Aeris Resources unveils plans to develop new production source at Tritton and extend life-of-mine at Cracow

Aeris Resources Ltd (ASX:AIS) has unveiled a $50 million plan to develop three new copper production sources at its 100%-owned Tritton Copper Operations in New South Wales and extend the mine life at Cracow Gold Operations in Queensland.  The company is confident that the highly-endowed Tritton tenement package has more copper awaiting discovery and looks forward to updating the market as it moves this exploration program forward in FY22.  Aris has also increased its FY22 exploration budget at Cracow to $13 million, taking the total projected exploration spend in the first two years to $19 million as it is convinced the tenement remains highly prospective for more gold.  Exploration in new spaces will be looking for the next significant deposit, including Cracow South West, Ballymore and Boughyard.  The company maintains it is well funded to complete these programs. Extensive pipeline of advanced projects Aeris executive chairman Andre Labuschagne said: “We have always had confidence in the future of the Tritton Copper Operations. “Apart from the Tritton and Murrawombie underground mines, we have an extensive pipeline of advanced projects, which we are now able to invest in to extend the mine life. “FY22 will see us develop three new production sources and undertake in-fill resource drilling programs on a further three projects, including the high-grade Constellation and Kurrajong deposits. “We believe there’s more copper to be found on the Tritton tenement package. “The recent discovery of the Constellation deposit has validated that view and having established infrastructure and processing capability reduces the time to production for new discoveries by years, and sometimes decades. FY22 exploration activities The Tritton tenement package covers 2,160 square kilometres in central-western NSW. To date over 750,000 tonnes of copper, including the current mineral resource deposits, has been discovered within the southern half of the tenement package. The northern half of the tenement package, until recently, has not been subject to modern exploration and remains largely unexplored. The discovery of the Constellation deposit in November 2020 demonstrates the prospectivity of this area. During FY22, $15 million has been allocated to both early-stage exploration activities ($7 million) and in-fill resource drilling ($8 million) on the Tritton tenement package: ➢ In-fill resource drilling campaigns will be conducted at the Constellation, Kurrajong and Budgery deposits. These drill programs will upgrade the geological understanding of each deposit so that they can also be scheduled into the Tritton life-of-mine plan: Constellation deposit – targeting initial Mineral Resource in the third quarter FY22; Kurrajong deposit – targeting initial Mineral Resource in the fourth quarter FY22; and Budgery deposit – targeting maiden ore reserve in the fourth quarter FY22 ➢ An airborne electromagnetic surveying program over 570 square kilometres of the northern section of the tenement package; ➢ A geochemical auger sampling program; and ➢ initial drill testing of multiple anomalies. Constellation and Kurrajong are priority exploration projects as drilling results to date at both deposits indicate potential for higher-grade ore sources. Budgerygar Deposit The Budgerygar deposit is adjacent to the Tritton underground mine and will be accessed from the Tritton mine infrastructure. Recent resource definition drilling has targeted the upper portion of the Budgerygar deposit between 5,200mRL to 5,000mRL to a nominal 40 metres x 40 metres drill spacing, appropriate for conversion to an Indicated Mineral Resource category. Geologically, the additional drill hole data supports the current geological interpretation of multiple stacked copper sulphide bodies. There is some additional faulting and dislocation of the mineralised systems, which is typical for these deposit types as the drill density increases. Avoca Tank Deposit The Avoca Tank deposit has an ore reserve of 700,000 tonnes at 2.5% copper and 0.8 g/t gold and remains open down plunge. The mining lease application has been submitted and the approval process is underway with construction of the access decline targeted to commence by the end of the second quarter of FY22. First production is scheduled for the first or second quarter of FY23. Murrwombie Open Pit The Murrwombie Open Pit cut-back has an ore reserve of 1,600,000 tonnes at 0.9% copper and will be used as a supplemental ore source from FY23 onwards to “Fill the Mill”. Copper fundamentals Labuschagne added: “The fundamentals for copper into the coming years look very positive as the “decarbonisation” of the world accelerates. As an existing producer, we believe Aeris, through its Tritton Copper Operations, is well placed to leverage value from the looming copper supply deficit.” Tritton copper production guidance The company has also updated its two-year copper production guidance. For FY22, copper production is estimated at 21,000 to 22,000 tonnes while in FY23, it goes up to 22,500 to 23,500 tonnes. Cracow mine During FY22, $13 million is budgeted for exploration activities at Cracow. It includes:  ➢ $9 million for resource definition drilling programs around current underground workings and surface targets on the Eastern Field; and ➢ $4 million for greenfields exploration projects, including drill testing the Boughyard high sulphidation prospect and geophysics & drill testing at Ballymore Extended & Cracow SW. Aries is focused on ore sources within 5 kilometres of the Cracow mill and is also seeking incremental additions in the Eastern Field. The new operating strategy enables areas to be targeted, which previously were lower priority. The company believes the Cracow tenement package remains highly prospective for discovery of more gold, both within brownfields and greenfields exploration spaces and this is reflected in the extensive portfolio of exploration targets identified. Aeris’ Labuschagne said: “With the recent announcement of the updated Ore Reserve and Mineral Resource estimates for 30 June 2021, we have more gold in both categories than when we acquired Cracow on 1 July 2020. “This has also enabled us to continue providing two-year production guidance. “The increases in Ore Reserves and Mineral Resources are the result of multiple life extension projects, including challenging operating paradigms to enable lower cutoff grades and success from the drill bit.” The Cracow tenement package covers 990 square kilometres and is 500 kilometres northwest of Brisbane. When Crawcow was acquired, Aries’ expectation for FY22 was to produce between 57,000 ounces and 62,000 ounces of gold. It has however upgraded guidance for this year to between 67,000 ounces and 71,000 ounces, and included for the first time, production guidance for FY23 - 60,000 ounces to 65,000 ounces. Drilling and reinterpretation of brownfields exploration targets have enabled a slight increase in ore reserves and a 30% increase in mineral resources as at 30 June 2021, despite FY21 depletion.