Vertex, which successfully raised $5.5 million prior to Christmas to fund exploration of properties in New South Wales and Western Australia, failed to attract much interest, with the shares trading between 17-19c, closing down 10% at 18c.
That's despite a register that includes fan favourite investor Tolga Kumova as the third-largest shareholder with 2.2%.
Vertex is the latest company that wants to develop the Hill End and Hargraves gold projects in New South Wales' Lachlan Fold Belt.
Hill End is an historical mining centre where Vertex says there is a 14km-long gold load that it believes can support a mix of open pit and underground operations, recovering high-grade gold in its existing gravity plant.
Also on the agenda is completion of a prefeasibility study for the 177,000 ounce Hargraves deposit, and drilling exploration targets such as Red Hill and Big Nugget Hill.
Hargraves is a priority. A study completed in 2015 using a $1600/oz gold price was promising, and Vertex hopes it may generate some $40 million to returns in the current pricing environment.
Vertex says despite more than 150 years of exploration the area there is plenty of upside, particularly at Hill End, where historic mining ended at the water table, and from where the largest gold nugget in the world was recovered.
In the west, Vertex has the Pride of Elvire project, near Southern Cross, and Taylors Rock, near Norseman.
Pride of Elvire has significant historical intercepts, such as 10m at 23.3 grams per tonne from 17m and 1m at 144gpt from 15m in the 1980s, while Taylors Rock has potential for nickel and gold
Vertex has budgeted $2.4 million on exploration over the next two years.
The company is headed up by executive chairman and geologist Roger Jackson, who has been a director of Ark Mines and non-executive director and mining engineer Declan Franzmann.
Vertex' technical director, Tully Richards is an Orange-based consulting geologist who worked with Hargraves Resources in the area in the 1990s, and later LionOre in WA.
Peak shareholders were granted Vertex shares via an in-specie distribution.
