9 July 2026
East Star Resources Plc
("East Star" or the "Company")
Verkhuba Copper Deposit Drilling Underway
First major operational milestone of Joint Venture with Xinhai
East Star Resources Plc (LSE: EST), the Kazakhstan-focused gold and copper exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the commencement of drilling at the Verkhuba Copper Deposit ("Verkhuba"), as part of its Joint Venture ("JV") with Hong Kong Xinhai Mining Services Ltd ("Xinhai").
Highlights
· A programme of approximately 5,000 metres of diamond core drilling has commenced.
· The drilling programme is intended to support resource conversion, geological modelling, mine planning and feasibility study activities, with particular focus on the first 3 to 5 years of mining operations.
· East Star is allocating two geologists and providing some additional administrative support, paid for by Xinhai through the JV, to ensure continuity of care in exploration and relationships with local stakeholders.
· Drilling is expected to take up to 3 months with assays and an updated resource to follow shortly after.
· The drilling programme is at no cost to East Star which is fully carried to production. At that point East Star will hold 30% of the producing mine with a current JORC Inferred Resource of 20.3Mt @ 1.16% copper, 1.54% zinc and 0.27% lead.
Alex Walker, CEO of East Star, commented:
"Having established the JV company and received initial funding from our partner, Xinhai, we are now moving directly into the operational phase required to advance the project towards feasibility. This circa 5,000-metre programme will provide the data required to support resource conversion and inform mine planning, bringing us closer to production of a sizeable deposit at no further cost to East Star."
Figure 1 - Drill Equipment onsite at Verkhuba
Contacts:
East Star Resources Plc
Alex Walker, Chief Executive Officer
Tel: +44 (0)20 7390 0234 (via Vigo Consulting)
SI Capital (Corporate Broker)
Nick Emerson
Tel: +44 (0)1483 413 500
Vigo Consulting (Investor Relations)
Ben Simons / Seb Weller / Georgina Moul
Tel: +44 (0)20 7390 0234
About East Star Resources Plc
East Star Resources is focused on the discovery and development of copper and gold in Kazakhstan. The Company is pursuing multiple exploration strategies including:
· A joint venture with Hong Kong Xinhai Mining Services Limited to take the Verkhuba Deposit (20.3Mt @ 1.16% copper, 1.54% zinc and 0.27% lead) into production (at no further cost to East Star) with East Star retaining 30% ownership in production
· A second VMS Exploration Target with up to 23Mt @ 2.4% copper equivalent in the same region, with numerous other targets being advanced to drill-ready status
· A $25 million+ strategic gold exploration joint venture with Endeavour Mining
· Tier 1 potential copper porphyry targets and epithermal gold targets in a proven copper porphyry and epithermal belt
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About Hong Kong Xinhai Mining Services Limited
Xinhai is a privately owned global process engineering and contracting company that specialises in providing engineering design, procurement and construction services to the mining industry. It has completed more than 500 EPC contracts globally, many including mine construction and mine operation management services.
The person who arranged for the release of this announcement was Alex Walker, CEO of the Company.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation 2014/596/EU which is part of domestic UK law pursuant to the Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations (SI 2019/310) ("UK MAR"). Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information (as defined in UK MAR) is now considered to be in the public domain.