Vault Minerals has released its annual resources and reserve statement for the 2024–25 financial year (FY25), reporting group mineral resources of 12.2 million ounces of gold and 13,600 tonnes of copper, and ore reserves of 4 million ounces of gold and 3016 tonnes of copper.
Ore reserves were 33 per cent higher year-on-year (17 per cent in absolute terms), while mineral resources were broadly consistent, up three per cent (down one per cent in absolute terms). These figures include FY25 mine depletion of 405,828 ounces.
The statement covered Vault’s assets across its Leonora, Mount Monger, Deflector, and Sugar Zone operations.
At Leonora, described by Vault as a “long life, large open pit base load operation, supported by low-cost processing infrastructure in a prolific gold district”, ore reserves rose 39 per cent post-depletion to 2.8 million ounces, while mineral resources increased 7 per cent to 6.2 million ounces.
Growth was underpinned by the larger, longer life King of the Hills (KOTH) open pit and a significant increase at Darlot.
KOTH underground drilling also extended mineralisation beyond the 30 June 2025 resource limits along strike and down dip in the West Zone, with results including 5.62m at 31.6 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 1.91m at 54.8g/t, 0.35m at 174g/t and 0.6m at 57g/t.
At Mount Monger, mineral resources totalled 3.8 million ounces and ore reserves 629,000 ounces, reflecting a 28 per cent increase after 88,719 ounces of depletion.
The uplift was largely driven by a 52,440-ounce ore reserve increase at the Rumbles open pit within the Mount Belches mining centre.
Vault said the gains highlighted the value of established operations in a constructive gold price environment, with depletion at French Kiss offset by higher grades and production from the Santa open pit complex.
Deflector reported mineral resources of 1 million ounces and ore reserves of 192,000 ounces.
Overall reserves fell 10 per cent in absolute terms to 128,000 ounces due to Rothsay depletion and the removal of the Deflector open pit.
However, Deflector’s underground ore reserves rose 70 per cent, with additions from Deflector South West largely offsetting depletion from Deflector Main.
At the Sugar Zone, drilling success at the Sugar South lodes supported reserves growth and provided additional production optionality.
“The introduction of Sugar South to the mine plan is a compelling low capital intensity opportunity to increase value, with access to be established by extending existing Sugar Zone development and services infrastructure as part of the Sugar Zone restart,” the company said.
Mineral resources at the Sugar Zone totalled 1.23 million ounces and ore reserves 389,000 ounces, including a 20 per cent increase from the addition of Sugar South.
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