49 Metals puts the rig back to work at Gold Mountain

Gold Mountain Drilling Moves Into Its Next Phase

49 Metals Limited (ASX:49M) has the rig turning again at Gold Mountain, beginning a 3,500-metre follow-up reverse-circulation campaign aimed at testing how far the Adit Zone gold discovery extends. The program covers approximately 10 to 11 holes and is fully funded, with the company reporting a cash balance of $6.8 million at 30 June 2026.

The start date gives effect to the September drilling plan, which followed a maiden campaign where all 22 holes returned gold and/or silver mineralisation. That earlier result is encouraging, but the current program is the more consequential test: step-out holes will probe the zone along its interpreted mineralised corridor, while infill drilling is intended to improve the understanding of continuity and geometry.

Broad Gold Envelope Still Includes Higher-Grade Zones

The company is carrying forward a mix of broad and high-grade intersections rather than presenting new assay data in this announcement. Hole DRC#22 returned 170.7 metres at 0.9 grams per tonne gold from 121.9 metres, including 50.3 metres at 1.2g/t. DRC#19 delivered 67.1 metres at 1.7g/t, including 3 metres at 20.0g/t, while discovery hole DRC#9 returned 27.4 metres at 8.3g/t, including 9.1 metres at 21.9g/t.

Those intersections have shaped the geological model behind the new drilling. 49 Metals says the high-grade mineralisation sits within a much broader mineralised system, with major structures and the Oddie Rhyolite emerging as important controls. The company also intends to examine the relationship between the higher-grade structures and the surrounding lower-grade envelope, a distinction that will matter when it assesses the project's eventual scale and continuity.

The campaign builds on feeder corridor results, which had expanded the mineralised envelope around a high-grade corridor and left the system open in multiple directions. The present drilling is designed to determine whether that openness persists along strike and down dip, rather than to establish a resource estimate at this stage.

Assays Are the Next Test of Continuity

Initial assay results are expected approximately four to six weeks after drilling commences, subject to laboratory turnaround times, with further results due progressively. The timing creates a relatively near-term catalyst, although the filing provides no new drilling results and the outcome of the campaign remains dependent on what the holes intersect.

Managing director Phil Carter said the company was seeking to test the scale of mineralisation at Gold Mountain while using infill drilling to better understand its continuity. The key question now is whether the next holes can connect the thick broad mineralisation with the higher-grade structures strongly enough to support a more confident geological interpretation.