Cashed-up Aeris eyes golden Cracow opportunity
By Industry Queensland
Aeris Resources is in its best position in many years and pursuing a ‘really exciting’ opportunity at Queensland’s Cracow gold mine, according to executive chairman Andre Labuschagne.
He was commenting on the back of an $80 million placement and the sale of the company’s assets in North-West Queensland, expected to deliver $11.5 million in proceeds in December.
It leaves the company cashed up for an exploration push at Golden Plateau and the Southern Vein Field at its Cracow gold operation in Central Queensland.
Key points:
- Aeris Resources has received the net proceeds from a $80 million placement
- It plans to step up drilling work at Golden Plateau
A portion of the $80 million proceeds has been applied to fully repay a loan facility with Washington H. Soul Pattison.
Aeris comes out with pro-forma cash of $62.3 million and a materially deleveraged balance sheet following the debt repayment.
“This is the best position Aeris has been in many years with a strong balance sheet, clear strategy for operational delivery and growth through exploration in FY26,” Mr Labuschagne said.
In addition to its Cracow gold operation in Queensland, Aeris owns the Tritton operation in New South Wales, the mothballed Jaguar operation (WA) and the Stockman project (Victoria).
At Cracow, Aeris is investigating a large halo around old stoping areas below the former Golden Plateau mining pit
“We see an opportunity to put a bigger open cut over that and also extending to the west and at depth,” Mr Labuschagne said.
“We’ve done the work. We will start drilling there in the next few weeks. With this money we’ve just raised, we will do extra drilling with the aim to turn this into a resource and then put a mine plan around it.
“There’s a strong opportunity there for a significant future, firm life-of-mine plan for open-pit mining.
“This is on the mining lease. It’s about a kilometre from the process plant – so it is within the area which we mine and a real exciting opportunity to actually be able to define the resource, back life for Cracow.
“That then allows you time to actually look at the regional exploration opportunity.”
Aeris is also focusing on a greenfield target in the Cracow area in the form of the Southern Vein Field, where Mr Labuschagne said it planned to start drilling in the next six months.
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