Golden Cariboo Resources Ltd. has provided a comprehensive summary of its 2025 exploration program at the Quesnelle Gold Quartz Mine Property, located approximately 4 kilometers northeast of Hixon and 50 kilometers southeast of Prince George, British Columbia. The company's two-phase spring and fall drill program, which commenced in April 2025, focused on expanding gold mineralization at the Halo zone while testing various geochemical and structural targets.
The 2025 drilling campaign encountered early technical challenges when collaring in argillite on the east side of a geological contact, resulting in four holes being lost either short of or within the mineralized Halo zone to the west. Despite these difficulties, the company successfully drilled a total of 1,729.79 meters in eight NQ-sized surface diamond drill holes. Drilling was suspended on December 18, 2025, with plans to resume in early 2026 to test both the northern extension of the Halo zone and the down dip mineralization of one of several MMI gold-in-soil anomalies, as detailed in a News Release dated March 19, 2025.
A significant technological advancement in the 2025 program was the implementation of PhotonAssay™ technology as part of the company's regular assay protocol, announced in a News Release dated April 29, 2025. This technology demonstrated its value when reanalysis of drill hole QGQ24-20 using PhotonAssay™ verified and increased gold grades by 5.9% compared to traditional fire assay methods. The results returned 0.56 g/t gold over 475.4 meters from 7.97 meters depth, including 236.88 meters of 1.06 g/t gold, as reported in a News Release dated August 12, 2025.
The exploration program yielded several important discoveries, including the Km Uno Zone located 2 kilometers southeast of the Halo zone. Initial samples from this area yielded 1.1 g/t gold with 8.0 g/t silver and 0.57 g/t gold with 3.3 g/t silver. These findings align with airborne resistivity, ground conductivity anomalies, and a strong gold-silver-arsenic soil anomaly, detailed in a News Release dated September 9, 2025. Additionally, drill hole QGQ25-23 intersected 0.56 g/t gold over 99.84 meters from 182.20 meters and terminated in mineralization at the Halo zone, as noted in a News Release dated December 17, 2025.
Golden Cariboo has recently engaged MSALABS in Prince George, B.C. to prepare and conduct PhotonAssay™ for gold and silver. The proximity of the property to the laboratory and the availability of silver analysis with PhotonAssay™ technology may expedite turnaround time for assay results. Currently, samples from drill hole QGQ25-25 are being analyzed by MSALABS, while QGQ25-26 to 27 are being prepared for shipping, and QGQ25-28 is being logged with plans to continue drilling in January.
Building on the momentum of the fall 2025 program, Golden Cariboo is preparing an ambitious and technically robust exploration strategy for 2026. The company intends to significantly scale up drilling and trenching activities while broadening its regional understanding of the district-scale geology across its 94,899-hectare mineral land package. The technical information in the news release has been reviewed and approved by Jean Pautler, an independent consultant and Qualified Person with respect to NI 43-101.
The implications of these developments extend beyond Golden Cariboo's immediate operations. The successful implementation of PhotonAssay™ technology represents a potential industry shift toward more accurate and efficient assay methods, which could reduce exploration timelines and improve resource estimation accuracy across the mining sector. The discovery of the Km Uno Zone and continued mineralization at the Halo zone suggests the property hosts multiple mineralized systems, increasing the potential for economic resource development. For business and technology leaders, Golden Cariboo's approach demonstrates how technological innovation combined with systematic exploration can enhance project value in the competitive mineral exploration sector.
