Zak Mir talks to Ippolito Cattaneo, CEO of Ajax Resources, as the natural resources investment company announced that it has signed a Heads of Terms to acquire 100% of the issued share capital of Pereira Velho Exploração S.A. (“PVESA”), a Brazilian company that owns the Pereira Velho Gold Project in Alagoas State, Brazil.

PVESA is wholly owned by entities affiliated with Appian Capital Advisory Limited. Appian holds approximately US$5 billion in assets under management, making it one of the world’s largest dedicated mining-focused private equity groups.

Under the Heads of Terms, Appian has agreed to subscribe for the GBP equivalent of US$400,000 in new Ajax ordinary shares, as part of a £1m fundraise.

Ippolito Ingo Cattaneo, Chief Executive Officer of Ajax, commented:

"We are delighted that Appian, a leading global private equity investor with approximately US$5 billion in assets under management investing exclusively in metals, mining and related natural-resource companies, will become a significant shareholder in Ajax upon completion. This represents a transformational growth opportunity for the Company and an endorsement of our development strategy.

The Proposed Acquisition of Pereira Velho is a compelling, scalable gold production opportunity fully aligned with our strategy of acquiring assets with significant unrealised potential on advantageous terms. It has near-surface mineralisation, a strong recent drilling dataset underpinned by approximately US$5 million in historical expenditure, and a prospective resource base, of which only a small portion has been developed, resulting in an Appian in-house mineral resource estimate of approximately 110,000 ounces across the Measured, Indicated and Inferred categories.

Pereira Velho is in a proven mining district with strong geological prospectivity. The Project lies approximately 20km east of Appian's former Mineração Vale Verde Serrote operation, which Appian acquired for US$30 million in 2018 and sold for approximately US$420 million in April 2025. This illustrates the region's supportive operating environment and, equally importantly, demonstrates Appian's ability to acquire assets with significant unexploited potential on advantageous terms, coinciding fully with Ajax's core development strategy.

With gold prices at or near record levels, we see a clear route for Pereira Velho to achieve its first milestone of 350,000 ounces, as set out in our agreed transaction structure, with the objective of progressing the Proposed Acquisition to a near-term open-pit gold operation with material resource scale growth potential.

The new relationship with Appian is of key strategic importance as it will position Ajax to access future opportunities within their extended pipeline of large-scale, high-value projects that fall below their scale thresholds, benefitting from Appian's industry-leading geological, technical, legal and financial evaluation capabilities.

The potential acquisition of Pereira Velho represents a significant foundation in Ajax's journey of high-impact growth as we embark on resource definition at the Eureka Project, with a maiden JORC-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate to be published in the first half of 2026, and advance several other acquisition opportunities, some of which have already been disclosed and others that will follow in 2026."