Aeris Resources Limited (ASX:AIS)
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Noosa Mining Investor Conference

Jul 25, 2025

Andre Labuschagne
Executive Chairman, Aeris Resources Limited

Good morning, everyone. I have to apologize for my voice. Picked up a little bug. Yesterday, I had no voice, and Stefan was going to do the presentation. Just bear with me, and it should all be all good. I guess, Aeris Resources has been really one of the producers in the region. We currently got two operating mines. We've got the Tritton Copper Mine, and we'll go into the details. We've got the Cracow Gold Mine, and then we've got assets in North Queensland, which we'll talk a bit more. We've got the Jaguar Copper-Zinc Mine, which is currently in care and maintenance, and the Stockman Copper-Zinc Project, which we're working on a feasibility study. If you look at the corporate overview, current market cap around $200 million.

Share price sort of in the last week responded quite well to our guidance going out, and we'll talk through a little around those. A fairly new executive team. We made some changes in the last 12 months. We got some retirements and people not coming back. A small board, and very effective and strong board as we move the company forward. Current debt in the business around $40 million with Washington H. Soul Pattinson Company Limited . As you can see, Washington H. Soul Pattinson Company Limited is also one of our major shareholders at 31%. I guess this is sort of the key takeaway for us for FY26. We have been working through the last two years. We've invested a lot of money in new projects.

We did the Roundup Resources transaction a few years ago, but clearly we want to give direction on where are we going in the next 12 months with the business. At Tritton, the focus is operational delivery. With the Marra Mamba Open Pit now in production and the pre-strip for the next five months, we can see Tritton going back up, year on year to about, with increase about 37% on production to around that 25,000 tons copper, for Tritton. Very strong turnaround for Tritton. The key work we're working on is the Constellation Deposit, which is the future for Tritton over the next four, five, probably 10 years. The key for us is to bring that Constellation Deposit in production in FY27 with a specific focus on open pit mining and then going underground.

For Tritton, we've been busy with this mine now, business for 11 years, and the times when Tritton did well was when it had a base load feed of around a million tons from one ore body. What we're seeing now with the open pit mines coming in production, we're back to that base load feed of around a million tons from ore, from one resource or from one mine. A lot of money year on year. We're doubling our exploration budget across the group with specific focus on resource extensions at Tritton with that aim to get that life of mine planned with a strong resource backing for at least five years. At Cracow, look, it's been a really great little mine. We had a site visit at the site before this event started, on Tuesday. It is one of those little gold mines.

It will do between 40,000 and 45,000 ounces of gold. At this gold price, generate good cash, and that allows us to invest in Tritton to get the Tritton mine up to that 25,000 to 30,000 tons over the next few years. We'll talk a little about resource extensions, and it's also trying to create the challenge that's always been for Cracow. It never had more than one to two years in reserves, and we're working really hard to improve that. You'll see some of the exciting opportunities. We've made a clear decision to try to simplify the business. We've got all these assets and projects and made a decision to sell our North Queensland assets, and that will release some bonding, but it also will bring in a little bit of cash, which can help to offset against debt and growth.

The Jaguar mine we put into care and maintenance about two years ago. We kept it in good standing care and maintenance. It was quite expensive. The decision was made from the studies we've done that we will not start that mine with a mine life less than 10 years. The current resource there is about five to seven years, perhaps a bit more. What we are planning to do is we're going to put it in the lowest cost care and maintenance. We'll drop the care and maintenance from about $2,000,000 to $600,000 a quarter, and really focus on really strong base metal targets to draw that out in the next year or so. We've allocated $3.1 million to do that. Once you get that strong resource backing, you will restart that mine. There's also very strong gold potential, and I'll show you a slide.

We will look at JV or actually spend the money ourselves because that can be a company maker if you find a 500,000 or a million ounce ore body on the tenements. On Stockman, that is a really exciting project in Victoria. The Albion Process test work will finish in the next few weeks. We'll update the study on the back of that. We've also been approached by the Victorian Government to look at sulfuric acid. That ore body is about 50% pyrite, so really strong potential for sulfuric acid. We'll do a scoping study, but once those studies are done, we will go out and find a financial partner to come in to help to take it to final feasibility study and implementation.

On the growth side, as I said earlier, we have increased our exploration budget year on year significantly, so a lot of focus is on both resource extensions, but at both the operating mines, a lot of money will go into greenfields exploration to start to look at the increase of resource on greenfields. For those who know, the Washington H. Soul Pattinson Company Limited debt facility, which is $40 million, is payable in August. The guidance we put out is strong enough and will fund the closure of that debt facility as we move forward. We will consider hedging as part to prove the balance sheet while we're spending money in a pre-strip for an open pit mine. It makes sense to look at some hedging, in FY26. I'm just going to touch base. Between 40,000 and 49,000 copper equivalent tonnes.

It is one of the larger producers currently, in our space. Tritton will be between 24,000 and 29,000. Gold will be between 44,000 and 56,000. Very strong guidance going out. Cost and capital, year on year, about the same. There's additional $50 million in growth capital. That's for the pre-strip of the Marra Mamba Open Pit. You can see the exploration budget increasing, and we're starting the year with a pretty healthy cash and receivables of close to $50 million. Very strong start for us in FY26, and we're very confident of where we're going with the business. At Tritton, I'm just going to touch on a few things. You can see the guidance. Tritton is in New South Wales, close to CSA copper mine and [big] from Orillia. Typically, you mine two or three ore bodies at the same time. Underground mines currently in one open pit.

That feeds a 1.8 million tonne capacity process plant. It hasn't been full for many years, but in the last two, three months, with the volumes coming out of the open pit mine, that mine is actually, that process facility is run at 2 million tonnes on an annualized basis. It shows that it can process high volumes. You can just see that for the last three years, we've done between, let's call it 18,000 and 20,000 tonnes of copper metal, a significant step up in FY25. It is partly because of the pit and the grades we're getting out, but also the last six months, that mill will run at full capacity because of the tons we mined in the last six, the last part of the, so the second half of the year. That's the reason. You can see that slide on the right-hand side.

The process mill capacity is that line. In the last six months, 900,000 tons will be on stockpiles by the end of FY26, which will then be treated in FY27. You're already starting FY27 with a very strong position from the Marra Mamba Open Pit production. Constellation is the next big asset for us. It is probably the biggest discovery in that region for many, many years. Currently sitting at 7.6 million tons at 2%. The real exciting bit is, as I said earlier, is that base load feed you're looking for. This is a different study the team are working on.

That under the open pit at 3.2 million tons of sulfide, sitting at 2.5% copper and 0.8 gram a ton of gold, gives you an indication if you can do 3.2 million tons just from that open pit annually at 2.5% copper, you're talking about 20,000 tons of copper metal just from the open pit. That gold equates to about 15,000 to 20,000 ounces of gold annually. That then combined with the other sources is a significant change for the business. If you run an open cut scenario for five to six years as a base load, it makes a huge difference to the economics for Tritton. That's sort of just showing the extra money we're putting into drilling. I can't remember a year where we actually spent, where we drilled 80,000 meters at Tritton for underground resource extensions.

A material change and the focus on, as I said earlier, creating that five-year resource position. That's what we're talking about. Currently, just get this, Tritton has always been the base load feed for us. It's still open at depth. That's currently sitting at about 1.3 kilometers deep. All these other resources are open at depth and have been tested. The work we're doing on that 80,000 meters is going to go into extensions at Budgerigar Tank , extensions at Tritton and South Wing and Budgerigar , and then Constellation we will start drilling again when we're actually in production. A clear opportunity for us to improve that resource position for Tritton as we move forward. At Cracow, as I said, we were out there earlier in the week, a really good, solid, well-looked-after process facility. Do about 500,000 to 600,000 tons.

You can see from a reserve resource conversion, since we acquired this asset in 2021, we have added quite a lot of resources onto it. It has settled to produce around that 40,000 to 50,000 ounces of gold annually. At this gold price, it generates really good cash for us. The operational performance is currently more or less in line, slightly lower than what we produced in FY25. We can clearly see the focus for us is on the exploration. You can see we're mining currently the Western Windfield. The Southern Windfield is where the real exciting greenfields exploration opportunity is going to be. This year, we'll actually draw some holes into that Southern Windfield and the Western Frontier.

One of the real exciting opportunities, which has been identified only in the last three or four months by the team, is an old mining area called Golden Plateau, which was mined in the 1930s underground at plus 10 grams a ton gold. Previously, there was a small open pit mining through those old stopes. We delivered really good tons and grade. We're now looking at it as a potential for a further extension to that open pit. If that comes and that works, it is early days, you can see Cracow running on those tons for multiple years as an open pit mine from one area. That is really exciting news for us. A lot of work is being done. Within the next three months, we'll have an answer on how that looks and what's the potential.

At Jaguar, as I said earlier, we now focus on wanting a 10-plus year mine life. There are eight clear base metal targets, which we'll drill and test this financial year, the $3.1 million. Obviously, if you find something, you'll put more dollars in, but it's clearly for us, let's drop the costs, use the savings, drill some more holes, and then you bring that in with a life which you can sustain, which will also then allow you to look at renewable energy and all sorts of other opportunities. The gold upside is really exciting. You can see to the north is Thunderbox. To the south, you've got King of the Hills. You've got some assets from Northern Star Resources Limited, very close to our tenements. You can see all those gold targets. It makes sense to draw those.

It's not our current priority because we've got our own operations to work on. We will be trying to start to look at JV partners, or if there's enough funds, to drill it ourselves. That can bring in an option value for the business as we move forward. On Stockman, as I said earlier, I'm not going to spend too much time. Stockman is a great project. The feasibility study will be done in the, or the pre-fees will be done in the next few months. We will then start to look at financial partners or strategic partners to come in to help to take this through to final feasibility study and investment decision, and move it forward. Clearly, there's some good opportunity on upside on both sulfuric acid. There is a shortage of sulfuric acid.

The Victorian Government are looking for sulfuric acid for critical minerals, and that will be the opportunity we'll be looking for. That's just what we're divesting, what that will release, $6.5 million in bonding. We'll get the bonds back, which is currently cash-backed, and whatever cash you get for the assets. We're selling that package, partly to simplify the business, but also to move forward. Lastly, I don't think there would be another 40-plus thousand ton copper equivalent producer, which equals around 130,000 gold ounces equivalent with a market cap of $200 million. I think the opportunity for us is to deliver a few good quarters, deliver on some of these resource conversions, and I do think there's a significant upside potential for this business going forward. Thank you very much.

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