ASX: AKN – AuKing Mining

Low market cap, high-grade tin and uranium exposure

Strategic entry into a proven tin district

AuKing Mining’s newly acquired exploration licence applications lie in a proven tin district of global significance on Tasmania’s West Coast. The tenements are immediately adjacent to the Renison Bell tin operation, which is Australia’s largest tin producer. Renison is operated by Bluestone Mines Tasmania Joint Venture Pty Ltd, a 50/50 partnership between Metals X Limited and Yunnan Tin Group, one of the world’s largest refined tin producers.

The Renison mine boasts a substantial tin inventory and robust production profile, with approximately 396,000 tonnes of contained tin at a grade of 0.93% Sn and 89,300 tonnes of contained copper at 0.21% Cu as previously reported.

Renison’s ongoing success, supported by consistent production and reserve life extensions, reflects both the size of the tin system and the strength of regional geology. The district also hosts other tin projects such as Stellar Resource’s Heemskirk Tin Project, which contains a significant high-grade tin mineral resource of 77,872 tonnes at over 1.04% Sn, reinforcing Tasmania’s West Coast as a tier one tin province.

This extraordinary tin endowment and well-established mining infrastructure enhances the prospectivity of the ground AuKing has secured. The licence areas, including the Big Wilson prospect, are positioned within the same structural corridors and granite-related mineral systems that have produced multiple commercial tin deposits and continue to attract exploration interest. The combination of proven regional mineralisation, world-class nearby resources and under-explored tenure offers a compelling platform for systematic exploration.

Tin has surged 91.2% in the past twelve months

Tin supply fundamentals have been deteriorating due to a prolonged lack of exploration and discovery of new tin deposits. Tin prices have approached all-time highs in part because there has been minimal investment in the discovery of new deposits. The result is a scarcity of new supply to take up the slack from ageing mines and natural depletion.

Tin plays a central role in the electronics industry, with solder representing around 50 per cent of global demand, underpinning strong and growing consumption driven by the energy transition and accelerating digitalisation.

With tin markets estimated at only 350,000-380,000 tonnes of annual consumption, limited exploration means few new production sources are ready to replace or expand supply, amplifying price responses when existing supply is tight.

Indonesia is traditionally the world’s second-largest tin supplier (behind China), and regulatory actions there have had outsized effects on global markets.

The Indonesian government has cracked down on illegal tin mining operations, with enforcement actions targeting potentially thousands of unregulated sites. These operations historically accounted for a significant portion of exportable tin supply.

This regulatory intervention tightened supply and removed material volumes of concentrate from global export channels, contributing directly to rising base metal prices.

Indonesia’s export permitting system has also experienced seasonal delays and stricter compliance requirements, which have curtailed official export flows and slowed post-crackdown recovery.

Tin supply from other major producers such as Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo remains exposed to geopolitical and regulatory risk, constraining reliable mine production and exports.

China, Myanmar, Indonesia and the Congo (DRC) accounted for approximately 59.3% of total global Tin mine production in 2024.

Tin: Key Applications

Mkuju Uranium Project, Tanzania

The Mkuju uranium project is located in southern Tanzania within a globally recognised uranium province. The Mkuju district is widely regarded as Tanzania’s most significant uranium region, hosting the country’s largest historical uranium discoveries and demonstrating clear geological endowment for large-scale sandstone-hosted uranium systems.

Mkuju sits adjacent to, and within the same geological setting as, the Nyota uranium deposits, which were previously advanced by Mantra Resources and collectively reported to contain more than 100 million pounds of U₃O₈ @ 422 ppm in historical resource estimates. These deposits attracted the acquisition of Mantra by a Rosatom subsidiary, underscoring the strategic importance and scale potential of the Mkuju uranium province.

Rosatom subsidiary acquires Mantra Resources for A$1.2bn

The uranium mineralisation style at Mkuju is sandstone-hosted, a globally proven deposit type that underpins major uranium operations in Kazakhstan, Namibia and Australia. This style is typically characterised by broad, laterally extensive mineralised zones, favourable metallurgy and potential for scalable development.

Uranium Market Remains Buoyant

Uranium pricing has strengthened significantly in recent months as market fundamentals tighten. Benchmark spot prices have been trading above US$80-90 per pound U3O8, with industry models suggesting prices could approach or exceed US$100 per pound later in 2026 as demand continues to rise and supply remains constrained.

Uranium increased 40% over the past 12 months (2025-2026)

The market has shown renewed momentum as long-term contracting and utility purchasing increases, with many recent contracts executing at price floors often well above the traditional published spot levels. This reflects a shift in pricing dynamics where utilities are securing future supplies in an environment of tightening inventories and growing procurement urgency.

On the supply side, the industry has experienced years of underinvestment in new mining capacity, with only limited new production coming online. Major producers have generally maintained disciplined output, and secondary sources such as stockpiles and re-enrichment programmes are finite and cannot fully bridge the gap between rising consumption and available supply.

Demand for uranium is being driven by a global expansion of nuclear power capacity. Several countries are actively building or planning new reactors to provide reliable, low-carbon baseload electricity as part of broader climate and energy security policies. This growth in reactor fleets is expected to lift uranium requirements materially through the remainder of this decade and into the 2030s.

Additional factors supporting a bullish price outlook include increased institutional investment, heightened strategic stockpiling by utilities, and policy support in key markets. These are contributing to both near-term upward price pressure and stronger long-term contracting trends that underpin future demand.

Taken together, the uranium market outlook remains strong. Prices are elevated relative to the past decade, demand is structurally growing due to nuclear expansion, and supply responses are slow, creating a backdrop where higher sustained uranium pricing is a credible expectation as market participants adapt to shifting fundamentals.

Additionally, the United States and European Union have adopted policy initiatives that has further increased demand on Uranium.

In November 2025, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reinstated uranium on its list of critical minerals, reversing its removal in 2022. In 2024, the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act was enacted, banning the import of enriched uranium from Russia, previously a major source of nuclear fuel for U.S. reactors.

Koongie Park/Halls Creek, Copper/Zinc project