Announcement • Jul 07
Dundee Corporation Announces the Start of Exploration At Westhaven’S Spences Bridge Gold Belt Properties, Southern British Columbia
Dundee Corporation reported the start of exploration at Westhaven Gold Corp’s (“Westhaven”) Spences Bridge Gold Belt properties in southern British Columbia, including prospecting, geological mapping and soil sampling surveys on priority target areas at the Prospect Valley and Shovelnose properties, as well as mobilization of a fifth drill rig to the Shovelnose property in preparation for a 15,000m exploration drilling program expected to commence mid-month and continue through mid-December. With the start of exploration, the 2026 program is now combining potential resource growth through drilling and district scale exploration with project derisking through resource infill drilling and advancement of Pre-Feasibility studies (“PFS”). The ongoing 35,000m resource infill drilling program continues to confirm the continuity of mineralization within the South Zone deposit, including intersections of 9.8m grading 8.3 g/t Au and 11 g/t Ag (SNR26-83) and 11.46m grading 4.59 g/t Au and 43 g/t Ag (SNR26-92). On February 23, 2026, the Corporation completed a strategic earn-in agreement with Westhaven, whereby Dundee may earn up to a 60% interest in Westhaven's four Spences Bridge Gold Belt properties through up to CAD 85,000,000 in staged project expenditures. Under the first phase, Dundee has committed a minimum of CAD 30,000,000, inclusive of a fully funded 50,000m drill program at Shovelnose, which is funding the activities outlined in this news release and is expected to continue through the remainder of 2026. In addition to the ongoing PFS studies, targeted exploration work has commenced on both the Shovelnose gold property and the Prospect Valley gold property, located 30km to the northwest of Shovelnose. Prospecting, mapping and more detailed sampling are underway at priority targets located throughout the Shovelnose property, ahead of potential drill testing later this season. This field work follows on the successful completion of airborne magnetic and radiometric surveys (spring 2026) over the property’s expanded landholdings (acquired by Westhaven in 2024). The geophysical surveys were intended to support reconnaissance scale sampling undertaken by Westhaven in 2025 which identified spatially restricted areas with geological and geochemical similarities to known high grade gold-silver deposits elsewhere on the property. One area of particular focus is located approximately 15km southeast of the South Zone deposit, where silicified and clay altered volcanic rocks were identified in 2025 with float, subcrop and outcrop rock grab samples returning from background levels up to 2.45 g/t Au (96.2 g/t Ag) (Please see Westhaven’s news release dated January 26, 2026). Field work has also started at the Prospect Valley property, which hosts low sulphidation epithermal systems associated with the Discovery North, Discovery South, Dog Leg, NEZ and NIC occurrences, identified by previous, locally focussed, drill programs. During 2024 and 2025 Westhaven collected 389 rock samples and 121 stream sediment samples from underexplored areas of the 10,927-ha property, returning from background levels up to 2.76 g/t Au in rock samples and 1,795 ppb Au from a stream silt. Westhaven’s sampling also reconfirmed the presence of anomalous unsourced quartz breccia float samples from the Bonanza Valley area in the southwest corner of the property. Historic gold values returned from numerous float clasts in this area are higher than any encountered in drilling elsewhere on the Property (up to 43.34 g/t Au), and the bedrock source has yet to be located. Maximum gold values in new quartz float samples collected by Westhaven are up to 3.20 g/t Au. Initial work completed so far in 2026 includes collection of over 75 soil samples from the Bonanza Valley area to better constrain possible source locations of these compelling float samples. Recent logging activities have also opened up new roads and areas of bedrock exposure that will be evaluated this field season. Assay results from the ongoing 35,000m resource infill drilling program at the South Zone deposit continue to show excellent continuity of mineralization in each of Vein Zones 1, 2 and 3. Results have been received from an additional 15 infill drill holes (Table 1), mainly testing narrower Vein Zone 2 and Vein Zone 3 mineralization in the northern part of the deposit. The resource drilling program has been designed to infill the deposit at nominal 25m centres with results to be included in an updated mineral resource estimate to support a PFS targeting completion in H2 2027. To date, 61 drill holes (18,925m) have been completed representing approximately 54% of the planned program metreage. Assay intervals noted above represent downhole intersections, not true widths. True widths can be estimated at approximately 70-80% of the reported intervals. Most core samples consist of halved drill core cut by manual sawing using industry standard core saws. In rare cases, and where required by physical core conditions, manual splitting may be used. Half of the core is retained in the original core box for reference samples and any required future work, including QA/QC. Core samples, controlled by a unique bar-coded reference number, are delivered to ALS’s Kamloops facility and prepared using the PREP-31 package. Each core sample is crushed to better than 70% passing a 2mm (Tyler 9 mesh, US Std. No.10) screen. A split of 250g is taken and pulverized to better than 85% passing a 75-micron (Tyler 200 mesh, US Std. No. 200) screen. Further analytical and assay procedures are conducted in ALS’s North Vancouver facility. A 0.75g subsample of the pulverized split is subjected to four acid digestion and analyzed via ICP-MS (method code ME-MS61m (+Hg)) which reports a suite of 49 elements. All samples are also analyzed for gold by fire assay with an AES finish, method code Au-ICP21 (30g sample size) or Au-ICP22 (50g sample size). Samples returning gold values over 10ppm are subjected to over-limit check assays using fire assay and a gravimetric finish (method code Au-GRA21 and a 30g sample size, or Au-GRAV22 and a 50g sample size). The switch to 50g aliquots applies to 2026 resource infill drill holes starting at, and including, SNR26-98. Other over-limit elements may also be subjected to ore grade analyses which vary depending on the element of interest.
