Upside Gold Corp. has released preliminary exploration results from its Kena Gold-Copper Property in southeastern British Columbia, revealing multiple high-grade gold-silver-copper showings beyond the boundaries of the existing historic resource. The company's July 2025 surface sampling program returned values up to 26.1 g/t gold, 179 g/t silver, and 1.68% copper, supporting the existence of a large, multi-zone mineralized system that extends east and south of the known resource area.
The exploration program, which followed the company's optioning of the 10,115-hectare property earlier in 2025, involved geological traverses and sampling of both historic showings and newly accessible areas created by recent logging road construction. According to CEO Sophy Cesar, the results support the company's exploration model and help define priority targets for follow-up diamond drilling beyond the existing lode gold bearing body. The work has identified 22 proposed priority diamond drillhole collar sites for testing both within and outside the known gold mineralization.
Three areas beyond the Kena lode gold body boundaries are considered particularly promising for follow-up exploration. The Lower and Upper Euphrates Au-Ag showings, which report historic production of 307 tonnes at 46.9 g/t Au and 249 g/t Ag, returned average analytical results of 8.61 g/t Au and 31.6 g/t Ag from nine grab samples. These showings trend regionally along-strike eight kilometres to the north to the Kena lode gold body and are associated with favorable geological, geochemical and geophysical signatures including a coincident magnetic low feature traceable for 10 kilometres.
The Cat, Shaft, Dighem, and Princess Cu-Au-Ag showings, located along the east side of the Kena Gold lode gold body over a 1,200-metre strike length, are associated with a strong two-pronged IP chargeability anomaly measuring 1.8 by 0.6 kilometres with coincident copper soil anomalies. Rock samples from these showings returned analyses of up to 1.68% copper, 5.41 g/t gold and 18 g/t silver. Historically, only five reconnaissance drill holes have been completed across this entire area.
The Kena Copper Zone and adjoining South Gold Zone trends along strike for three kilometres southeast from the Kena Gold lode gold body, covering extensions of similar geology associated with a strong IP chargeability anomaly and broad coincident copper and gold soil geochemical anomalies. Historic drilling in this area reports multiple wide intersections of copper and gold values starting at or near surface, including 117 metres of 0.22% copper and 0.14 g/t gold, and 90 metres of 0.9 g/t gold in the South Gold Zone.
The property's gold mineralization is predominantly controlled by the northwestern trending Kena Deformation Zone, situated within and between the Silver King Porphyry intrusive and Elsie Volcanic rocks. This zone is characterized by a strong low magnetic intensity signature. The company's compilation work, which includes reviewing exploration data extending back to the mid-1970s, supports the belief in a major gold-copper mineralized system that extends beyond the currently defined lode gold body.
According to the historical resource estimate detailed in the technical report titled NI 43-101 RESOURCE ESTIMATE FOR THE KENA AND DAYLIGHT PROPERTIES by Sue Bird of Moose Mountain Technical Services, the property hosts an Indicated Mineral Resource of 32,146,000 tonnes at 0.544 g/t Au for 0.561 million ounces and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 177,507,000 tonnes at 0.486 g/t Au for 2.77 million ounces. The company emphasizes that this is a historical estimate that requires additional drilling to upgrade to current mineral resources.
The Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia has historically been largely overlooked for gold and copper exploration, presenting opportunities for both new discoveries and development of known historic prospects into potentially viable resource bodies. The company's work suggests the precious metal and copper mineralized system extends well into the southern half of the property, an area that has not previously undergone diamond drilling or detailed exploration.
Quality assurance and quality control procedures were implemented throughout the sampling program, with rock samples shipped to ALS Canada Ltd laboratory in Kamloops and North Vancouver, B.C., an independent accredited testing laboratory conforming to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 requirements. The Qualified Person inserted blind gold, silver and copper accredited analytical standards and quartz blanks with the submitted batch.
