Tim Benfield

Career chronology

• Current at cutoff; exact start date not independently verified in this audit: AIC Mines — Chief Operating Officer. Board and management (Relevant named person’s current issuer biography)

• Before or during AIC tenure as described by the issuer; exact dates not determined in this audit: Kingsgate Consolidated — Chief Operating Officer; acting Chief Executive Officer. Board and management (Relevant named person’s current issuer biography)

Education and qualifications

Mining qualification, MBA and professional fellowship

Dates of awards not disclosed · issuer reported · medium materiality

Issuer disclosures report a mining-engineering diploma from Camborne School of Mines, an MBA from Murdoch University and AusIMM fellowship. Independent award or membership-register confirmation was not obtained.

Attribution: Responsibility not applicable. Issuer-reported credentials; do not upgrade the diploma to a university degree.

Relevance: Directly relevant technical and management training.

Board and management (Relevant named person’s current issuer biography)

Contributions and company outcomes

Operational improvement alongside financial stress

FY2015 · issuer reported · medium materiality

Kingsgate FY2015 reported Challenger production up 7% and group cash costs falling from US$936/oz to US$833/oz. Benfield held operational leadership and acted as CEO for part of that year. These improvements coexisted with substantial losses.

Attribution: Role overlaps event; causation unproven. Operations remit overlaps improvements; company reports do not isolate his personal contribution.

Relevance: Evidence of operating experience with a mixed commercial outcome.

Kingsgate Annual Report 2015 (PDF pp.4, 8–10, 22 and 36, results, suspension and management)

FY26 guidance met; September production below plan

FY26 and September 2026 quarter · issuer reported · high materiality

Eloise delivered FY26 copper guidance for a third year, producing 13,064 tonnes in concentrate. The September 2026 quarter produced 3,072 tonnes consolidated, below quarterly guidance after delayed access to higher-grade ore and early plant cutovers. Company full-year guidance was maintained.

Attribution: Role overlaps event; causation unproven. COO oversight overlaps delivery and cost pressures; outcomes belong to the whole operating team.

Relevance: Relevant evidence for AIC production reliability and ramp-up discipline.

AIC Mines Annual Report 2026 (PDF pp.4, 6, 15 and 45); Quarterly Activities Report for the Period Ending 30 September 2026 (pp.1–2 and 20, safety, production and leadership)

Business failures and setbacks

Large FY2015 loss and impairments

FY2015 · issuer reported · high materiality

Kingsgate recorded an A$147.1m after-tax loss and A$148.2m in non-cash impairments in FY2015, including Chatree and Bowdens. The report links the main impairment to weaker gold prices.

Attribution: Role overlaps event; causation unproven. Leadership tenure overlaps; board capital allocation and external commodity prices prevent sole attribution.

Relevance: Requires a balanced assessment of operating gains versus investment outcomes.

Kingsgate Annual Report 2015 (PDF pp.4, 8–10, 22 and 36, results, suspension and management)

Industrial safety

Annual safety improvement followed by a September-quarter increase

FY26 and September 2026 quarter · issuer reported · high materiality

AIC reported that rolling TRIFR improved from 12.0 in June 2025 to 5.7 in June 2026, then increased to 6.2 per million hours by September 2026. Two September-quarter recordable injuries were disclosed, involving an elevated work platform and a hammer.

Attribution: Role overlaps event; causation unproven. Operating responsibility overlaps the period; personal negligence is not established.

Relevance: Both the annual improvement and subsequent injury-rate increase matter for critical-control oversight.

AIC Mines Annual Report 2026 (PDF pp.4, 6, 15 and 45); Quarterly Activities Report for the Period Ending 30 September 2026 (pp.1–2 and 20, safety, production and leadership)

Environmental record

Chatree suspension during operating leadership

January–February 2015 · disputed · high materiality

Chatree lost 44 operating days in early 2015 after local arsenic/manganese concerns. Mining resumed on 27 February. Kingsgate reported a scientific study found the mine was not the source; that study itself was not independently reviewed here.

Attribution: Role overlaps event; causation unproven. Benfield was COO/acting CEO; suspension is documented, while causal contamination allegations remain distinct from an established personal breach.

Relevance: A material test of stakeholder, environmental and operating-risk management.

Kingsgate Annual Report 2015 (PDF pp.4, 8–10, 22 and 36, results, suspension and management)

Suitability for the current role

Strong technical fit with a mixed prior commercial record

Assessment at cutoff · analyst inference · medium materiality

The issuer describes mining engineering and operational leadership. Kingsgate disclosed losses and Chatree disruption during his operational-leadership period; direct personal responsibility for those outcomes is not established.

Attribution: Responsibility not applicable. Inference from roles, outcomes and chronology, with no personal-misconduct conclusion.

Relevance: Project-level results, capital efficiency and critical-control effectiveness remain incompletely attributed despite relevant experience.

Kingsgate Annual Report 2015 (PDF pp.4, 8–10, 22 and 36, results, suspension and management); Board and management (Relevant named person’s current issuer biography)

Evidence gaps

• Exact Aeon and Fetch tenure dates and independently measured project outcomes remain unconfirmed.

• Chatree scientific report and complete Thai regulatory orders were not obtained; issuer claims are labelled accordingly.

• Historical acting-CEO start day differs inside Kingsgate’s report; month-level tenure is used.

• White Range development-study leadership is issuer-reported; original economic assumptions, delivered returns and exact Fetch tenure were not located in the targeted search.

• No public incident-specific June-quarter corrective-action closure or independent critical-control effectiveness report was located.

• The prior dossier and its earlier search logs were preserved separately. Prior search execution and citations not re-opened in this audit were not treated as independently verified; omitted claims require fresh source-level review.