2,926m drilled across Solis Minerals lithium and copper projects

Drilling advances across four exploration targets

Solis Minerals Limited (ASX:SLM) has moved from planning to execution across its South American exploration portfolio, completing approximately 2,926 metres across 13 drill holes during and shortly after the September quarter. The work covered lithium targets at Mandacaru and Campo Grande in Brazil, copper drilling at Cinto in Peru, and mobilisation for the next Cucho copper campaign.

“Brazil Lithium Project – Mandacaru and Campo Grande project areas located approximately 18 kilometres apart.”

The activity gives Solis more geological information to work with, but not yet a discovery. Assays remained pending for Mandacaru, Campo Grande and Cinto at the report date, leaving the company’s most consequential question unanswered: whether the geological targets translate into economic grades and continuity.

Brazil programme intersects targeted pegmatites

At Mandacaru, Solis completed seven diamond holes for approximately 1,454 metres. The drilling tested an 800-metre corridor defined by mapping, auger drilling and coincident lithium-caesium-tantalum anomalies. The company said pegmatites were encountered broadly where its geological interpretation and surface mapping had predicted them, at depths of roughly 30 to 40 metres below surface.

“Mandacaru completed drill-hole collar locations and traces; over geochemistry results4, mapped pegmatites and interpreted geochemistry contours.”

“Planned Campo Grande diamond drill-hole collar locations targeting mapped pegmatites and coincident auger, rock-chip and soil geochemical anomalies4.”

Caption and image © Solis Minerals Limited. From “Quarterly Activities/Appendix 5B Cash Flow Report”, 29 Oct 2026.

Campo Grande added four planned holes to the Brazil campaign, with approximately 782 metres completed. One hole was terminated at 50.26 metres after a highly fractured fault zone trapped the drilling equipment. The programme is testing a roughly 500-metre section of a wider 1,000-metre lithium corridor marked by lithium, caesium, tantalum and beryllium anomalies.

“Araçuaí–Salinas Lithium Valley (illustrative)”

The Brazilian work is the first major field test of the 93,000-hectare Brazil Lithium Project, acquired from Rio Tinto. That acquisition and the start of Mandacaru drilling were reported in the earlier Brazil lithium acquisition, which described the district as a central funding priority after Solis’s capital raising. Regional exploration has also continued, with more than 170 soil samples collected across five areas to generate targets beyond the two active prospects.

Peru copper work moves from targets to testing

At Cinto, Solis started a maiden five-hole, 2,500-metre diamond programme aimed at a possible copper porphyry system. One hole reached 608.90 metres and a second had advanced 81 metres, for approximately 690 metres in total. The first hole tested the down-dip continuation of a mineralised hydrothermal breccia exposed at surface and its possible connection to a deeper porphyry system. Historical surface samples cited by the company included results of up to 8.7% copper, but those results are not drill assays from the current programme.

“Cinto IP conductivity geophysical plot and historical geochemical sampling (grab and channel – Drill-holes CI-001-2026 through CI-003-2026 (with planned traces) illustrated.”

“Cucho exploration area – target zones indicated with historical drillhole collars and traces, planned drill holes and traces, copper surface geochemistry and IP chargeability.”

Caption and image © Solis Minerals Limited. From “Quarterly Activities/Appendix 5B Cash Flow Report”, 29 Oct 2026.

At Cucho, all approvals required for drilling had been received during the quarter, and mobilisation for a planned 5,000-metre programme was under way after quarter-end. The campaign will test three zones associated with copper-molybdenum anomalies, structures, alteration and induced-polarisation responses. Solis has 34 permitted drill holes available, although the initial programme is expected to focus on approximately 10 holes.

Cash supports activity but leaves limited room for delay

Solis reported A$3.97 million in cash at 30 September, after a quarterly net operating cash outflow of A$1.876 million and A$716,000 paid to acquire tenements. The company reported A$4.0 million of exploration and evaluation expenditure incurred during the quarter, while the Appendix 5B recorded A$1.445 million in exploration and evaluation payments in operating cash flows. On the quarter’s relevant cash outflow measure, Solis calculated approximately 2.12 quarters of available funding and reported no drawn financing facilities.

The funding position matters because the company is running several programmes at once, including the newly mobilised Cucho campaign. Solis also issued 5.77 million shares during the quarter, including consideration shares connected with Cucho, and later issued further shares and performance rights after shareholder approval. The filing does not announce a new capital raising, leaving assay timing and cash use as the immediate tests of how far the current programme can run.

Assays become the next material catalyst

The report contains encouraging exploration observations but no new grades, widths, mineral resources or reserves. Mandacaru assays are expected to determine whether follow-up drilling is warranted, while results from Campo Grande and Cinto will help establish whether the targets justify further work. The Brazil Lithium Project concessions were also still being transferred to Solis after the Q3 acquisition, a process the company says is continuing.

That leaves a fairly clean scorecard for the next reporting cycle: assay quality at the three drilled projects, evidence from the first Cucho holes, and the rate at which the cash balance declines. Until those results arrive, Solis has demonstrated a busy exploration programme rather than a confirmed mineral discovery.