Cosmo Metals (ASX:CMO) defines high priority VMS targets at Mt Everest Mona Trend

Cosmo Metals has outlined the results of a systematic pXRF soil and rock chip geochemistry program across the Mt Everest to Mona Mine corridor within its Bingara Project in northern New South Wales, identifying two previously untested high priority volcanogenic massive sulphide targets within a prospective belt that extends for more than 4 km and forms part of a 20 km long mineralised trend.

Highlights

• Two new high priority VMS targets defined within a +4 km long and up to 500 m wide Mt Everest Mona corridor.

• A coherent ~500 m long copper soil anomaly at the Victory Lode, with peak values up to 1,104 ppm Cu and coincident arsenic and zinc anomalism.

• A potential feeder or stockwork zone east of Mt Everest with peak soil values up to 1,990 ppm Cu and elevated Cu and Zn in rock chips.

• The corridor shows geological and geophysical characteristics consistent with Cyprus style VMS systems within the New England Orogen.

• Ground truthing and follow up work scheduled for early February 2026, with ground geophysics planned to assist in defining drill targets.

The Bingara Project covers more than 480 km² within the New England Fold Belt and hosts a 20 km long belt of historical copper, gold and base metal workings associated with volcanic and sedimentary sequences that have been interpreted as prospective for Besshi Cyprus style VHMS mineralisation.

Within this broader setting, the Mt Everest to Mona Mine trend occupies a magnetically quiet corridor identified from LiDAR and high resolution airborne magnetic surveys completed in 2025, where historic copper workings extend for more than 4 km but have seen limited modern systematic geochemical coverage and no recorded drilling.

The recent program involved soil sampling on a 100 m by 50 m grid, supported by concurrent geological mapping and rock chip sampling, with all samples analysed using an Olympus Vanta pXRF instrument under controlled conditions and subject to QAQC protocols including standards, blanks, duplicates and replicates.

A subset of samples is scheduled for laboratory confirmation to refine anomaly definition and provide higher precision elemental data.

Within this framework, the Victory Lode target has emerged as a coherent, high tenor copper anomaly extending for approximately 500 m, coincident with arsenic and the highest zinc values recorded in the survey, and spatially associated with moderately magnetic horizons that at Mt Everest are interpreted to correlate with bedded and disseminated magnetite linked to massive, disseminated and stringer zone copper mineralisation.

Peak soil values of up to 1,104 ppm Cu, together with elevated Zn and a composite Pathfinder Index response, support the interpretation of a stratigraphically controlled VMS position analogous to that observed at the historic Mt Everest Mine.

To the east of the Mt Everest workings, a second target has been defined by the strongest copper soil response in the dataset, with peak values of 1,990 ppm Cu and coincident Cu and Zn anomalism in rock chip samples collected from mafic outcrop.

Although some dispersion downslope from historical workings is acknowledged, the presence of anomalous bedrock geochemistry and its association with laterally continuous magnetic horizons supports interpretation as a potential feeder or stockwork zone within the VMS system.

Managing Director Ian Prentice said the program had materially advanced the geological understanding of the corridor, stating that

“we are very pleased with the success delivered from this systematic high impact geochemistry program at the largely unexplored Mt Everest Mona VMS trend, with at least two new high conviction VMS targets identified for follow up exploration”.

From a corporate and strategic perspective, the work positions the Bingara Project as an underexplored volcanic belt with multiple historical copper occurrences, where modern geophysics, LiDAR and systematic geochemistry are now being integrated to rank targets ahead of drill definition.

The Mt Everest Mona corridor represents the first focus area within this belt, combining favourable stratigraphy, structural setting along the Peel Manning Fault System, and geochemical signatures consistent with Cyprus style VHMS systems documented in analogous terranes in Europe and the Middle East.

Looking ahead, Cosmo has scheduled ground truthing and additional rock chip sampling for early February 2026, alongside planning for ground geophysical surveys to refine conductor geometry and prioritise drill targets within what remains a completely undrilled section of a historically productive VMS province.

In the context of copper and zinc exploration within well located Australian terranes, the delineation of coherent, kilometre scale geochemical anomalies at Bingara provides a technical foundation for the next phase of exploration, with subsequent work aimed at converting surface and geophysical responses into ranked drill ready targets.