Independent Report on Tonto Tshipi
Summary by AI BETAClose X
Marula Mining PLC
("Marula'' or the "Company")
28 November 2025
Independent Report of the Tonto Tshipi Manganese Mine
Marula Mining PLC (AQSE: MARU A2X: MAR) an African focused mining and development company, confirms that, as part of the Company's technical due diligence assessment of the Tonto Tshipi Manganese Mine ("Tonto Tshipi" or the "Project") in the North West Province in South Africa, its technical team has completed a review of an independent technical assessment and evaluation report (the "Report") completed by a leading international mining consultancy group on the Project.
The conclusion and summary findings of the Report, completed in 2018, provide important historical technical context for the Project and outline the work required to advance and upgrade it. The Report highlights the Project's exploration potential and sets out recommendations for further geological, metallurgical and technical programmes necessary to support future resource definition and feasibility studies. These recommendations align with the Company's own technical team's view that, with the completion of the proposed work programmes, the Project has the potential to be developed into a technically and financially robust manganese operation.
Key findings of the Report include:
1. Manganese mineralisation and resources
· historical exploration conducted through trenching, drilling and mapping conducted from the 1970s onwards has identified extensive manganese-bearing stratigraphy with strong geological continuity;
· manganese mineralisation within the Project area is indicated as strata bound within the Pretoria Group sediments of the Transvaal Supergroup and demonstrates strong continuity along strike;
· multiple blocks within the Project area display outcropping or shallow manganese ore bodies with thicknesses ranging from 1 to 10 m and strike lengths extending several kilometres demonstrating a robust and continuous geological system consistent with major manganese belts in South Africa
· using historical datasets, the Report estimated, the exploration potential of six farm blocks of about 41.2 to 61.4 million tonnes ("Mt") containing 30 to 41% Manganese Oxide ("MnO");
· an independent resource estimation completed in 2018 identified total manganese resources of 38.9 Mt at an average grade of 37% MnO down to 100m depths; and
· The Project currently has no resources that meet the South African standards or international standards, the resource potential of several blocks is reliable because they have been explored before the implementation of the relevant standards and have historical resources and exploration potential.
2. Data verification
· a site visit was completed to inspect the physical geography, transportation and infrastructure of the mining right;
· the geological conditions of the mining right area and its manganese ore were surveyed, and some previous exploration projects were verified on the spot;
· outcrops of manganese mineralised bodies and the exploration grooves exposing the mineralised bodies were investigated in each area and two samples were taken for assay; and
· assay results from SGS laboratory in Johannesburg confirmed the content of MnO to be 35.4% and 34.5% in the two samples and these results are consistent with the results in previous reports and the ore situation in the nearby producing mines at present.
3. Mineral processing and beneficiation review of adjoining mine
· a significant quantity of metallurgical test work has been undertaken on the adjoining mine and the overall metallurgical test work results indicate that the manganese ores can be upgraded to a medium to high grade Mn product;
· processing of manganese ore on an adjoining mine involves a two staged crushing circuit with the ore initially broken by hammer crusher, then washed, and finally graded by classifier. Ore blocks larger than 30mm are crushed by a cone crusher at the second stage; ores smaller than 30mm are transported and sent to jigs for beneficiation. The concentrate after jigging of 10mm to 30mm is significant, accounting for about 90% of the concentrate; less than 10mm is powdery concentrate. The grade of concentrate is 35-37% Mn. In addition, low-grade concentrate (20% Mn) is also produced; and
· recommendations for processing included crushing the ore to less than 75mm by two-stage and closed-circuit crushing process, and then screening into three levels of +10mm, -10+3mm, -3mm; among them, +10mm and -10+3mm are proposed to be processed by heavy medium beneficiation or jig beneficiation to produce block concentrate, tailings are crushed to -3mm by high-pressure roller mill, combined with - 3mm grade of raw ore, and then sieved into -3+1mm and -1mm grades, -3+1mm is processed by heavy medium or jig beneficiation, and -1mm wet high-intensity magnetic separator to produce powder concentrate and final tailings.
4. Evaluation and economic analyses
· For the purposes of the Report, it was assumed that the Project would achieve mining and processing throughput levels to 2Mt of ore per year and produce 1Mt of manganese ore concentrate;
· key operating assumptions were based on those of the adjoining operating mine, and which were considered reasonable and feasible given the geological resources, infrastructure and other basic operations conditions are very similar;
· a discounted cash flow analyses was completed to estimate an economic analysis of the Project and with a discount rate of 8%, the net present value (NPV) of the Project is US$469M, and with discount rates of 10% and 12%, the net present values are US$388M and US$322M respectively, implying a valuation in the range of US$320M to US$470M;
· a probability-based valuation was also completed, and estimated that the indicated potential value of 5 of the 12 blocks on the Project where historical resources had been defined had indicative values ranging between US$182M and US$272m, and the total potential value of other 7 blocks were valued at US$52M to US$96M; and
· the combined project probability-based valuation of the Project was concluded to be in the range of US$230M and US$360M.
· The Report has estimated costs of US$10 million to carry out initial geological, exploration and drilling work and through to completion of a feasibility study for the anticipated production targets.
The Company's technical team are satisfied with the findings and conclusion of the Report. The Report is to be updated as part of the Competent Person Reports workstreams that are underway at the moment as part of the reverse takeover transaction by Europa Metals Limited as announced on 6 November 2025.
The Report also made a number of recommendations, and which included priority being given to the Sebenani 103KP and Lekkerdorst 104KP blocks, where strike lengths of 6.6 km and 1.9 km respectively were previously identified and here historical resources of 16.6Mt at 37% MnO and 4.8Mt at 37% MnO have been identified. Additional recommendations included hydrogeological and engineering geological investigations and additional beneficiation test work all to be completed as part of the plans to complete an updated feasibility study targeting the establishment of a large-scale open pit manganese mining and processing operation at the Project to produce a minimum 1Mt per annum of saleable manganese product over a minimum mine life of ten years.
The findings and recommendations of the Report are being incorporated into the Company's technical due diligence review that is ongoing and is required to be completed by 31 December 2025 as a key condition of the acquisition of the Company's initial 50% interest in Tonto Tshipi.
The Company anticipates completion of satisfactory technical, legal and financial due diligence will be completed by 31 December 2025.
IRG and the Company continue to make preparations for the commencement of initial small-scale mining operations. The scale and ramp-up profile of these early operations will be determined by operational performance on site, while the Company advances the geological, metallurgical and feasibility work required to complete the full feasibility study.
The Company notes that whilst the Report was not prepared to JORC or SAMREC reporting standards, it provides valuable context regarding the historical exploration work, geological potential, and indicative valuation ranges for the manganese-bearing blocks within the granted Mining Right area.
Jason Brewer, CEO of Marula Mining Plc, said:
"On behalf of the Board of Directors, we are delighted to advance further with the new manganese acquisition and further present the historical technical details and independent assessment of the Project. The Report and its technical assessment of the Project, assists with our technical due diligence work and further offers valuable insight into the exploration potential of Tonto Tshipi and supports the Company's confidence in the long-term development of the Project.
"Marula's technical team and the team from Infirnity in South Africa will move forward with further exploration, commencement of mine operations and further feasibility study works to define a SAMREC and JORC compliant mineral resource and look to deliver value from this mining operation and major opportunity for our shareholders."
The Directors of Marula are responsible for the contents of this announcement. This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of UK Market Abuse Regulation.
About Marula Mining
Marula Mining (AQSE: MARU A2X: MAR) is an African focused battery metals investment and exploration company and has interests in several high value mining operations and mine development projects in Africa: the Blesberg Lithium and Tantalum Mine and Northern Cape Lithium and Tungsten Project, all in South Africa; the Boteti Lithium Brines Project in Botswana; the Larisoro Manganese Mine and Kilifi Manganese Processing Operation both in Kenya; the Kinusi Copper Mine, the Nyorinyori Graphite Project and the NyoriGreen Graphite Project all in Tanzania. As we advance operations at these battery metals focused projects, Marula will continue to build and expand its interests in other high-quality projects in Africa.
Marula's strategy is to identify and invest in advanced and high-value mining projects throughout East, Central and Southern Africa that the Directors believe would deliver returns for its shareholders. The Board and management team aims to establish Marula as a socially and environmentally responsible, sustainable, and profitable producer of critical metals and commodities that are of increasingly strategic importance to modern technologies and the global economy. Marula's shares are traded on AQUIS Stock Exchange (AQSE) in London and A2X Markets in South Africa. Marula is exploring opportunities to admit its shares to trading on Kenya's Nairobi Securities Exchange and South Africa's Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
For enquiries contact:
|
Marula Mining PLC Jason Brewer, Chief Executive Officer
Faith Kinyanjui Mumbi Investor Relations |
Email : jason@marulamining.com
Email : info@marulamining.com |
|
AQSE Corporate Adviser Cairn Financial Advisers LLP, Liam Murray / Ludovico Lazzaretti |
+44 (0)20 7213 0880 |
|
A2X Advisor AcaciaCap Advisors Proprietary Limited Michelle Krastanov |
+27 (11) 480 8500 |
Caution:
Certain statements in this announcement, are, or may be deemed to be, forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ''believe'', ''could'', "should" ''envisage'', ''estimate'', ''intend'', ''may'', ''plan'', ''potentially'', "expect", ''will'' or the negative of those, variations or comparable expressions, including references to assumptions. These forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts but rather on the Directors' current expectations and assumptions regarding the Company's future growth, results of operations, performance, future capital and other expenditures (including the amount, nature and sources of funding thereof), competitive advantages, business prospects and opportunities. Such forward looking statements reflect the Directors' current beliefs and assumptions and are based on information currently available to the Directors.
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