Group Eleven’s Ballywire Germanium Grades Jump 68% on Assay Rethink

Group Eleven Resources has revealed that a change in laboratory technique at its Ballywire discovery in Ireland has exposed germanium grades averaging 68% higher than the numbers previously on record.

The upgrade lands at a sensitive moment for the metal. Chinese export controls have pushed germanium prices to elevated levels across Western markets, turning co-product credits into a genuine valuation driver for multi-metal zinc projects rather than a rounding error.

That macro backdrop is why a technical footnote about assay chemistry suddenly reads as market news. Germanium is a semiconductor used in fibre optics and AI-related infrastructure, and supply outside China is scarce enough that any credible new source draws attention.

What follows here matters because raw drill grades and actual revenue are two very different things. This piece walks through the scale of the grade upgrade, the chemistry that explains why the old numbers were wrong, and the commercial hurdles that sit between an impressive assay and a payable cheque from a smelter.

Quantifying the Ballywire grade upgrade

The headline is simple. Across 220 drill core samples from five Ballywire holes, re-analysed by ALS using a different fusion method, germanium grades came back an average of 68% higher than the original readings.

The Ballywire discovery has been expanding steadily across multiple metals, with zinc, silver and copper all contributing to the project’s growing strategic profile ahead of the germanium reanalysis results.

The individual intervals are where the story gets sharper. Drill hole 31 returned 3.7 metres at 62 g/t germanium under the new method, up from 45 g/t, a roughly 38% increase. Within that same hole, a one-metre sub-interval hit 90 g/t germanium alongside 20% combined zinc-lead and 150 g/t silver.

One 8-metre interval jumped even harder, grading around 25 g/t germanium against a prior reading near 8.9 g/t. That is close to a 180% improvement, and the interval also carried nearly 2,000 g/t silver and around 2.2% copper.

At the top end, drill hole 53 recorded peak values of 95 g/t germanium. Across individual sample intervals, the improvements ranged from about 32% to more than 300%.

Set against the discovery’s estimated 20-40 g/t germanium range, these high-grade hits tell you that earlier valuations of Ballywire may have structurally underpriced its strategic metal potential. If you model this project, the new figures replace the old baseline for metal value per tonne.

The chemistry behind the missing metal

Here the tone shifts from excitement to explanation, because the durability of these grades depends entirely on why the old numbers were low.

The problem sits with germanium’s behaviour during analysis. Under standard acid digestions and lithium borate fusions, germanium can escape as germanium tetrachloride (GeCl4), a volatile compound that literally evaporates out of the sample. The result is a grade that reads systematically lower than what the rock actually contains.

ALS recommended switching to sodium peroxide fusion, the method behind its ME-MS89L assay. This technique uses a strongly oxidising flux in a closed or semi-closed vessel to break down sulphide and silicate material without letting germanium volatilise away.

The contrast between the two methods is the whole point:

• Lithium borate fusion: a solid total-digestion technique for difficult silicates, but prone to losing germanium as volatile GeCl4, which understates grades in sulphide-hosted material.
• Sodium peroxide fusion (ME-MS89L): a closed-vessel approach that fully decomposes the matrix and captures germanium that the older method let slip, delivering more accurate readings.

Titan Mining’s own disclosures describe sodium peroxide fusion as the appropriate closed-vessel method for germanium in sulphide and silicate matrices, and note that standard digestions can systematically understate grades.

That framing matters for how you read this news. These higher grades are best understood as a permanent baseline correction for Ballywire, not a one-off statistical spike. The metal was always there; the previous method simply failed to measure it.

Bridging the gap between assay and revenue

Now for the friction. A favourable price environment and impressive drill grades do not add up to revenue, and Ballywire sits at the very start of a long commercial road.

The geopolitical premium

The reason germanium prices are elevated traces back to Beijing. China introduced export licensing for germanium-related items on 1 August 2023, then announced an outright ban on germanium, gallium and antimony exports to the United States in December 2024.

That ban was suspended in November 2025, but germanium stays on China’s dual-use export control list, and exporters still need licences. The leverage has not gone away.

The suspension of the US ban was framed as a diplomatic gesture, but germanium export controls remain in force through China’s dual-use licensing regime, meaning Western buyers still face structural supply uncertainty regardless of the headline policy shift.

The effect is a genuine premium on non-Chinese supply. Germanium is currently quoted between roughly US$3,400 and US$6,400/kg in Western markets, which in theory creates strong demand for co-product germanium from zinc-rich projects like Ballywire.

The payability hurdle

Theory is the operative word. Ballywire currently has zero metallurgical test work completed for any metal, germanium included. Recovery rates and smelter payability are entirely unknown.

The historical record is sobering. On a global scale, germanium recovery from zinc concentrates has been strikingly inefficient.

An IntechOpen review of germanium recovery rates in zinc processing found that as little as 3% of contained germanium is captured at the refinery stage, partly because dedicated recovery circuits can interfere with core zinc output and are not uniformly installed.

Only around 3% of the germanium contained in global zinc concentrates is actually recovered, according to an IntechOpen review. Recovery circuits can interfere with zinc recovery and are not universally installed.

Building a dedicated recovery circuit is expensive, with smelters facing capital costs of US$10-50 million to install one. Many smelters still treat germanium as a trace impurity and pay nothing for it.

Titan Mining’s experience illustrates why germanium recovery circuits are so capital-intensive: retrofitting an existing zinc operation to capture germanium from tailings requires specialised hydrometallurgical equipment and process chemistry that most smelters have not installed.

This is where you should discipline your model. Until Group Eleven proves that a commercial smelter will actually pay for this specific concentrate, the in-ground grades deserve heavy discounting. Metal in the rock and cash in the bank are separated by metallurgy, capital and contract terms.

What the pending assays mean for Ballywire’s development timeline

The immediate catalyst is close. Around 110 additional samples, originally run under the old lithium borate method, are now being re-assayed with sodium peroxide fusion, with results expected in the near term.

Several drill holes flagged in cross-section have not been analysed for germanium at all, leaving further upside on the table. The harder proof points sit further out: CEO Bart Jaworski anticipates metallurgical test work starting within roughly one to two years, and a Mineral Resource Estimate advancing within about one to one-and-a-half years.

For the TSX Venture-listed stock (ticker ZNG), the re-rating question hinges on whether the market treats the methodology shift as a durable value correction or waits for metallurgical validation before repricing.

The economic barriers to critical mineral development are often more constraining than geology: processing infrastructure, smelter contracts and off-take economics determine whether in-ground grades translate into viable projects, a dynamic that applies to zinc-hosted germanium in Ireland as much as it does to Australian deposits.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with financial professionals before making investment decisions.

Past performance does not guarantee future results, and the forward timelines cited here are management targets subject to exploration outcomes and market conditions.