East Star Resources -Advancing the Verkhuba Deposit to Unlock Value in Kazakh Copper Assets

• London-listed East Star focused on advancing copper projects in Kazakhstan
• CEO Alex Walker lives in-country, enabling tight oversight and rapid progress
• Historic Verkhuba deposit shows potential for open pit resource and fast track to production
• Infrastructure advantages support low capex, toll treatment development options

About East Star Resources

East Star Resources is a London Stock Exchange-listed exploration and development company focused on copper and other base metals projects within Kazakhstan. The company is led by Chief Executive Officer Alex Walker, who relocated with his family to live full-time within the country. This on-the-ground presence enables close oversight of active exploration programs across its portfolio of assets at various stages of advancement.

Interview with Chief Executive Office, Alex Walker

Driving Towards First Production at Verkhuba Deposit

East Star’s flagship project is the Verkhuba volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit, located within the highly-prospective Rudny Altai VMS belt. Historical drilling at Verkhuba outlined mineralization pointing to the potential for definition of an open-pit constrained copper resource. The company’s most recent drilling campaign was focused on confirming sufficient scale and grade to support a low capex, fast-track development scenario.

“I’m really excited about those results, I think that they demonstrate the potential for us to have an open pit resource,” stated CEO Alex Walker in a recent interview. “We want to show we have a resource we can push through scoping study, PEA, and potentially look at getting that into production quite quickly.”

Infrastructure Advantages Support Low Capex Approach

A key advantage East Star holds at Verkhuba is the proximity to existing processing capacity in the region, with active plants holding meaningful excess capacity within 50km trucking distance. This presents the potential to negotiate toll treatment or concentrate offtake agreements, avoiding the need for near-term capital intensive construction of company-owned infrastructure.

“There's a processing facility 52km away by road which today has 600,000 tons of spare capacity,” Walker explained. “We don't have an agreement with them in place or anything like that but there's ore and there's a need for feed and we'll hopefully meet if we can demonstrate economic viability.”

While definitive studies are pending and subject to positive assay results, Walker highlighted the potential for a low strip ratio starter pit targeting higher grade zones. With trucking distances under 50km, operating costs also benefit substantially from Kazakhstan’s relatively low cost environment for fuel, labor, mining services and power.

Maintaining Progress Despite Tough Markets

The company maintains a tight rein on expenditures, closely managing its existing capital while advancing critical work programs. This proved sufficient to fully fund the recently completed drilling campaign at Verkhuba without need for an immediate return to market.

“Last month we raised £540,000 which, you know, isn't a huge amount of money but for a company that watches its balance sheet quite closely it can get us quite far,” said Walker. “We also finished our recent exploration season in the short term, so we don't have any big capital items coming out.”

While copper market conditions remain volatile, the fundamental long-term supply and demand picture offers encouragement. East Star is focused firmly on demonstrating a clear path towards initial production. Defining even a modest open pit resource at Verkhuba could support a low capex startup mining operation, with the potential to subsequently scale up production as conditions allow.

Managing and Rationalizing the Broader Portfolio

Beyond Verkhuba, East Star holds an extensive portfolio of earlier stage gold and rare earth element (REE) projects across Kazakhstan. These assets provide longer term optionality, but near-term expenditure remains focused on the flagship copper projects.

“You need to focus on where our money is being spent to its best effect,” acknowledged Walker. “We have been careful with our capital allocation, but we haven't stopped doing all work just because markets are rubbish...we need to build that value.”

Ongoing work includes reductions in license sizes to cut standing costs, as well as early discussions around potential farm-out or sale of non-core assets. The current market poses challenges in crystalizing value from earlier stage properties, however the team continues assessing strategic options.

Clear Development Pathway

Assuming upcoming assays return positive results, East Star anticipates rapid advancement of scoping and preliminary economic work at Verkhuba. The historical data and proximity to infrastructure offer encouragement that a low capex development pathway can be confirmed.

Walker sums up the opportunity and strategy as follows: “We just announced results from another target nearby that also demonstrate potential in the region. But first steps at Verkhuba include confirming an open pit resource and scoping study to demonstrate a clear low-capex development path".

While balancing capital management and risk, East Star’s board and management team maintains focus on advancing their high quality copper assets towards initial cash flow. For investors with appropriate risk tolerance, the company offers leveraged exposure to the critical battery metal copper within a proven mining jurisdiction. Demonstrating a clear low-capex pathway to first revenue could represent a compelling catalyst for the currently undervalued shares.