Nexus Minerals has more than doubled its Wallbrook Mineral Resource to 631,000 ounces, lifting group resources to 709,000 ounces across Western Australian projects. The expansion comes alongside a $6.53 million FY2026 loss, falling cash reserves and a post-year-end $5.4 million capital raising.
- Wallbrook resource rises 108% to 631,000oz
- Group gold resources reach 709,000oz including Pinnacles
- Payns and Branches deliver maiden resources
- FY2026 loss widens to $6.53m
- Post-year-end placement to raise $5.4m before costs
Wallbrook Resource Doubles to 631,000 Ounces
Nexus Minerals Limited (ASX:NXM) has turned Wallbrook from a single-deposit resource into a three-deposit gold system, with the project’s Mineral Resource rising 108% to 13.3 million tonnes at 1.5 grams per tonne for 631,000 ounces. The updated estimate adds maiden resources at Payns and Branches, folds the Clement Prospect into Crusader-Templar and introduces a 1.4Mt underground Inferred component containing 86,000 ounces.
Crusader-Templar remains the centrepiece at 10.8Mt at 1.5g/t for 533,000oz, including all 207,000oz of Wallbrook’s Indicated Resource. Payns contributes 50,000oz and Branches 48,000oz, although both maiden estimates are entirely Inferred. The result builds on the company’s earlier Wallbrook resource expansion, while the filing states that mineralisation remains open across all three deposits.
Gold Growth Comes With Reporting Assumptions
The headline increase is substantial, but it is not a like-for-like drilling result alone. The new estimate incorporates 21,985 metres of resource-definition reverse-circulation drilling, a full reinterpretation of mineralised lodes, the newly added Payns and Branches deposits, a lower open-pit cut-off of 0.3g/t and pit shells based on an assumed A$6,000 per ounce gold price. Underground material is reported at a 1.0g/t cut-off where grade, thickness and continuity support a plausible underground scenario.
Including Pinnacles, group resources now stand at 13.9Mt at 1.6g/t for 709,000 ounces, with 249,000 ounces classified as Indicated. Nexus completed its acquisition of Northern Star Resources’ remaining 10% Pinnacles interest during the year in exchange for a 1.5% net smelter return royalty, giving it full ownership of a 78,000oz resource located about 15km from Northern Star’s Carosue Dam processing plant.
Development Studies Move Ahead of Any Reserve
Nexus has secured approval of the Mining Development and Closure Plan, Works Approval and Clearing Permit for Crusader-Templar, and has signed a memorandum of understanding with an experienced mining contractor. Toll-treatment discussions are progressing while a Mincore Engineering study examines the cost and sizing of a potential on-site processing plant.
That work remains some distance from a production decision. Nexus has no Ore Reserves at either Wallbrook or Pinnacles, and the annual report explicitly says there has been insufficient exploration and technical study to estimate one. The company is assessing processing options, not reporting a development outcome.
Loss Widens as Cash Funds the Next Drilling Cycle
The operational progress was funded at a cost. Nexus reported a $6.53 million net loss for FY2026, compared with $5.23 million a year earlier, and used $6.21 million in operating cash flow as exploration expenditure rose to $5.90 million. Cash, cash equivalents and term deposits fell to $5.27 million at 30 June 2026 from $11.21 million a year earlier.
After year-end, the company disclosed a placement of about 101.9 million new shares at 5.3 cents each to raise $5.4 million before costs. That capital is intended to support drilling, exploration and development studies, but it also adds roughly 17% to the 603.8 million shares on issue before the placement. The immediate test is whether the enlarged resource base can progress from geological potential into a credible mine plan before another funding decision becomes necessary.
Bottom Line?
Nexus now has scale and a larger exploration runway, but the investment case still depends on converting mostly Inferred resources into Ore Reserves without exhausting the newly raised cash.
Questions in the middle?
- How much of Wallbrook’s 424,000oz Inferred resource can be converted through infill and diamond drilling?
- Will toll treatment or an on-site plant produce the more credible economic pathway for Crusader-Templar?
- How long will the post-placement cash balance fund exploration and development studies at the current spending rate?