Saturn advances Apollo Hill towards construction after key lease and permit milestones

Apollo Hill reaches its next development gate

Saturn Metals Limited (ASX:STN) has moved Apollo Hill another step towards construction, securing the 11,700-hectare Mining Lease M31/496 and submitting the project’s Section 38 Environmental Review Document during the September quarter. The company says its Definitive Feasibility Study remains on track for completion in the December quarter, setting up a sequence of development decisions that will matter more than another round of corporate description.

“Saturn Metals Limited WA (Apollo Hill) tenement map and land holdings – 30 September 2026 (base map GSWA 1:250k regolith map sheet); diagram also shows the extent of the…”

“Apollo Hill location, Saturn Metals’ exploration and mining tenements and surrounding gold deposits, gold endowment and infrastructure.”

Caption and image © Saturn Metals Limited. From “Quarterly Activities and Cashflow Report”, 28 Oct 2026.

The lease encompasses the existing Apollo Hill mining leases, recent resource growth and potential infrastructure corridors, while also covering prospective ground along strike. Saturn’s project currently carries a 2.83 million ounce Mineral Resource and a 1.586 million ounce Ore Reserve, although both figures remain those previously reported rather than estimates updated in this quarter’s filing.

Funding provides runway, but one tranche remains unsettled

Saturn finished the quarter with $110.7 million in cash and reported $8.69 million of operating and exploration-related cash outgoings for the period. On the Appendix 5B’s mechanical calculation, that equates to 12.74 quarters of funding at the quarter’s spending rate; the figure is not a project construction budget or a forecast of future cash needs.

The balance sheet was strengthened by a $100 million placement and an oversubscribed SPP that brought total announced fundraising to $121.28 million. The SPP had been reported as raising $21.28 million after receiving applications from 1,272 shareholders, while $39.79 million of placement proceeds for 99.47 million shares had not yet settled pending Foreign Investment Review Board approval. The funding is earmarked for engineering, long-lead procurement, construction readiness, approvals, site establishment and exploration. The scale of the raise was outlined in the $121.28 million capital raising, which had previously been described as supporting Apollo Hill development.

Northern drilling opens a potential resource growth front

Exploration delivered a second, less administrative source of interest. Saturn reported drilling that extended gold-bearing structures up to 1km north of the current resource, including 5 metres at 11.26 grams per tonne gold from 49 metres in RC hole AHRC1698, 7.5 metres at 3.41 grams per tonne from 30.5 metres in diamond hole AHDD0103 and 0.4 metres at 14.25 grams per tonne from 97.75 metres in AHDD0145.

“Granted Mining Lease M31/496 relative to Pre-Feasibility Study planned mining infrastructure, exploration tenement outline and significant gold drill results from the Apollo…”

Caption and image © Saturn Metals Limited. From “Quarterly Activities and Cashflow Report”, 28 Oct 2026.

The headline AHRC1698 intercept was logged in alluvial gravels at the interface with bedrock, so Saturn says it may represent bedrock-associated mineralisation or a deep-lead style of alluvial mineralisation. That distinction matters: the result is notable, but it is not yet equivalent to a formally defined resource. A 10,000-metre infill RC program has commenced to test the shallow northern footprint, following the 1km Apollo Hill drilling extension, where earlier results had not yet been incorporated into a formal resource estimate.

Processing design and regional exploration move forward

“Loading of variability column leach tests with Apollo Hill agglomerated ore material types – early July 2026.”

Process engineering advanced beyond the 70% design gate, with Saturn continuing work on the crushing circuit, heap-leach pad, ponds and site layout. Metallurgical variability column-leach testing and water-balance studies also continued; the company said the latter indicated potential to reduce process-water salinity from the 100,000 total dissolved solids assumption used in the pre-feasibility study, with possible implications for reagent consumption.

“Saturn Metals Limited’s Apollo Hill project tenement map and landholdings in WA, highlighting newly granted exploration leases (red outline), the extent of the Hampton Hill…”

Three exploration licences were granted at the Aquarius prospect, about 30km south-east of Apollo Hill. The area contains a 26.5km drill-defined gold trend and will be tested in the December quarter, adding a regional exploration thread to a period otherwise dominated by mine permitting and feasibility work.

The December quarter carries the heavier burden of proof

Saturn’s near-term agenda is now unusually clear: complete the DFS and updated Ore Reserve, progress water-bore work and environmental studies, continue Apollo Hill drilling and begin work at Aquarius. The company’s stated timeline points to front-end engineering and design in early 2027, early works from mid-2027 and plant construction in early 2028, subject to a financial investment decision.

“Oblique 3D view of the Apollo Hill DFS Pit Design; grid GDA94-Z51.”

Caption and image © Saturn Metals Limited. From “Quarterly Activities and Cashflow Report”, 28 Oct 2026.

That timetable leaves several conditions unresolved. The DFS must translate a large resource and a pre-feasibility-stage reserve into a financeable development case; environmental assessment must progress; and the remaining placement proceeds still depend on FIRB approval. The December study will therefore be judged not simply on whether it arrives, but on how convincingly it turns Apollo Hill’s geological scale into an executable mine plan.