Infill Drilling Never Makes Headlines Until It Makes a Mine

Mississauga, Ontario, October 6th, 2026, FinanceWire

Discovery holes get the headlines. A hole that cuts hundreds of meters of gold from surface can move a stock in a morning. The holes that help build a mine typically attract far less attention. They are drilled between holes that already exist, in ground the market thinks it understands, to answer a less exciting but critically important question: is the gold continuous enough to count?

That answer can be a major step in turning a historical estimate into a modern resource and, ultimately, giving engineers the confidence to develop a mine plan around it. Moving up that ladder requires more than finding additional gold. It requires demonstrating that the mineralization is sufficiently continuous, predictable and well understood. In other words, it requires drilling the gaps.

Provenance Gold Corp. (CSE: PAU) (OTCQB: PVGDF) is now doing exactly that at its Eldorado Project in Malheur County, Oregon. On October 6, the company reported completing the first two holes of its 2026 core drilling program at the Tyee and Herman target areas of Eldorado West. Guided by an optimization study, the program is targeting under-drilled areas with the objective of expanding and better defining the known gold mineralization. Assays are pending.

The optimization work was completed by APEX Geoscience Ltd. of Edmonton, which identified areas showing evidence of mineralization but requiring additional infill and exploration drilling. The resulting data could help support a future mineral resource estimate. Importantly, Eldorado's historical resource estimates date back to the 1990s and do not represent current compliant resources. Provenance is therefore working toward building its maiden modern resource with contemporary drilling and data.

That distinction matters. A modern resource requires enough drilling and geological information to demonstrate the size, grade and continuity of the mineralized system with a level of confidence that can support an economic deposit.

Gold X2 Mining Inc. (TSX-Venture: AUXX) (NYSE American: AUXX) offers a useful example of why this stage of drilling can matter. At its Moss Gold Project in northwest Ontario, the company is conducting a deposit-wide infill program designed to upgrade Inferred resources to Indicated within its open-pit shell. In May, ten infill holes through the QES Zone returned mineralized zones that were 44% wider and carried a 5% higher average grade than the existing resource model had predicted. Moss already carries 2.458 million ounces of Indicated gold at 1.04 g/t and 4.209 million ounces Inferred at 0.97 g/t, with infill drilling aimed at increasing the confidence in a portion of those ounces.

For Provenance, the current program is particularly interesting because it is testing a system that has already produced substantial modern drill intersections.

At Tyee, Provenance's EC-11 was drilled west to east from Pad 14 to a depth of 374 meters. The hole was designed to extend known mineralization into sparsely drilled ground north of previously reported gold-bearing intersections in the Main Tyee Area. Alteration continued to the bottom of the hole, with several sulfide-rich zones containing pyrite between approximately 133 and 283 meters. These intervals are visually similar to sulfide-bearing zones observed in selected nearby holes. EC-12 is now testing the same target from the opposite direction, drilling east to west.

The significance is straightforward: Provenance is not drilling blindly into unexplored ground. It is using new holes to test whether the mineralized system already identified at Tyee continues into areas where drilling remains relatively sparse.

EC-10 at Herman adds another reason for interest. The hole was drilled 288 meters from the top of Herman Hill and encountered the same type of altered, pyrite-bearing rock seen in other mineralized Herman holes near the surface. Deeper in the hole, however, it entered a different type of rock that had seen very little previous drilling. That deeper zone contains several features commonly associated with hydrothermal systems, including sulfides and brecciation.

For investors, the important takeaway is not the technical terminology. EC-10 suggests the gold system at Herman may extend beyond the areas that have already been tested, giving Provenance another geological target to investigate as drilling continues. Assays will ultimately determine whether that geological promise translates into meaningful gold mineralization.

And that distinction is important. Provenance describes these observations as geological information only, not evidence of gold grade, continuity or economic mineralization. Samples have been submitted to Paragon Geochemical in Reno for gold analysis using PhotonAssay. Initial results are expected in approximately four weeks.

If the pending assays confirm that the visual observations are accompanied by meaningful gold grades, the current program could add another layer of confidence to Eldorado's growing geological picture.

Dakota Gold Corp. (NYSE American: DC) provides an example of where this type of work can eventually lead. Its 2026 campaign at the Richmond Hill oxide heap-leach project in South Dakota included 17,273 meters of infill, expansion and geotechnical drilling across 112 holes. The results are being incorporated into a Pre-Feasibility Study expected in the fourth quarter, which is intended to support an updated resource estimate and optimized mine plan.

Revival Gold Inc. (TSX-Venture: RVG) (OTCQX: RVLGF) is another step along the same development path at its Mercur Gold Project in Utah. The company completed approximately 10,000 meters of infill drilling in 100 reverse-circulation holes this year, with the objective of upgrading Inferred resources to Measured and Indicated as it works toward a Pre-Feasibility Study targeted for the end of the first quarter of 2027. Results to date continue to support the grade and leachability assumptions outlined in its 2025 Preliminary Economic Assessment.

For Provenance, the modern drilling at Eldorado provides an increasingly meaningful foundation for the current infill campaign. Hole ED-29 cut 254.51 meters of 1.56 g/t gold from surface and ended in mineralization. EC-09 returned 116.74 meters of 1.82 g/t gold, including 12.34 meters of 8.31 g/t gold. Intervals are downhole lengths, and true widths have not yet been established.

Just as importantly, the mineralized system appears to have considerable scale. Drilling has traced mineralization approximately 800 meters east to west at Tyee and extended the system roughly 730 meters south toward Herman, with both areas remaining open in multiple directions.

That combination of strong modern drill results, a large mineralized footprint and significant areas still requiring additional drilling is what makes the current program worth watching. The objective is no longer simply to demonstrate that gold exists at Eldorado. Provenance is working to better define how much gold may be there, how consistently it occurs and how the various zones fit together within a potential open-pit development scenario.

The company has also strengthened its exploration treasury. Warrant holders recently exercised 13,904,500 warrants from Provenance's September 2023 private placement at C$0.12 per share, generating gross proceeds of C$1,668,540 earmarked for exploration, including the current drill program. Provenance now has 198,543,520 shares outstanding.

Infill drilling rarely makes the biggest headline because its purpose is usually confirmation rather than discovery. But that confirmation can be enormously important. It is the process that can transform scattered drill results into a more coherent geological model, increase confidence in potentially mineable ounces and ultimately provide the foundation for a maiden resource estimate.

Provenance is now drilling the gaps at Eldorado. With a substantial modern drill footprint already established at Tyee and Herman, additional drilling underway and assays from the latest holes expected in roughly four weeks, the next results could help determine just how much more confidence can be added to the company's growing Eldorado story.

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*Historical Estimates:

All historical resource estimates are based on historical data and reports prepared by previous property owners. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify historical estimates as current resources in accordance with CIM (Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum) categories and the company is not treating the historical estimates as current resources. Significant data compilation, redrilling, resampling and data verification are required by a qualified person before historical estimates can be classified as a current resource. There can be no assurance that any historical mineral resources, in whole or in part, will ever become economically viable. In addition, mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. Even if classified as a current resource, there is no certainty as to whether further exploration will result in any inferred mineral resources being upgraded to an indicated or measured resource category.

Eldorado Historical Estimate

In 1990, the first historical estimate was calculated on what is now the Eldorado Project by Pincock, Alan and Holt (PAH), a reputable engineering firm that was used industry wide for this type of work. PAH modeled 158 of the historical drill holes which identified approximately 52,896,000 tons that graded 0.578 g/t gold (0.0169 oz/t gold) at a cut-off grade of 0.274 grams per ton (0.008 oz/t) in the open-ended gold system. A second historical estimate was calculated by ICAN Minerals based on work completed between 1989 and 1997, which identified 1,980,000 ounces of gold grading 0.753 g/t gold (0.022 oz/t gold) within 90,000,000 tonnes. The Company is not treating either estimate as current mineral resources and a qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify these estimates as current mineral resources. The estimates were prepared prior to the enactment of National Instrument 43-101, and the establishment of current CIM (Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum) classification categories and should not be relied upon for investment decisions. The purpose of presenting this information is to show that the Eldorado Project has potential to hold a large mineral inventory. The Company plans to update these historical estimates into a current resource model. Near term work to accomplish this goal includes confirmation drilling by twinning a number of the historical holes, certifying and comparing assays between the old and new holes, validating all historical holes in the field with a GPS and confirming historical metallurgical test results. When the Company is comfortable with these upgrades, then a new stand-alone current resource can be calculated. Other than these, the Company is not aware of any more recent estimates prepared for the Eldorado Project, nor is it aware of the existence of any technical reports describing the historical estimates.

Sunday Hill Historical Estimate

The referenced resource estimates for mine sites on the Sunday Hill Property are considered historical in nature, are based on prior data prepared by a previous property owner, and do not conform to current CIM categories. While the Company considers the estimates to be reliable, a qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current resources in accordance with current CIM categories and the Company is not treating the historical estimates as a current resource. Significant data compilation, re-drilling, re-sampling and data verification may be required by a qualified person before the historical estimates can be classified as current resources. There can be no assurance that any of the historical mineral resources, in whole or in part, will ever become economically viable. In addition, mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Company is not aware of any more recent estimate prepared for the Sunday Hill Property.

Third-Party Information:

References to other mining companies, their projects, exploration activities, resources, results or development plans are provided solely for general informational and comparative purposes. Provenance Gold Corp. has not independently reviewed, verified or endorsed the information concerning these third parties and assumes no responsibility for its accuracy or completeness.

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