Highlights

  • Gold bars are being poured at the Reward mine using gravity-only processing through a refurbished Gekko plant, with no cyanide or chemical leaching.
  • Bathurst Regional Council approved 24-hour underground operations in August 2026, lifting available working time from about 9 hours to as many as 22 hours per day.
  • The updated September 2026 resource stands at 274,000 tonnes at 16.68 g/t for 146,900 ounces — 35% fewer ounces than the 2023 estimate, following a 200 g/t top-cut.
  • No ore reserve has been declared; underground diamond drilling targeting resource extensions is scheduled to begin in the March quarter of 2027.

Vertex Minerals is pouring gold bars at its Reward mine at Hill End in New South Wales using gravity processing alone. The company (ASX:VTX) confirmed the development in a director interview published at the IMARC conference on 28 October 2026. Vertex is now working towards round-the-clock underground mining to lift output.

Why Gravity Processing Works at Reward

The method suits the deposit. An updated resource statement released on 2 September 2026 described Reward's gold as coarse, free and nuggety, hosted in quartz veins with negligible sulphides. The company said gravity recovery of up to 95% is achievable without cyanide or fine grinding. Ore is treated through a refurbished Gekko gravity plant with an ore sorter on site. Avoiding cyanide can simplify permitting and reduce reagent costs, but gravity circuits depend on gold being liberated as coarse particles. Any finer or sulphide-locked gold would be harder to capture with this flowsheet.

Lifting Operating Hours

The main constraint on the mine has been time. On 20 August 2026, Bathurst Regional Council approved a modification allowing 24-hour underground operations and blasting, lifting available working time from about nine hours a day to as many as 22. Under the earlier consent, blasting was limited to daytime hours six days a week. Vertex said it was recruiting about 20 additional staff to support a night shift and was applying to vary its environmental protection licence to match the new consent. Lodes including the Mica Lense are being mined from Decline 3 by mechanised longhole open stoping, with a stoping width of about 1.4 metres.

A Smaller Resource

The September 2026 update reduced the Reward mineral resource to 274,000 tonnes at 16.68 g/t gold for 146,900 ounces, comprising 54,700 Indicated ounces at 21.17 g/t and 92,200 Inferred ounces at 14.76 g/t. That is 35% fewer ounces than the previous 2023 estimate of 225,200 ounces, which Vertex attributed mainly to a 200 g/t top-cut and a smaller lode model. Without the top-cut, the figure would have been 192,000 ounces.

Vertex has not declared an ore reserve, so its production plans are not based on one. An internal reinterpretation of the lodes still requires independent assessment, which could move the resource in either direction. Narrow veins and nuggety gold make grade control difficult, and production rates and targets have not been published.

Next Steps

The company planned full production from October 2026. Underground diamond drilling from dedicated platforms is scheduled to start in the March quarter of 2027, targeting extensions below the resource, remnant high-grade material near the historic Hawkins Hill workings and the Fosters corridor about 400 metres south. The Fosters exploration target of 211,000 to 321,000 ounces is conceptual, and there is no certainty it will become a resource.