Announcement • May 09
Westhaven Gold Corp. Returns 54m Grading 8.99 G/T Au And 55 G/T Ag From Resource In-Fill Drilling And Initiates South Zone Pre-Feasibility Study
Westhaven Gold Corp. provided an update on its 2026 field activities at the Shovelnose gold and silver project ("Shovelnose"), in southern British Columbia, including initial mineral resource in-fill drilling results and the commencement of a Prefeasibility Study ("PFS") evaluating potential mine development at the South Zone deposit. This work is being funded under a strategic earn-in agreement with Dundee Corporation ("Dundee"), whereby Dundee may earn up to a 60% interest in Westhaven's four Spences Bridge Gold Belt properties through up to CAD 85,000 million in staged project expenditures. Under the first phase, Dundee has committed a minimum of CAD 30,000 million, inclusive of a fully funded 50,000m drill program and Pre-Feasibility work at Shovelnose. 8,537m of drilling (32 drill holes) have been completed within the South Zone deposit, representing ~23% of the planned mineral resource drilling program. Assay results from 14 drill holes (3,500m; ~10% of planned in-fill drilling) have been received, with notable results including 54.0m grading 8.99 g/t Au and 55 g/t Ag (SNR26-070) and 42.0m grading 4.35 g/t Au and 41 g/t Ag (SNR26-63). The drill program is expected to increase from two to four drills by May 15, 2026, ahead of schedule. Initial drilling is focused on completing ~35,000m of mineral resource in-fill drilling at the South Zone deposit, targeting inclusion in an updated Mineral Resource Estimate ("MRE") to support the PFS, with anticipated completion in H2 2027. The 2026 drilling program is also expected to include ~15,000m of exploration drilling and additional dedicated drilling for hydrogeological, geotechnical and metallurgical studies in support of the PFS. Environmental Assessment ("EA") level environmental and socio-economic baseline programs are currently being developed, with implementation to follow in support of the PFS and future EA application. The 35,000m South Zone mineral resource drilling program has been designed to infill the deposit at nominal 25m centres. To date, 32 drill holes (8,537m) have been completed representing approximately 23% of the planned program metreage. Initial results from 14 holes (3,500m or 10% of the planned metreage) are reported in this news release. Selected assay highlights include: SNR26-61: 12.02m grading 3.34 g/t Au and 24 g/t Ag from 142.00m downhole; SNR26-63: 42.00m grading 4.35 g/t Au and 41 g/t Ag from 148.00m downhole; SNR26-68: 9.04m grading 3.98 g/t Au and 23 g/t Ag from 190.00m downhole, and 6.03m grading 3.74 g/t Au and 27 g/t Ag from 218.00m downhole, and 6.70m grading 4.08 g/t Au and 19 g/t Ag from 228.97m downhole; SNR26-69: 11.75m grading 3.89 g/t Au and 25 g/t Ag from 161.15m downhole, and 9.50m grading 7.38 g/t Au and 68 g/t Ag from 184.50m downhole, and 1.26m grading 62.80 g/t Au and 330 g/t Ag from 198.04m downhole; SNR26-70: 54.00m grading 8.99 g/t Au and 55 g/t Ag from 152.00m downhole, including 23.00m grading 17.04 g/t Au and 111 g/t Ag from 169.60 downhole; SNR26-72: 6.90m grading 4.98 g/t Au and 18 g/t Ag from 237.50m downhole, and 4.49m grading 12.44 g/t Au and 46 g/t Ag from 257.00m downhole. Assay intervals noted above represent downhole intersections, not true widths. True widths can be estimated at approximately 70-80% of the reported intervals. Table 1 shows assay results, including drill hole locations and orientations, located at the end of this release and linked here. The PFS is expected to be completed in H2 2027 and will focus on evaluating development and mine design scenarios for the South Zone deposit at Shovelnose. The PFS will establish the technical and economic framework required to advance the project toward a potential Feasibility Study. In addition to ongoing mineral resource drilling and the planned update to the South Zone MRE, several 2026 work streams are either underway or planned in support of the PFS, including metallurgical, hydrogeology and geotechnical studies. Additional drilling metreage is expected to be allocated to support this work. EA-level environment and socio-economic baseline studies are also in development and will be implemented in support of the PFS and future EA application and project permitting processes. 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). 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). Other over-limit elements may also be subjected to ore grade analyses which vary depending on the element of interest. ALS’s facilities are accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard for gold assays, and all analytical methods include quality control materials at set frequencies with established data acceptance criteria. QA/QC incorporates the laboratory’s internal quality assurance controls as well as Westhaven’s field controls, including the insertion of quarter core duplicates, certified reference materials and blanks, each at a rate of roughly one per 20-25 core samples. Additional blanks are inserted following samples with visible gold or significant concentrations of ginguro (fine grained bands of dark gray to black sulphides). QA/QC data are evaluated on receipt for failures, and appropriate action is taken if results for duplicates, standards and blanks fall outside allowed tolerances. Westhaven’s ongoing QA/QC programs are consistent with industry best practices and include auditing of all exploration data. Any significant changes will be reported when available. Reported intervals are at least 2m in length with a 1 g/t Au cut-off for individual samples and no more than 3m contiguous metres dilution. Reported interval is less than 2.00m. Reported interval includes 3.17m grading <1.0 g/t from 200.90-204.07m.
