Headwater Gold Inc. announced the completion of drill programs at the Lodestar and TJ projects located in Nevada, United States. Lodestar drilling was 100% funded by Newmont Corporation through an earn-in agreement announced on May 9, 2023. TJ drilling was 100% funded by OceanaGold Corporation pursuant to the earn-in agreement announced on October 15, 2025.
The Lodestar Drilling: Approximately 2,950 metres were completed over four core holes and five reverse circulation holes. All holes drilled in the Zodiac Sinter target area intersected the modeled structural target or adjacent pervasive hydrothermal alteration. TJ Drilling: Approximately 1,350 metres of core drilling were completed over five holes in two target areas.
Drilling was suspended due to the onset of inclement winter weather. All drill samples from both programs have been submitted for laboratory analysis. Final assay results are expected over the coming weeks.
About the 2025 Lodestar Drill Program: Headwater completed approximately 2,950 metres of drilling in four core holes and five reverse distribution ("RC") holes at the Lodestar project. The core drilling focused on the Zodiac Fault, a northwest-striking structure hosted in Miocene volcanic rocks exposed over a 550-metre strike length, with silica sinter and intensely altered hydrothermal breccias at surface. This hydrothermal alteration zone is open to north, south and east, where widely-spaced RC drilling intersected this alteration in each hole, as shallow as 30 metres from surface and covered by pediment gravels or younger Miocene andesite lava flows.
Alteration studies and geochemical analysis of these drill holes will be used as vectors to influence potential follow-up drill targeting within this large alteration footprint. The Lodestar project is located in the Aurora Mining District in the Walker Lane belt, west-central Nevada, approximately 10 km north of Headwater's Spring Peak project (also subject to an earnin agreement with Newmont) and adjacent to Hecla Mining Company's past-producing Aurora mine complex, which hosts existing infrastructure including a 600 ton per day mill, several production water wells and high-voltage three-phase power. The project features a prominent silicified and brecciated ridgeline capped by a silica sinter, similar to the sinter overlying the Disco Zone at Spring Peak, where Headwater has previously intersected high-grade gold mineralization, including 15.92 g/t Au over 2.38 m and 10.43 g/t Au over2.01 m. Historic shallow drilling at Lodestar encountered anomalous gold but did not test deeper feeder structures, leaving exploration potential largely untested.
Headwater holds an option to acquire a 100% undivided interest in the Lodestar project from a private vendor, subject to retained royalties and Newmont's option to acquire up to 75% of the project following certain expenditures and delivery of a Pre-Feasibility Study within a designated time frame.
