Announcement PDF Announcement ASX: CDT 19 December 2024 Drilling Commences at Kpali and Kandia Gold Prospects Looking ahead to 2025 • 1,500m, 12-hole RC drilling programme has commenced to extend high-grade mineralisation at the Wa Gold Project’s Kpali and Kandia prospects. • Assay results expected to be reported early February 2025. • Castle’s Executive Chairman just returned from Ghana after progressing the implementation of Ghana’s Minerals Income Investment Fund’s intended combined US$2.0 million investment in Castle and its Kambale Graphite Project. Awarded “Best Performer in Exploration (Junior Category)” for 2024 by the Ghana Chamber of Mines in recognition of Castle’s active and long term commitment to exploration in the country. Peaceful Presidential election and transition to a new government reinforces Ghana’s status as one of Africa’s preferred exploration and mining jurisdictions. • • _______________________________________ Castle Executive Chairman, Stephen Stone, commented “It’s all systems go to squeeze in before year-end a 1,500m, 12-hole RC drilling campaign to extend high-grade mineralised zones at Castle’s Kpali and Kandia gold prospects. We plan to report drilling results in early February 2025. These are just two of several high conviction prospects within Castle’s regional-scale Wa Gold Project where the immediate aim is to build a cluster of mineral resources totalling an initial one million ounces. West Africa is one of the world’s premier regions to be exploring for gold, delivering an enviable fifteen discoveries of over two million ounces each since 2012 and the Upper West region in Ghana is now considered one of the best areas to find more of these. The newly commissioned 5.1Moz Namdini gold project lies to the northeast of Kandia on the same Bole-Bolgatanga Birimian greenstone belt and the Julie deposit, a key resource of the 2.8Moz Black Volta Gold Project, is immediately along strike from the Kandia mineralised trend. Castle is also working to conclude a proposal by Ghana’s Minerals Income Investment Fund to inject a combined US$2.0 million into Castle and its Kambale Graphite Project. Meetings were held recently in Ghana to work through the provisions of an indicative Term Sheet that was inked by the parties in early November 2024. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Principal and Registered Office Suite 9 / 11 Ventnor Avenue West Perth, Western Australia 6005 | Postal PO Box 437 West Perth, Western Australia 6872 Contact admin@castleminerals.com | www.castleminerals.com | Telephone +61 8 93227018 Board: Executive Chairman, Stephen Stone | Non-Executive Directors, James Guy. Matthew Horgan | Company Secretary, Jade Styants Capital Structure Ordinary Shares: 1,667.2M | Listed Options: 205.7M | Unlisted Options: 196.9M | ASX Code CDT | ACN 116 095 802 Castle Minerals Limited: Commencement of drilling and looking ahead to 2025 Whilst in Ghana I was very pleased to receive the “Best Performer in Exploration (Junior Category)” for 2024 by the Ghana Chamber of Mines in recognition of Castle’s active and long term commitment to exploration in the country. An orderly transition to a new government following the Presidential election held on 7 December 2025 reinforces Ghana’s status as one of Africa’s preferred exploration and mining jurisdictions.” _______________________________________ Castle Minerals Limited (“Castle” or the “Company”) advises that it has commenced a combined 12-hole, 1,500m RC drilling campaign at its Kpali and Kandia gold prospects within its broader 2,686km2 Wa Gold Project in Ghana’s emerging Upper West Region. This campaign is consistent with Castle’s aspiration to delineate an initial combined 1.0Moz of gold resources across a cluster of prospects. The Upper West Region is now recognised as being very fertile having seen in recent years the discovery of several multi-million ounce gold projects. These include the newly commissioned 5.1Moz Namdini gold deposit discovered by Cardinal Resources Limited prior to its takeover in 2020 and the Azumah Resources Limited owned 2.8Moz Black Volta Gold Project (“BVGP”) which is earmarked for development in 2025. Namdini lies on the same Bole-Bolgatanga Birimian greenstone belt as Kandia and the BVGP’s Julie deposit is immediately along strike of the Kandia mineralised trend. Castle’s Executive Chairman, Stephen Stone, was instrumental in the discovery and delineation of a majority of the BVGP’s mineral resources. Eight holes totalling 900m at Kpali and four holes totalling 600m at Kandia are expected to be completed in early January 2025 with assay results likely to be available and reported around mid-February 2025. All holes have been designed to extend high-grade mineralised zones at both prospects. Fig 1: Ghana’s Upper West Region showing convergence on Castle’s Degbiwu and Gbiniyiri licences of the Wa-Lawra and Bole-Bolgatanga Birimian greenstone belts and three major structures associated with several major Birimian hosted gold deposits in the same region. Page 2 of 9 Castle Minerals Limited: Commencement of drilling and looking ahead to 2025 Kpali Gold Project and Prospects A key driver for exploring the Kpali Gold Project is that it lies at the convergence of two major greenstone belts (Bole-Bolgatanga and Wa-Lawra/Boromo) and three regional-scale structures that are all associated with major gold deposits. The possibility of it hosting a new West African mining camp was therefore a very compelling endeavour. The subsequent confirmation by Castle of gold mineralisation at the Kpali Gold Project (which comprises the Kpali, Kpali East, Bundi and Wa South prospects) supports this possibility. Wide-spaced reconnaissance geochemical sampling preceded a series of RAB, aircore and RC drilling programmes in 2014 which confirmed primary mineralisation associated with several robust gold anomalies at the Kpali prospect and at the Bundi prospect, 5km to the north At Kpali, a ~30m to 50m wide zone of structural deformation has been outlined. It hosts hydrothermal lode-style mineralisation over a combined strike of at least 850m and has been intersected to a depth of 100m where it remains open. Mineralisation is hosted in Birimian metasediments adjacent to a local granodiorite intrusion. This is a similar geological setting to that hosting several world class gold mining operations in the immediate region and across Ghana and West Africa generally. An RC drilling programme completed in September 2024 focused on the Kpali and Kpali East prospects and was designed to better understand the controls on and distribution of mineralisation, especially higher grade material (refer ASX release 17 September 2024). A summary of intercepts from historical and recent drill intercepts at Kpali appears in Figure 2 (also refer to relevant ASX releases in Table: Previously Reported Information Relating to this Release). It is still very early days for the Kpali prospect and the Kpali Gold Project generally but the considerable upside is already apparent. Fig 1: North-south long-section through main mineralised lodes at Kpali highlighting zones of plunging higher grade gold mineralisation. Fig 2: Historical (white flags) and 2024 (red flags) RC drilling results at Kpali and Kpali East. t Page 3 of 9 Castle Minerals Limited: Commencement of drilling and looking ahead to 2025 Fig 3: North-south long-section through main mineralised lodes at Kpali highlighting zones of plunging higher grade gold mineralisation. Kandia Prospect The opportunity at the Kandia prospect is to delineate in Birimian sediments a large, shallow depth, bulk tonnage of gold mineralisation associated with a 25km southwest-trending prospective sheared contact with an adjacent regional-scale granodiorite intrusion. Following extensive wide-spaced reconnaissance geochemical sampling, subsequent drilling of standout anomalies between 2010 and 2014 delineated mineralisation over two particular zones, the “4000” and “8000” for which a combined maiden 2012 JORC Mineral Resource of 92,659oz grading 1.1g/t Au was estimated (refer ASX release 2 July 2014). Historical drilling intercepts are summarised in Figure 4. Sporadic artisanal mining occurs in areas of gold anomalism but recently workings have appeared outside of where Castle has been exploring. Holes now underway at Kandia are designed to confirm continuity and controls of mineralisation in the “4000” zone and to identify any zones of higher-grade material. Balance of Drill-for-Equity facility On 22 August 2024 Castle advised that it had entered into a drill-for-equity arrangement with Geodrill Limited (TSX: GEO) (“Geodrill”) and its affiliated entity, GTS Drilling Ltd. This enabled Castle to pay 50% of pending drilling invoices in Castle ordinary shares to a maximum of US$100,000. US$48,000 (~A$75,000) remains of this facility and will be utilised towards the costs of the latest round of drilling. Page 4 of 9 Castle Minerals Limited: Commencement of drilling and looking ahead to 2025 Fig 4: Kandia Prospect: Historical RC drilling within a 6km portion of the prospective 25km strike Birimian – granodiorite contact. Page 5 of 9 Castle Minerals Limited: Commencement of drilling and looking ahead to 2025 Kambale Graphite Project Castle is advancing its 100% owned Kambale Graphite Project (“Project” or “Kambale”), held through its wholly owned Ghanaian subsidiary, Kambale Graphite limited (“KGL”). This is to coincide with a forecast increase in demand for, and looming supply deficit of, natural fine flake graphite concentrates and Battery Anode Material (“BAM”) for use in the manufacture of lithium-ion battery anodes for electric vehicles and energy storage. The Kambale MRE comprises 22.4Mt grading 8.6% TGC containing 1.94Mt of graphite. This includes 43% in the higher confidence Indicated Mineral Resource category. MIIF due diligence team inspecting Kambale diamond core An indicative non-binding term sheet was executed in November 2024 with Ghana’s Minerals Income Investment Fund (“MIIF”) for a combined investment of US$2.0M (~A$3.0M) to advance the Project that, subject to completion and implementation, will see it largely selffunded and advanced through to PreFeasibility. The intention is that MIIIF will subscribe for US$500,000 (~A$750,000) of new ordinary shares in Castle and invest USD$1.5 million for new shares in the capital of KGL. In 2025 news flow will centre around the completion of the MIIF investment and then the technical and commercial advance of the Project on several key fronts through the completion of an initial economic assessment, a scoping study and a prefeasibility study. Stakeholder engagement will be an important parallel activity along with moves to secure, in addition to those proposed with the Ghana government through MIIF, commercial development and offtake partnerships. For context and a unique aspect of the Project, is that the Government of Ghana is actively evaluating the establishment of Africa’s first Sub-Saharan battery manufacturing facility utilising in-country sources of lithium, manganese and graphite. The presence of several vehicle assembly plants, reliable grid power and excellent infrastructure, including two international ports, underpins this aspiration. Junior Explorer of the Year Award Castle was very pleased to be awarded by the Ghana Chamber of Mines its “Best Performer in Exploration (Junior Category)” for 2024 This is a very welcome national acknowledgement of Castle’s long term commitment to exploration in Ghana and especially of its highly capable incountry technical and logistics team. Recent Presidential Elections Ghana’s status as one of the most stable, democratic and preferred jurisdictions in Africa to undertake exploration and mining has been reinforced by the orderly transition to a new President and government following elections held on 7 December 2024. Page 6 of 9 Castle Minerals Limited: Commencement of drilling and looking ahead to 2025 The Company is not aware of any material changes in the status of the historical information reported in this release. Authorised for release to ASX by the Board of Castle Minerals Limited: Stephen Stone Executive Chairman stone@castleminerals.com +61 (0)418 804 564 ABOUT CASTLE MINERALS Castle Minerals Limited is an Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: CDT) listed and Perth, Western Australia headquartered company with interests in several projects in Ghana and Western Australia that are prospective for gold, graphite and base metals. In Ghana, West Africa, Castle’s 100% owned Ghanaian subsidiary, Carlie Mining Ltd, holds the Wa Gold Project in the Upper West Region. Key prospects are Kpali, Kpali East, Bundi and Kandia all of which occur in highly prospective Birimian geological terrane, the host to many of West Africa’s and Ghana’s multi-million-ounce gold mines. The 100% owned Kambale Graphite Project is also located in Ghana’s Upper West Region. It is being progressed through technical and commercial evaluation for the production of battery grade material to be used in lithium-ion battery manufacture. Farm-outs or sales have been or are being sought for the Company’s West Australian projects: The Polelle Project, 7km southeast of the operating Bluebird gold mine near Meekatharra, hosts a mainly obscured and minimally explored greenstone belt prospective for gold and possibly base metals whilst the Wanganui Project is prospective for downplunge high-grade gold shoots. Both have been optioned for purchase to Great Boulder Resources Limited (ASX: GBR) for possible incorporation into its emerging Side Well project. The Terra Rossa copper-zinc project is located on the western edge of the Earaheedy Basin. It is adjacent to the evolving World-Class ChinookMagazine zinc-lead project of Rumble Resources Ltd (ASX: RTR). The Beasley Creek Project is prospective for gold and lithium and lies on the northern flanks of the Rocklea Dome in the southern Pilbara. Page 7 of 9 Castle Minerals Limited: Commencement of drilling and looking ahead to 2025 PREVIOUSLY REPORTED INFORMATION RELATING TO THIS RELEASE Additional details, where applicable, can be found in the releases referenced in this Report and/or in releases lodged by the Company with the ASX, including the following: Headline Date Ghana Fund to Invest US$2.0M in Kambale Graphite Project Kpali Drilling Increases Expectations for New West African Gold camp 5 November 2024 17 September 2024 Kpali Drilling Programme Completed and Drill-for-Equity Agreement 22 August 2024 Castle Commences Drilling at Kpali Gold Project 7 August 2024 Reprocessed Geophysics and Historical Intercepts to Drive Ghana Gold Expansion 11 June 2024 US$11.7 Million Farm-Out Agreement, Degbiwu and Gbiniyiri Licences, Ghana 14 August 2019 New Graphite Discovery in Ghana 30 July 2014 Maiden Resource Estimate for the Kpali Gold Prospect 2 July 2014 New Gold Zone Intersected at Kpali 20 March 2014 High Grade Gold Intersected at Bundi Prospect 31 January 2014 Kpali Gold Discovery 28 January 2014 Kpali Drill Results 18 January 2014 Multiple EM targets identified at Bundi Prospect 28 October 2013 Geophysical Survey Commences at Bundi and Kpali 13 August 2013 Drilling Extends Kpali Gold Discovery 4 July 2013 High Grade Gold Horizon Defined at Bundi Prospect 17 June 2013 New Gold Discovery at Kpali Prospect in Ghana 24 May 2013 RC Drilling Confirms Gold and Zinc Discovery at Bundi Prospect 23 May 2013 New 600m Long Gold Zone Defined – Kpali Prospect 20 May 2013 New Gold Hits South of Bundi Prospect RC drilling Commences 6 May 2013 Bundi Gold Target Increases to 1,400m 22 April 2013 New Gold Target Identified at Kandia West Project Drilling Confirms Gold Mineralisation at Wa South and New Prospect Identified Maiden Kandia Resource of 107,500oz 2 October 2012 26 September 2012 5 December 2011 Drilling Confirms Gold Discovery Along Kandia Trend 26 May 2011 Auger Drilling Defines Large Gold Anomaly at Wa South 19 May 2011 Significant New Gold Discovery Along Kandia Trend 9 March 2011 New gold Zone Discovered Along Kandia Trend 21 February 2011 Drilling Confirms Widespread Mineralisation At Kandia Prospect 15 June 2010 +15km Long Soil Anomaly Alonmg Kandia Trend 3 June 2010 Drilling Commences At Kandia Gold Prospect Visible Gold and Rock Chip Assays Confirm Kandia Drill Target – Drilling to Commence 18 May 2010 6 May 2010 STATEMENTS Cautionary Statement All of Castle’s projects in Australia are considered to be of grass roots or of relatively early-stage exploration status. There has been insufficient exploration to define a Mineral Resource. No Competent Person has done sufficient work in accordance with JORC Code 2012 to conclusively determine or to estimate in what quantities gold or other minerals are present. It is possible that following further Page 8 of 9 Castle Minerals Limited: Commencement of drilling and looking ahead to 2025 evaluation and/or exploration work that the confidence in the information used to identify areas of interest may be reduced when reported under JORC Code (2012). Forward Looking Statement Statements regarding Castle’s plans, forecasts and projections with respect to its mineral properties and programmes are forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that Castle’s plans for development of its mineral properties will proceed. There can be no assurance that Castle will be able to confirm the presence of Mineral Resources or Ore Reserves, that any mineralisation will prove to be economic or that a mine will be successfully developed on any of Castle’s mineral properties. The performance of Castle may be influenced by a number of factors which are outside the control of the Company, its Directors, staff or contractors. Page 9 of 9