REG - Capital Metals PLC - Mineral Resource Upgrade

Capital MetalsAnnouncement

17/11/2025 07:00

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RNS Number : 6937H  Capital Metals PLC  17 November 2025

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION AS STIPULATED UNDER THE UK
VERSION OF THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION NO 596/2014 WHICH IS PART OF ENGLISH
LAW BY VIRTUE OF THE EUROPEAN (WITHDRAWAL) ACT 2018, AS AMENDED. ON
PUBLICATION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT VIA A REGULATORY INFORMATION SERVICE, THIS
INFORMATION IS CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

 

17 November 2025

 

 

Capital Metals PLC

("Capital Metals" or the "Company")

 

Mineral Resource Upgrade

 

Stage 1 drilling delivers nearly 15 times increase in MRE tonnes in the
proposed Initial Mining Area

 

Capital Metals (AIM: CMET), a mineral sands company approaching mine
development stage at its high-grade Taprobane Minerals Project in Sri Lanka
(the "Project"), is pleased to announce a significant Mineral Resource
Estimate ("MRE") upgrade in respect of the proposed Initial Mining Area
("IMA") only.

 

As previously reported, the 2016 MRE in the IMA covered 47 hectares, however,
the aircore drilling assay results received to date indicate the
mineralisation extends substantially to the west and at depth and now extends
across an area around 3.2 times larger at 152 hectares (using a bottom cut of
2% Heavy Minerals (HM)).

 

Highlights

 

·    Maintaining a 5% HM bottom cut delivers 4.8 times increase in
resource tonnes in the IMA, from 897kt to 4.3Mt at an average resource grade
of 10.5% HM.

·    Applying a 2% HM bottom cut delivers 14.6 times increase in resource
tonnes from 897kt to 13.1Mt at an average resource grade of 5.5% HM.

·    Applying a 2% HM bottom cut delivers 4.5 times increase in contained
HM from 160kt to 727kt.

·    The 2016 MRE in the IMA comprised only 5% of the total Project MRE.

·    Mineralisation typically commences from surface and persists to a
maximum of 15m depth with an average total depth of 7.9m.

·    The MRE is predominately classified at an Indicated level which is
suitable for calculation of Probable Mining Reserves for operational planning
and product scheduling purposes.

·    The bulk of the additional mineral tonnes are attributed to the
discovery of multiple beach strand formations in an older marine sequence
directly below the modern beach barrier formation.

 

The following work was completed to enable the MRE update:

·    170 aircore drill holes for 1,501 metres including twin holes

·    Lidar surface digital terrane modelling of the resource and extended
areas

·    48 mineralogy composites from 803 drill samples analysed by paired
XRF/XRD across 4 geological zones within the IMA

·    9 bulk density assessments from 36 composited samples across all 4
geological zones

·    Construction and application of a Variable Bulk Density algorithm by
Placer Consulting - resource geologists

 

A range of HM% bottom cuts were applied with 2% considered a reasonable grade
to reflect the accessibility of the resource, the anticipated low operational
cost and to ensure no mineral resources were excluded from economic
consideration during the optimisation of the Mining Reserve. The resultant
economic HM% bottom cut from operational financial input will allow a
re-reporting of the MRE should it be required. Both 2% HM and 5% HM model
comparisons are presented with further drilling and optimisation work required
to determine the most favourable cutoff.

 

Greg Martyr, Executive Chairman of Capital Metals, commented:

 

"This is a massive resource increase which exponentially exceeds our assumed
upgrade for the Initial Mining Area when we updated the Project's financial
model and NPV on 18 September 2025. We now look forward to continuing the
deeper drilling across the balance of the Project where hopefully this trend
will continue to deliver similar multiples of resource increase. The
implications of a similar increase across the whole resource makes this a
potentially multi-generational project.

 

There remains a lot of work to do to determine the optimal pit sizes and how
the resource will be processed, but it is clear that this will open up
flexible mining options, including a combination of high-grade surface mining
and significantly lower cost dredging for the deeper and wider deposits,
subject to local approvals.

 

These results clearly justify the ongoing drilling programme, which is
expected to significantly increase the total Project resource and allow us to
better understand our mining and processing alternatives, which will add to
our overall valuation for what will clearly be a long life mine with a grade
that is expected to remain among the highest in the world. In the meantime, we
are going full steam ahead on the existing plans to start construction of the
plant to get into cash flow by early 2027."

 

Next steps

 

Exploration and resource development will continue subject to ongoing
approvals to extend the current drill pattern southward through the remainder
of EL168 and into the EL199 area. EL199 is similarly endowed with substantial
resource addition potential to the west and at depth.

 

Table 1. Comparison of Proposed IMA 2016 & 2025 MRE @ 2% and 5% HM bottom
cut

 

 

 

Figure 1. Proposed IMA MRE coloured by HM% and showing drill locations (V.E. =
1:7) Drill sections shown.

 

 

 

Figure 2. Drilling and model cross section 1 at 508750mN showing drilled and
modelled HM%.  (V.E. = 1:7)

 

 

 

Figure 3. Drilling and model cross section 2 at 509150mN showing drilled and
modelled HM%.  (V.E. = 1:7)

 

 

 

Figure 4. Drilling and model cross section 3 at 509550mN showing drilled and
modelled HM%.  (V.E. = 1:7)

 

 

 

Subsequent to an extensive QA/QC verification, validated drill hole and assay
data tables were imported into Datamine Studio RM mining software and
de-surveyed, using the Holes3D super-process, to produce a Datamine drill hole
file in SLD99 UTM grid coordinates.

 

Drill hole collar elevations were then projected vertically to the DTM
topographic surface.  The drill hole file was zoned according to the
geological interpretation wireframes in the same order of addition as applied
to the model construction.

 

The strike length of the Mineral Resource is currently 2.4 kilometres. The
dimensions of the Mineral Resource are expressed in plan by the model
boundary, which is limited by the extent of drilling or until the government
land property boundary is reached. Currently it extends up to 1.3km in width
and has an average depth of 7.9m. Mineralisation remains open to the north and
south.

 

The bulk density applied to the MRE has been generated for each discrete
geological domain. A component-based density algorithm, designed by Placer
Consulting, combines density characteristics from each textural and
compositional component of the sample, including the grade and heavy mineral
species present. This is then combined with laboratory-generated porosity data
and a sample-by-sample density value is created and applied to the resource
model cells.

 

Datamine Studio RM was utilised in the computerised estimation of the
resource. Interpolation of the resource drill hole data into the block model
occurs using an orientated elliptical search volume defined by the trend of
the geological unit or HM grade distribution. The interpolation is anisotropic
and occurs discretely within each zone (hard boundary) according to the ZONE
key field in both the model and drill hole file.

 

A discretisation array of 3 x 3 x 2 is employed for interpolation averaging
into each cell. All cells/sub-cells are interpolated individually. The Inverse
Distance Power method (to the power of three) is used for the interpolation of
all lithology and analysis data in all modelled zones. Three search volumes
are utilised to populate model cells with a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 30
samples allowable in any search population.

 

Model cells are populated by the search volume applied (EST=1, EST=2 &
EST=3) to assist in defining mineral resource confidence levels. Those areas
populated by the first search are allocated an Indicated status. A
multiplication of the search volume by a factor of 3 and 5 was used for the
second and third search, respectively.

 

The designation of resource category was simplified by the application of new
drilling and analysis at a regular sample interval. The quality of informing
drill, assay and mineralogy data, Lidar survey, the performance of QA/QC
samples and the demonstrable geological and grade continuity also assisted in
the classification of this resource.

 

The MRE was completed by the Company's Competent Person, Richard Stockwell in
accordance with the reporting guidelines of the 2012 JORC Code. The resource
comparison is detailed in Table 1 and the resource is presented in Figures 1 -
4.

 

For further information, please visit www.capitalmetals.com
(http://www.capitalmetals.com) or contact:

 

 Capital Metals plc                                      Via Vigo Consulting

 Greg Martyr (Executive Chairman)
 Vigo Consulting (Investor Relations)                    +44 (0)20 7390 0234

 Ben Simons / Peter Jacob                                capitalmetals@vigoconsulting.com (mailto:capitalmetals@vigoconsulting.com)
 Strand Hanson Limited (Nominated Adviser)               +44 (0) 20 7409 3494

 Ritchie Balmer / Christopher Raggett / David Asquith
 Hannam & Partners (Broker & Financial Adviser)          +44 (0)20 7907 8500
 Andrew Chubb / Leif Powis

 

About Capital Metals

 

Capital Metals is a UK company listed on the London Stock Exchange (AIM:
CMET). We are developing the Taprobane Minerals Project in Sri Lanka,
approximately 220km east of Colombo, containing industrial minerals including
ilmenite, rutile, zircon, and garnet. The Project is one of the highest-grade
mineral sands projects globally, with potential for further grade and resource
expansion. In 2022, a third-party Preliminary Economic Assessment provided a
Project NPV of US$155-235m based on existing resources, with further
identified optimisation potential. We are committed to applying modern mining
practices and bringing significant positive benefits to Sri Lanka and the
local community. We expect over 300 direct new jobs to be created and over
US$150m in direct government royalties and taxes to be paid.

 

Visit our website:

www.capitalmetals.com (http://www.capitalmetals.com)

 

Follow us on social media:

 

X: @MetalsCapital (https://twitter.com/MetalsCapital)

LinkedIn: @Capital Metals plc (https://uk.linkedin.com/company/capitalmetals)

 

Competent Persons Statement

 

Information in this announcement relating to the drill assay results is based
on data reviewed by Richard Stockwell, a principal of Placer Consulting Pty
Ltd (which owns equity securities in Capital Metals PLC) and Technical Manager
of the Company. Mr Stockwell is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of
Geoscientists and has in excess of 20 years' experience, which is relevant to
the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration, and to
the activity he is undertaking, to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in
the 2021 Edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration
Results, Mineral resources and Ore Reserves". Mr Stockwell consents to the
inclusion of the information in the form and context in which it appears.

 

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