Our exploration team has made a genuine step forward at Laleno Dome in Timor-Leste, and we wanted to walk you through what it means.

We've now confirmed copper mineralisation at nine locations around the dome, five of them newly found through our drone-based geophysical survey. More importantly, laboratory analysis has confirmed that some of this copper sits within a hydrothermally altered porphyritic rock, the kind of geology associated with "porphyry copper" systems, among the most valuable styles of copper deposit found anywhere in the world. Rock-chip samples returned assays up to 0.66% copper from this rock type, and for the first time we've also detected gold, up to 1.3 g/t, in one of our samples.

To be clear about what this is and isn't: these are surface rock-chip samples, not drill results, and they tell us mineralisation is present, not yet its scale or shape. Our geologists are still working through competing explanations for some of the copper we're seeing, and say plainly that more work is needed to pin down the size and continuity of any system.

The next real test comes from the airborne survey covering our whole tenure, due to start in October with results expected before year end. That should help define drill targets. We're still waiting on Timor-Leste government approval before we can drill at Laleno Dome itself, and our planned 4,000m drilling programme at the Sagadate limestone project also remains subject to approval.

We'll keep you updated as this progresses. If you have questions about this announcement, we'd encourage you to send them through.