Neometals (ASX:NMT) executive Chris Reed told a conference audience the company is moving quickly to bring its Barrambie gold assets into production, with plans centered on a low-capital, contractor-operated mining approach designed to generate near-term cash flow and rebuild the balance sheet.
Reed credited the company’s technical team for accelerating progress at Barrambie, saying that since presenting an exploration target last year, Neometals has delivered its first gold resource, expects a second resource and mining studies “shortly,” and is working toward a production joint venture that could be finalized in the coming weeks. Reed said he hopes that “next year, this time, we’ll be turning out gold bars,” highlighting what he described as the ability to progress a project rapidly in Australia, particularly without building a processing plant.
Strategic refocus on gold as critical metals prices softened
That shift led the company to reassess Barrambie, which Neometals has held since about 2003 and historically evaluated primarily for vanadium and titanium. Reed described Barrambie as containing what he called the world’s second highest-grade titanium-vanadium deposit, but said gold had not been a major focus until recently despite a history of past production around the turn of the last century.
Barrambie footprint and exploration focus
Reed emphasized the scale of Neometals’ land position at Barrambie, describing about 500 square kilometers of tenements and roughly 300 square kilometers of granted mining tenements over the Barrambie Greenstone Belt along the Youanmi Shear. He cited around 40 strike kilometers of prospective contact, saying this offers a “camp scale opportunity.” Reed also said Neometals has spent about AUD 40 million advancing Barrambie through approvals for development.
He outlined multiple styles and settings of gold mineralization across the belt, noting gold occurrences on contacts between sediments and gabbro, gabbro and basalts, and basalts and granite. Reed said the company’s first resource was “pretty modest” but helped advance mining lease work and Native Title processes. He also noted the company had identified historical drilling, including 61 old reverse circulation holes with intercepts he characterized as 20–30 meters at roughly 3–4 grams per tonne in places, along with broader, lower-grade intervals near high-grade historical workings.
Reed discussed the Barrambie Ranges area as an underground target, describing historical production of about 20,000 ounces at just under one ounce per tonne from a narrow shear and quartz lodes. He said Neometals drilled the area this year and confirmed the stratigraphy continues at depth, though he indicated the company’s near-term focus is further north where open-pit potential appears stronger.
Ironclad production plan: toll milling and contractor JV
Neometals’ near-term development is focused on the Ironclad deposit at the north end of the belt, which Reed said the company is targeting to bring into production. He described Ironclad as sitting within a small mining lease area covering about 5.5% of the belt’s strike and said mineralization occurs in a wide quartz stockwork along a contact, with higher-grade underground workings associated with cross-cutting faults.
Reed cited examples of drill results at Ironclad, including intervals such as 26 meters at 2.5 grams per tonne and 26 meters at 4 grams per tonne from surface, and said the company has drilled about 320 meters of strike. He added that the company’s initial pit outline used a gold price assumption of about $5,100 and commented that gold had risen significantly since that work. Reed also said the widths and grades are increasing at depth, while drilling so far extends only to about 120 vertical meters, which he said leaves scope to expand the deposit.
To minimize capital requirements, Reed said Neometals signed a letter of intent late last year with mining contractors it knows well, pursuing a production joint venture in which the contractor would fund working capital and operate the mine. Under the concept described, ore would be trucked to toll milling capacity at Wiluna. Reed highlighted access advantages, noting the Sandstone–Meekatharra Road runs about 250 meters from the deposit. He said the arrangement would involve “no upfront capital cost” to Neometals.
On permitting and next steps, Reed said Neometals submitted a native vegetation clearing permit in the prior week, expects to submit a mine development and closure plan early next quarter, and aims to convert the process into a full production joint venture agreement in March. He said grade control drilling is planned for next quarter.
Reed also summarized metallurgical work, describing the ore as “free milling,” relatively soft due to near-surface mining, with low work indexes and low reagent consumption. He said recoveries in work completed to date have been up to 98%.
Pipeline targets and copper discovery
Beyond Ironclad, Reed said Neometals intends to extend mine life by advancing additional prospects. He named Magnum Bonum and Silver Linings as more advanced projects to evaluate as Ironclad moves into production. He said the company’s main priority is extending Ironclad to the north, describing it as the “easiest win” given improving grade and width at depth.
Reed also said Neometals has identified copper mineralization on the belt, crediting Solstice for drawing attention to the northern end. He highlighted the historical Rinaldi copper mine, saying it was last mined around 1960–1961 and produced about 1,400 tonnes at just under 10% copper from an open pit. Reed said recent sampling returned grades up to about 24% copper and that additional shafts are present north and south, though he said the size and geometry are not yet known.
Financial snapshot and broader portfolio
Reed said Neometals had about AUD 6 million in cash and a market capitalization of about AUD 46 million. He said the past period has been “tough” but framed the gold push as a turnaround effort. He also stated that over the last decade the company has returned AUD 82 million to shareholders through dividends, capital returns, and buybacks when it was profitable, and said the company is working to return to that position.
While emphasizing near-term gold cash flow as the foundation, Reed said Neometals maintains commodity diversification across critical metals, including lithium and vanadium, and is pursuing potential future revenue streams such as royalties from technology. He also said the company is looking to re-enter upstream lithium through a lithium brine project in Utah and described the company as “very ESG aligned.”
About Neometals (ASX:NMT)
Neometals Ltd explores for mineral projects in Australia. The company operates through three segments: Lithium, Titanium/Vanadium, and Other. Its projects include the Lithium-ion Battery Recycling project provides recycling service of batteries; Vanadium Recovery project, which recovers vanadium pentoxide through processing of steelmaking by-products; Lithium Refinery project; and Barrambie Titanium and Vanadium project located in Western Australia. Neometals Ltd was incorporated in 2001 and is based in West Perth, Australia.
