Aeris Expands Golden Plateau Drill Program as High-Grade Gold Results Strengthen Cracow Growth Potential

About Aeris Resources Limited

Aeris Resources Limited (ASX: AIS) is an established Australian copper-gold producer and explorer with a portfolio spanning producing assets, a mine on care and maintenance, a long-life development project and an exploration portfolio. The company said Golden Plateau sits within its 100 per cent owned Cracow tenement package in Queensland and is being advanced as a potential major ore source for the Cracow operation.

Golden Plateau drilling continues to strengthen the growth case

Aeris’ latest update points to growing confidence in Golden Plateau as a future source of feed for Cracow. Executive Chairman Andre Labuschagne said the latest drilling strengthened the company’s confidence in the deposit’s potential to become a new ore source, with high-grade results consistently reported across multiple lodes. He also said the company had expanded the drill program to expedite both a Mineral Resource Estimate and an economic assessment of the project. That is a meaningful step because it suggests Golden Plateau is moving beyond early exploration success and toward more defined development evaluation.

The deposit is located within current mining leases, about one kilometre north of the Cracow processing facility and two kilometres east of the current underground mining operations at the Western Vein Field. Golden Plateau has historically been the most significant contributor to the known Cracow goldfield, with around 850,000 ounces of gold produced between the 1930s and 1990s. Aeris said an updated geological interpretation and internal grade estimate had already been developed using detailed historical section interpretations and more than 1,200 historical drill holes, with 33 mineralised lodes interpreted and modelled to form the basis of the current drill program.

Ferneyside and Sunnyside add near-surface open-pit appeal

Drilling at the Ferneyside lode has continued to deliver encouraging results, with the lode intersected in its predicted position across six drill holes completed to date. Aeris said the lode had been modelled over roughly 150 metres of strike and 150 metres down-dip, extending from about 10 metres below surface. A newly identified parallel structure, the Sunnyside lode, has also been discovered adjacent to Ferneyside and has already been traced 30 metres along strike. The company said additional drilling is planned and that the lode has the potential to prove laterally extensive, which could add further gold endowment in the north-eastern part of the Golden Plateau deposit.

Reported intersections included 3.0 metres at 3.0g/t gold and 7.9 metres at 2.1g/t gold in GPS132, and 10.0 metres at 2.9g/t gold plus 2.6 metres at 2.3g/t gold in GPS135. Aeris said the combination of shallow mineralisation and strike definition meant Ferneyside was continuing to build as a compelling open-pit target, with Sunnyside providing encouraging early evidence of further mineralisation nearby.

South and West lodes highlight remnant mineralisation opportunity

The South lode has also returned a notable result. Aeris said four drill holes had been completed targeting the South lode, with assay results so far received from GPS140. That hole was designed to test the void model and a remnant pillar near the intersection of two significant mineralised structures. The result was significant because remnant pillars represent lower-grade mineralisation left behind during selective underground mining, and these zones may become viable in an open-pit setting. GPS140 returned 34.5 metres at 3.1g/t gold, including 7.3 metres at 7.5g/t gold, along with a further 5.0 metres at 2.2g/t gold in the Main lode. Aeris said further drilling was planned to better understand the full extent and geometry of the remnant pillar and the mineralisation style.

At the West lode, six holes have been completed as part of the current program. The lode consists of a series of stacked, moderately south-dipping quartz lodes traced over about 200 metres of strike, with some outcropping at surface. Four holes were drilled to confirm the location and geometry of historical voids, while two were drilled to validate the geological model and assess gold prospectivity. Significant intersections included 7.1 metres at 4.9g/t gold in GPS134, 6.8 metres at 4.2g/t gold in GPS139B and 13.7 metres at 1.8g/t gold in GPS137, including 6.1 metres at 3.4g/t gold. Aeris said these results were encouraging and that the West lode may also contribute to the broader open-pit development case for Golden Plateau.

Outlook

Looking ahead, Aeris remains focused on completing the expanded 14,000 metre drill program and progressively incorporating results into an updated geological model to support open-pit mine design and environmental permitting assessments. At the conclusion of the program, the company intends to update the Golden Plateau Mineral Resource Estimate and undertake an economic assessment of the project. This progression from drilling to modelling to resource and economic work is important because it marks a shift from pure exploration towards a more defined development pathway and a potential future ore source for Cracow.