Vertex Minerals Ltd (ASX:VTX) has hit the boards as the latest ASX gold explorer, trading under the ticker ‘VTX’ following the company’s spin-out from Peak Minerals Ltd in August last year.
Vertex completed its IPO just last week, issuing 27.5 million shares at $0.20 per share to raise $5.5 million in funds.
A subsidiary of Peak Minerals, Vertex will soon hold four gold projects within Australia, two of which already boast JORC-compliant mineral resources.
VTX by the numbers
Vertex Minerals officially became an ASX-lister today, at 10:30 am AEDT.
Including the 27.5 million shares issued in the IPO, Vertex now has more than 48.7 million shares on offer, with newly distributed shares constituting 56% of the company’s securities.
VTX says it will use the finance generated by the IPO to fund the listing, secure assets currently held under acquisition agreements and fund and support the team that will advance Vertex’s project development going forward.
Including its existing cash reserves of $320,000, VTX plans to distribute company funds as follows:
- Exploration at Hargraves Project: $1.325 million;
- Exploration at Hill End Project: $500,000;
- Exploration at Taylors Rock Project: $285,000;
- Exploration at Pride of Elvire Project: $310,000;
- Expenses of the offer: $650,000;
- Reimbursement payments to vendors: $617,759;
- Administration and corporate costs: $1.06 million; and
- Working capital: $1,072,241.
Vertex has outlined a $2.42 million budget for the first two years of exploration at its projects, which will include ground exploration, resource development and mining studies.
Targeting gold market
The gold market surged dramatically in 2020, fuelled by global uncertainty as the COVID-19 pandemic made its disruptive presence known.
The price levelled out somewhat in 2021 and ended up finishing the year approximately 4% lower, closing at US$1,806/ounce.
According to the World Gold Council’s 2022 outlook report, gold will likely face two key headwinds during 2022:
- Higher nominal interest rates; and
- A potentially stronger US dollar.
However, the negative effect from these two drivers may be offset by other supporting factors, including:
- High, persistent inflation;
- Market volatility linked to COVID, geopolitics, etc; and
- Robust demand from other sectors such as central banks and jewellery.
Against this backdrop, gold’s performance during 2022 will ultimately be determined by which factors tip the scale. Yet, the World Gold Council believes gold’s relevance as a risk hedge will be particularly relevant for investors this year.
Projects
Vertex will be well-positioned to move into the gold market following the completion of its acquisitions, with four projects in various stages of development:
Hargraves Gold Project: A Central West NSW site spun out from Peak Minerals, Hargraves holds a JORC resource of 97,000 ounces indicated and 80,000 ounces inferred for a total of 2.4 g/t for 177,000 ounces of gold.
Hill End Project: Spun out of Peak Minerals with additional tenements since acquired. Hill End, which is south of Hargraves, has three prospective areas, one of which (Red Hill) holds a JORC resource of 18,000 ounces indicated and 61,000 ounces inferred at 1.7 g/t for 80,000 ounces of gold.
WA gold projects: VTX has acquired two prospective tenements in Western Australia; the Pride of Elvire Gold Project which historically has returned assays of 10 metres at 23.2 g/t gold, and Taylors Rock, where historical assays returned 1-metre at 45.4 g/t.
The Vertex Minerals team
The Vertex board is led by executive chair Roger Jackson, an industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience in mine operation, services and exploration.
Jackson has maintained a geological and mining consulting business for the past 10 years whilst holding several executive roles.
He has a strong knowledge of gold exploration and mining and has a sound knowledge of base metal mining and exploration.
Non-executive director Declan Franzmann is a mining engineer with 29 years of experience ranging from exploration programs, feasibility and other technical studies, mine construction and mine management through to mine closure.
His experience includes open pit and underground metalliferous mining across Australia, Asia, Africa and South America. Most recently, he was vice president of operations for Black Mountain Metals.
Closing out the team is technical director Tully Richards, an experienced copper/gold geologist based in Orange, NSW.
For the last 10 years, Tully has operated his own geological consulting business (Central West Scientific Pty Ltd) focused on NSW and in particular the Lachlan Fold belt.