Member Info for AuInspired

You live near a forest with lots of trees you hear chopping of wood and the sound of timber being felled. This is great news and everyone is happy, you have singing and dancing and the fire is burning brightly. You make new friends and more people want to come to the party…Tomorrow will look after itself.

But if you don’t put logs on the fire it slowly goes out. New people stop arriving and even some of your friends start to drift away. The diehards still sit patiently around the embers waiting for the lumberjack to deliver some more wood. What has happened to the woodcutter? The chatter dries up and people sit patiently hoping for the best… waiting for news.

FOUR WEEKS AGO ON 17th FEB I WROTE THE FOLLOWING.

We should therefore have completed the foundations for the Reclaim Tunnel, SAG Mill, Tanks, and awarded the Process Plant Contract.

Further, we should have or be ready to commence the Mill Structural Steel erection, indicated at the 50% mark on the MTL program.

The awarding of the Process plant Contract and Mill Construction are both notifiable milestones that would/will provide a boost.

MTL's PR is seriously lacking. I want to see written communications that are provided to the market via the website and RNS, not social media or video highlights on remote platforms, which are prone to misinterpretation.

WE STILL HAVE NO NEWS IT IS MAKING EVERYONE NERVOUS.

THIS IS WHY THE SHARE PRICE IS DOWN OVER THE LAST FEW WEEKS IT WILL TAKE A 40% UPLIFT TO PASS RECENT HIGH.

I received a message from www.SimplyWall.st saying

Mar 13

Price target increased by 18% to UK£0.40

Up from UK£0.34, the current price target is provided by 1 analyst.

My comments about the lack of information are not a negative for MTL's prospects. They are a reminder that without updates, an outdated website does not attract new investors. That should trouble ALL current investors, as no news doesn't necessarily mean everything is fine. In fact, I believe it shows a lack of care towards smaller investors. This is further troubling, as the company has highlighted that it is taking a group of potential large investors on a special tour of La India in March. This "favoured" group will undoubtedly get preferential treatment with up-to-date information that should be shared with everyone. We should therefore request MTL to post online a copy of all materials they hand out to attendees on the same day.

No new investors just wavering holders being enticed elsewhere. It is now 5 weeks with no updates to shareholders even the videos showing construction at La India (posted on X recently) are 3 months old and don’t show up on the website. Hence share price drifting lower. Even to share chat seems to be drying up.

This is not the way to build momentum as the price is where it was last July… 9 months ago. You have less leverage in negotiations with potential partners should you be swapping shares.

Where are the high-priority drill results promised in the RNS Nov 28th 2025? Over 3 months and no results!

Darren Bowden, CEO of Metals Exploration, commented:

"We are extremely pleased with these initial results, which highlight the strong potential to grow the Phase 1 North pit both along strike and at depth. The discovery of additional near-surface mineralisation provides an immediate opportunity to enhance recoverable ounces and potentially improve Phase 1 economics. Our forthcoming drilling programme is designed to rapidly test these new zones and unlock further value from what is shaping up to be a highly prospective epithermal system."

The MTL is drifting and moving south because inspite of high gold prices and a potential gold mine, the market (this board) is left with the sour taste of Dupax and nothing but our own thoughts and speculation about what is happening on the ground.

You might remember this... it was 10 months ago that MTL announced that a drill rig was ready to prove up the La India mine before looking to add ozs as per its agreement with CNR. The clock started ticking on the CVR's, which will end on 23rd April 2030... 4 years left! The cores were being shipped to Canada for analysis until the onsite lab was built, which was scheduled to be mid Feb 2026. We have been told construction is ahead of schedule, but where are the core results? It looks like they are drilling seeds, not drilling for gold. Explained below.

We are being WOWOSed.

The PR machine at MTL has managed 5 RNS's in the last 4 WEEKS, but nothing on actual mining matters... just news about exercise or granting of Warrants, Options, and Share Incentives. I noted on Metals Exploration's LinkedIn pages that they posted this yesterday... hashtag#FCFMinerals' Central Nursery plays a key role in our reforestation efforts.

So Darren.

How many drills are operating in Nicaragua, and what are they doing?

Is the La India Lab operational?

Who in MTL is responsible for PR?

Hi guys, the share price is where it is because of the phase of development that MTL finds itself in. Runruno is running down, and La India is in development, albeit they have internal financing. However, funding is being provided by an operating mine that has had recent issues and nearby disputes with locals. There is a meaningful level of risk in that scenario.

The loss of Dupax and the way it was handled show that others in the MTL (PR) team are not up to the job. What does Darren's brother do?

Couple this with very poor comms generally and parts of the world on a war footing, I think MTL is fairly priced... based on readily available information... the share price doesn't lie. There are many other PM opportunities with reasonable upside potential, and there are only so many educated PM investors out there.

You would need to do a lot of research to favour MTL in the current climate. The website should be kept up to date, and I would say that Darren is letting us down in that regard. Posting messages on third-party sites (especially without links from the main website) shows his lack of appreciation for PR. Also, some posters on here seem to need help understanding the basics and don't even bother to read the whole discussion before making unhelpful comments... because the information is not readily available! Better PR would make a big DIFFERENCE.

BTW, I have over 12m shares and am happy to contribute to the MTL meal mentioned in earlier posts.

Bo Sears is online and has posted a question: "Given the multiple shortages over the past couple of decades, do you believe the US will consider putting helium back on the Critical Minerals list?"

When buying this morning I didn’t want to leave it to the vagaries of Hargreaves Lansdown fill or kill but still found it tiresome trying to make single individual buys over £20k.

Thanks to the guys who mention HEX on MTL a couple of weeks ago I did some research and have now joined you here having purchased over £150k… mostly this morning. I see that HEX has the potential to be a multiple bagger this year whilst MTL is a longer term potential.

I agree with others and have mentioned before MTL comms needs improved as they buildup to startup at for La India mine.

Having said that I’m pleased to see the Facebook posts from the team at the Runruno mine who despite the looming closure continue to do great work.

If you haven’t seen this before I’d recommend you take a look. It’s heartwarming to see what the people we are investing in are doing.

https://www.facebook.com/fcfmineralscorporation/

This video, posted by Ray Dalio, gives his view on this subject @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HCJ-slRfr0 , well worth 14 mins of your time.

Strong buy to weak buy.

The Lassonde Curve translates the development cycle into a neat way to value an individual mine/resource. Furthermore we understand that discounted free cash flow is a very good way to price the current value of assets. We can all agree having production in two different plants reduces risk and better still is having those plants in two different jurisdictions, right. But…

With the loss of the Dupax opportunity the prospects of MTL has been severely diminished. The delay in production in a second jurisdiction impacts the FCF dramatically, Further, I can see the logic of finding another opportunity in the Philippines or another third country but again this will be a heavy drain on forecasting FCF as well as diverting management time.

Perhaps mothballing the Runruno plant and expanding the ore body at La India thereby increasing throughput at the plant would be the most effective way to boosting FCF and thus the valuation of MTL over the next two years, which let’s face it is what most investors would probably want.

I have done a little research and can't find a shovel-ready goldmine or a small developer in the Philippines. Whatever Darren finds would need some drilling, or perhaps a mid-tier company has something, or Darren does a JV. Can others look into this also? Realistically, the Runruno Plant will not begin to be dismantled until it has exhausted the mine's gold supply; therefore, not until 2027... So production is unlikely to begin before 2028.

With a Filipino family and his brother (on MTL's Philippines payroll), Darren would seem to have a vested interest in finding a Philippine project. Are there better opportunities elsewhere?

Comments based on RNS Number 7250K on 9th Dec 2025, which states " Total development remains ahead of schedule at 24% complete at the end of November (2025) compared to 20% forecast." and which provides a detailed graph of construction milestones over the construction period of the mine, finalising with the First Gold scheduled by the end of 2026. Good PR.

Moving forward to now, about 10 weeks, we understand from recent comments that we have reached 50%, slightly ahead of both the planned and forecast programme at the end of Nov.

We should therefore have completed the foundations for the Reclaim Tunnel, SAG Mill, Tanks, and awarded the Process Plant Contract.

Further, we should have or be ready to commence the Mill Structural Steel erection, indicated at the 50% mark on the MTL program.

The awarding of the Process plant Contract and Mill Construction are both notifiable milestones that would/will provide a boost.

MTL's PR is seriously lacking. I want to see written communications that are provided to the market via the website and RNS, not social media or video highlights on remote platforms, which are prone to misinterpretation.

From Feb 2025 MTL Presentation, which was published a few days ago and the latest video from South Africa last week:

1. Darren just confirmed in Video 50% complete but mentioned only 100k ozs production in 2027. I think that was just a rounding figure as he gave a quick response rather than a more detailed explanation in a short video session.

The most recent February Presentation confirms the following.

2. 2026 Runruno - 55,000 ozs + La India 6,000 ozs at approx 1900 AISC*

3. 2027 La India - 113,000 ozs at approx 1550 AISC*

4. 2028 La India - 122,000 ozs at approx 1450 ASIC*

5. 2029 La India - 162,000 ozs at approx 1200 AISC*

AISC* scaled from the graph on page 12 of the presentation.

There are further connections between Nick Candy and Drachs; both are UK property developers and major financial supporters of Reform.

Accipiter... I'm pleased to say I followed Drachs and invested in Helix, as I thought their connection with MTL and the Philippines was interesting. I had a feeling Helix (a bulk materials miner with many operations in the country) may take over the operation/people at Runruno, allowing MTL (where Drachs has a near £100m investment) a planned exit strategy whilst retaining the option to continue exploration work through a local "partner".

Lee.

I'm sorry to point this out.

The numbers I gave at 14:02 this afternoon are the official up-to-date figures. 145,000ozs WAS the expected average gold production in the January 2025 study (at the time of the buyout, over a year ago)! The February 2026 Presentation is NOW the official company offering. I know it might have errors and typos, as I assume the 33% appears. However, MTL have now modelled the open and underground sections of the pit and taken into account the variability of the ore body at different levels. The updated forecast I gave in my post is for the first few years of expected production. Further, over the first 10 years, it averages around 134,000 ozs per year.

I know that Darren said 50% in the Crux interview, but the February 2026 Presentation, posted online after the video, clearly states 33%. I'm merely pointing it out as these things are very important. I've mentioned before, Darren needs to look at the PR/Media output. As private investors, we can only base our decisions on the written material/evidence, as spoken comments can be misleading. Likewise, with the production figures and AISC costs. MTL wouldn't get away with these kinds of discrepancies in the USA or Canadian markets.