ALTAMIRA GOLD CORP

Altamira released results from additional drilling immediately northwest of the existing Maria Bonita gold deposit.  Drill hole MBA039 intersected 117m at 0.4g/t Au from surface in predominantly volcanic tuffs. Drill hole MBA038 returned 74m at 0.3g/t Au from 74m downhole, associated with hydrothermal quartz veining, hosted in both porphyry and adjacent volcanic tuff wall rock. The Hole MBA039 intersection includes higher-grade sections of 28.0m at 0.6 g/t Au and 25m at 0.5 g/t Au. (Figure 1)

Gold mineralization in these drill holes is generally related to the frequency of hydrothermal quartz veins.  Altamira reports that unlike the main early porphyry at Maria Bonita, the western early porphyry intercepts contain pyrite (up to 1% by volume) plus magnetite. Alteration is mainly potassic in character, similar to the Maria Bonita early porphyry. Sulphide content appears to increase westwards, which may signal an opportunity to map the mineralization through IP chargeability surveys. The main Maria Bonita porphyry shows a resistivity anomaly but no discernible chargeability due to its very low sulphide content.

Gold grades within the mineralized sections of the porphyry have bulk grades around 0.5g/t Au with peak values of 1-2g/t Au.  Intervals are consistently mineralized with no apparent nugget effect. In the sections of drill holes MBA038 and 039 comprising later phases of porphyry, gold values are low, indicating waning mineralization as the hydrothermal system evolved hence, exploration needs to focus on the earlier porphyry phases, which are the most prospective.

Significantly, drill holes MBA036 through MBA039 have each intersected wide zones of gold mineralization outside the current mineral resource boundary (including 130m @ 0.5 g/t gold in MBA036). MBA038 is particularly significant as the gold mineralization occurs in the wall rock tuffs, outside the intrusive, thereby expanding the exploration target.

Altamira also released results of two reconnaissance holes at the Mombaque prospect that targeted a gold in soil anomaly occurring in brecciated tuffs above an inferred magnetic intrusive body, which is interpreted as a similar geological setting to the western extensions of Maria Bonita discussed above.  Unfortunately, the holes only returned narrow zones of low-grade gold in tuffs and intrusives.  The two drill holes are 500m apart, but the low-grade results reduce the likelihood of outlining a scalable mineralized system at this target.

Comments

The drilling at Maria Bonita continues to show that the existing mineral resource can be significantly expanded.  The presence of comparable grade mineralization in the tuffs to that in the intrusive significantly expands the target area for potential resource expansion.  Results of two wide-spaced reconnaissance drill holes at Mombaque, however, were disappointing.

As I noted previously, this property has a lot of targets over a 14km strike length that need drill-testing.  According to their latest financial statement at Year ended February 28, 2026, they have approximately CDN $7million in cash, so they can continue drilling.  The stock is relatively flat at CDN$0.16, so while it makes sense to continue resource expansion drilling, there needs to be a component of exploration drilling to test other targets and to find areas with higher grades to generate market interest.  There is good potential for early oxide heap leach production, and the area has good infrastructure.  Geologically, they are continuing to improve their understanding of the mineralizing system, emphasizing the early porphyry phase, which should help targeting.

Figure 1
Source: Altamira Gold

Location of drill holes MBA038 and MBA039 (Altamira Gold press release July 23, 2026).

The Company plans to continue the drill testing of the western extensions of the Maria Bonita porphyry system to trace the prospective intrusions and their contacts with the wall rock tuffs so as to provide the basis for a mineral resource update.