Located approximately 8 km west of our flagship Lagalochan prospect, both Ardlochan and Lagalochan centres form part of a continuous geological system linked by a Caledonian aged structural corridor. In 2023, Western Gold Exploration secured key land access agreements for the Ardlochan prospect, situated within our Crown Estate Mines Royal Option area, which covers 250 km² across Argyll.
Ardlochan exhibits a high-K, calc-alkaline geochemical signature typical of many significant porphyry systems worldwide. However, mineralisation observed to date appears to be strongly influenced by structural controls, with multiple phases of potassic and magnetite alteration consistent with the gold-rich porphyry model proposed by Sillitoe (2010). A comparable project with similar geological characteristics is the Schaft Creek porphyry system, currently being advanced through a joint venture between Teck Resources and Copper Fox.
To date, the Company has completed approximately 1,040m of diamond drilling across five sites during two pilot programs in 2024 and 2025. The 2024 drilling (c. 221m over three holes) focused on gold-copper surface geochemical anomalies, while the 2025 drilling (c. 741m over three holes) tested geophysical targets defined by our regional magnetotelluric (MT) survey.
MT data at Ardlochan suggests a “classic porphyry” ring structure, featuring a shallow conductive ring surrounding a resistive core. Three principal targets were preliminarily assessed during the 2025 drilling:
2024 drilling in hole WGLD009, later extended in 2025 (WGLD009_EXT) has confirmed the discovery of a gold mineralised porphyry-breccia pipe at least 140m in diameter and open at depth and in multiple directions. Most of the higher-grade gold occurs in late-stage potassic-breccias and dykes, although their development in drillholes to date is limited. Future efforts are underway to determine the controls on late-stage potassic-breccias and their anticipated points of focus.
The entire pipe is anomalous in gold and averages 195m @ 0.36 g/t Au, from 30 m downhole. Higher grade highlights include*:
*Using a 0.3 g/t Au cut-off with ≤ 5m consecutive internal dilution
