CuFe (ASX:CUF) flips 66% of Gecko into Indicated. Scoping study unlocked

A geological model and dusted-off 1980s QAQC data clear the path to a real NPV at Tennant Creek.

CuFe Limited (ASX:CUF) has done something genuinely useful at its Gecko Copper-Gold deposit in the Northern Territory. The proportion of the resource sitting in the Indicated category has jumped from 4% to 66% in less than ten months, without a single new drill hole.

That sounds like an accounting trick, but it is not. The upgrade came from building a proper 3D geological model and digging up 1980s and 1990s QAQC records from archived paper files in Tennant Creek. Boring work, important outcome.

The reason it matters is simple. You cannot publish an NPV on a resource that is 96% Inferred. CuFe could not put real economics around Gecko at the August 2025 update for exactly that reason. Now it can, and management has flagged a Scoping Study covering both Gecko and the neighbouring Orlando deposit in upcoming months.

Combined, the Tennant Creek Project now stands at 23.5Mt at 1.73% Cu and 0.72 g/t Au, with 71% of that resource in the Indicated category. Four months ago, that figure was 16%.

Why the paper-archive trip to Tennant Creek changed the economics

Gecko has been drilled sporadically since the 1970s by Peko Mines, Normandy and Emmerson, with the most recent campaign in 2017. The August 2025 MRE pulled all 4,935 historical holes into a single global estimate for the first time, but most of the data lacked supporting QAQC records, which is why the resource sat almost entirely as Inferred.

In late 2025 CuFe retrieved historical drilling records from Tennant Creek and shipped them to Perth for review. That work unearthed laboratory standards, blanks and gold repeat assays from Normandy’s 1990s underground diamond program, plus additional gold repeats from the 1970s and 1980s. Combined with the new geological model completed in April 2026, this was enough for MEC to lift large portions of the resource into the Indicated bucket.

We think this kind of low-cost, high-leverage data work is the most underrated activity in junior mining. No drill rig, modest spend, material change in how the asset can be valued.

Gecko is the bigger of the two deposits, and now it can carry an NPV

Gecko sits at 17.8Mt at 2.55% CuEq, comprising 1.92% copper, 0.40 g/t gold and credits from silver and bismuth. That is materially larger than the Orlando deposit, which CuFe has already shown is economically viable in scoping studies released in July 2025 and the expanded version in May 2026.

Executive Director Mark Hancock was direct on this point. The Orlando expanded scoping study showed the value of including underground tonnes, and Gecko has only ever produced copper underground, with 3Mt mined historically at 4.0% Cu and 1.2 g/t Au before operations stopped in 1999 on low copper prices.

Copper at US$9,250/t and gold at US$4,000/oz tell a very different story to the prices that closed the mine in 1999. The historical operation provides genuine mining, processing and recovery data to underpin the upcoming study, which is rare for a project of this stage.

What is still Inferred, and what management is planning to do about it

Roughly a third of the Gecko resource remains in the Inferred category, concentrated at Anomaly 2 and Anomaly 3 where supporting QAQC data is thinner. CuFe has flagged a drill program in the September quarter to generate modern QAQC coverage in those zones, which should support further conversion in subsequent updates.

Our concern is the usual one with deposits of this vintage. Some of the historical assay records may simply never resurface, which would cap how much of the remaining Inferred material can be upgraded without fresh drilling. That makes the September quarter program more important than a routine resource definition campaign.

The Investors Takeaway for CuFe

The June 2026 MRE upgrade is not a re-rating event on its own. It is the unlock that lets the upcoming Scoping Study put real numbers around the combined Gecko and Orlando project for the first time. That is what the market will price.

We would want to see how the study handles the 55%/45% joint venture structure at Gecko, the historical production reconciliation, and whether the combined throughput case improves the unit economics meaningfully versus Orlando standalone. Investors can find more in-depth coverage of ASX-listed copper and gold names at stocksdownunder.

Until the study lands, the share price will likely sit in a waiting pattern. After it lands, the conversation moves to funding, permitting and the September quarter drilling outcomes.