Vertex Minerals Limited provided a further update on start-up operations at the Reward Gold Mine at Hill End. As previously announced, the Company has been refurbishing the Reward Processing Plant and this commissioning process provided the first gold in concentrate in August. Concentrate produced (which principally represents historical gold-in-circuit including material from sumps) has now been successfully refined on-site and smelted to a doré bar of approximately 0.5kg which is being delivered to the ABC Refinery in Sydney.

Commissioning works to support the processing of stockpiled material adjacent to the plant site are now complete, with processing of stockpiled material now underway on a staged stepped-up approach. The plant has been run a few days a week on short shiOs, while other work was undertaken, including water supply systems, tails water re2cula2on, security systems, road works, infrastructure, and general op2misa2on. This work forms part of ongoing prepara2ons for future mine opera2ons, following the recent comple2on of a JORC- 2012 compliant Mineral Resource Es2mate (MRE) for the Reward Gold Mine by independent consultants HGS Australia (refer ASX Announcement 6 July 2023).