 Aug 2025) describes 'the first blasting of gold-producing ore on the Lady Belmore Reef' occurring over the weekend of roughly 9-10 Aug 2025, which appears to be an earlier development or trial blast distinct from the stope-block milestone Vertex itself foregrounds as the production-start event. Recorded here rather than silently averaged or substituted. · Source
5. Commercial production

   Not yet reached

   Expected October 2026 (full production; reaffirmed 25 Aug 2026) · Vertex guides to bringing the Reward Gold Mine into 'full production in October' 2026, reaffirmed as of 25 Aug 2026, with bottom-up long-hole stoping scheduled to commence October 2026 per the June 2026 quarterly. The extended-hours development consent (24-hour underground operations and blasting) was granted by Bathurst Regional Council circa 20 Aug 2026, removing a stated constraint; an EPL variation to match was expected to take 2-4 weeks. Note 'full production' is the company's phrase and is not necessarily a formal commercial-production declaration. · 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.