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Nicola Mining Provides Update on Exploration Activities and Confirms New Porphyry Target At Its New Craigmont Copper Project
Nicola Mining Inc. announced the successful completion of the inaugural drill hole at the newly identified Jotun target within its wholly owned New Craigmont Copper Project, located near Merritt, British Columbia. The first-ever drill hole at Jotun has confirmed the presence of geological characteristics consistent with a highly prospective porphyry copper target, further validating the Company's evolving exploration model and reinforcing the significant discovery potential of the broader New Craigmont property. In addition to diamond drilling at Jotun, Nicola completed an extensive soil geochemistry program over the Draken target, another emerging porphyry centre, and an airborne geophysical survey covering the entire New Craigmont property. The 2026 Program represents the most comprehensive and technically advanced porphyry exploration campaign ever undertaken by the Company at New Craigmont. The integration of drilling, geochemistry, and property-wide geophysics is expected to significantly enhance target definition, improve vectoring toward potential mineralized centres, and establish a robust technical framework for systematic exploration. The resulting dataset is anticipated to substantially refine future drill targeting and position the Company for an aggressive and highly focused exploration program in 2027. Drill hole JT-26-001 was completed to a depth of 840 metres at the newly identified Jotun target, a compelling porphyry copper target generated through the integration of multiple datasets, including geophysical anomalies, epidote geochemistry, historical near-mine drilling, and its favourable spatial relationship to known surface copper showings. JT-26-001 intersected predominantly hornblende diorite of the Guichon Creek Border Phase, consistent with the Company's geological interpretation. Throughout the hole, alteration intensity varied considerably, transitioning between propylitic, sericitic, and potassic assemblages, indicative of a dynamic and evolving hydrothermal environment. The occurrence of these alteration styles over a substantial vertical extent is considered highly encouraging and supports the presence of a large-scale mineralizing system. The drill hole also intersected multiple fault zones and intensely fractured intervals, several of which are associated with clay gouge, hematite-limonite alteration, and remobilized copper mineralization. Several of these structures contain visible native copper occurring along fractures and fault planes in association with hematite and limonite alteration. The presence of native copper within these structurally controlled zones is interpreted as evidence of a complex hydrothermal history and may reflect localized low sulphur fugacity and reducing conditions associated with late-stage fluid evolution. These observations demonstrate that copper-bearing fluids were active within the system and provide further evidence of a fertile mineralizing environment. Collectively, the alteration assemblages, structural architecture, hydrothermal overprint, and occurrence of visible native copper encountered in JT-26-001 are considered highly encouraging indicators of porphyry-related mineralizing processes and further support the exploration potential of the Jotun target. The results from this inaugural drill hole will play an important role in refining the Company's geological model and guiding future drilling designed to vector toward the core of the mineralizing system. Copper mineralization is concentrated along fault-related structures and fractures highlighting the importance of structural controls on fluid flow and mineral deposition. Mineralization consists primarily of bornite-bearing veins with subordinate chalcopyrite-bornite assemblages occurring within veinlets, fractures, and localized alteration halos. The strong structural overprint, together with the occurrence of native copper and bornite-rich mineralization, supports the interpretation of an evolving hydrothermal system displaying possible transitional characteristics between porphyry-style and skarn-related mineralization. The top 186m of this hole displayed the strongest and most encouraging porphyry-style alternation drilled to date at New Craigmont, characterized mainly by a higher abundance of quartz-Kfeldspar veins. This drill hole confirmed Jotun as a porphyry target, and one Nicola should go back to and drill next year. Using the data from this year's hole, combined with holes NC23-005 and NC23-006, and the results of this year's MobileMT survey Nicola geologists plan to generate another drill target for next year. It's clear that the faults play a significant role in mineralization, and modelling will focus on using geophysics to understand the faults and incorporate them into the Company's target concepts. Nicola completed a Mobile Magnetotelluric ("Mobile MT") geophysical survey across the property to improve the resolution of previous geophysical datasets and further refine exploration targets for future drilling. The Mobile MT survey is intended to help refine and narrow down areas of interest associated with potential porphyry-style mineralization beneath cover. The survey was conducted by Expert Geophysics Limited, totaling approximately 1,436 line-kms on survey lines spaced approximately 100 metres apart, providing higher-resolution subsurface imaging and better definition of resistivity features compared to earlier regional-scale geophysical surveys completed across the property. The company has now received the final dataset and is actively integrating the results to develop a solid targeting framework aimed to refined targets for future drill testing. Nicola completed a Mobile Metal Ion ("MMI") soil sampling program in the northwestern portion of the New Craigmont property, covering the Draken target area. This program is designed to build upon and extend soil sampling work previously completed in 2019 and 2021, while incorporating an enhanced focus on detecting geochemical signatures associated with sulphide mineralization. The Draken area is characterized by limited bedrock exposure, with partial outcrops present locally but with cover across most of the target area. Under these conditions, MMI soil sampling is considered an appropriate exploration method.