Highlights

• Vertex Minerals (ASX:VTX) is about to complete the refurbishment of Hill End gravity gold processing plant.
• The company has estimated the Process Plant Stockpile averages to be 1.26g/t gold across 24 samples with a max gold value of 5.50g/t Au.
• Critical development infrastructure for reward underground mine has been arranged, says the company.

ASX-listed gold exploration company Vertex Minerals Limited (ASX:VTX) today announced that the refurbishment of the Hill End Processing Plant is about to complete. The commissioning activities are likely to begin in June.

According to the company, the positive results from sampling and trial mining of surface stockpiles have supported the recommencement of processing activities. The outcomes highlighted an average stockpile grade of 1.26g/t gold and approximately 95% gold recovery.

Location of Processing Plant and Reward Mineral Resource. Long section looking west. (Image source: company update)

Upon wrapping up the commissioning activities, Vertex is looking forward to recovering gold from the stockpiles next to the processing plant and re-processing historic tailings materials and battery sands.

Alongside, the company is expecting to complete a comprehensive plan to restart underground mining operations and increase the scale of the processing plant. The main purpose is to gradually change to processing underground ores from processing stockpiled materials.

The company believes that mine is well placed for a simple start up, owing to the location of processing plant adjacent to stockpiles and the underground mine access point (adit). Adit extends into the resource, hence little development is required. Underground fleet and utility services are in place. Also, second egress is in place with ladder way and motorised Alimak conveyance.

Image source: company update

VTX stock performance

The company stock price has soared by over 16% in the past one month. VTX shares traded at AU$0.105 at the time of writing on 11 May 2023.

Note: Only the surface of the stockpile was sampled (24 samples) and that the sample grades may not be representative of the entire stockpile, which is up to 25m thick. However, sampled grades are considered consistent with reported tailing grades from historical operations at Hill End.