Soma Gold Corp (TSXV: SOMA) (OTC: SMAGF) reported the first drill result and new underground channel sampling from its Escondida Project in Antioquia, Colombia, indicating that the gold-bearing Escondida Vein continues beyond the boundaries of the small underground mine the company has operated since acquiring it in July 2025.

The result is the first from a 21-hole, 2,790-meter Phase 1 drill program that Soma Gold began at Escondida in May 2026 to test the vein’s extent up to 500 meters along strike and 250 meters below the mine’s deepest level. La Escondida Mine has produced mineralized material on a small scale since 2013; Soma Gold has held it for just over a year.

The lead hole, designated EZDDH-26-001, was drilled to intercept the vein 25 meters northeast of the mine’s current workings and about 100 meters below surface, near level 10 of the underground operation. It intersected a 2.7-meter-wide fault zone with strong clay alteration and a 0.65-meter quartz vein hosted in a granodiorite-to-diorite intrusive body, similar in style to the mineralization already mined at Escondida. The composite result was 4.25 g/t Au over 1.85 meters, including a higher-grade section of 12.10 g/t Au over 0.65 meters.

“The first assay results from the Escondida Mine have met our expectations and demonstrated near-mine continuity of the vein,” said Chris Buchanan, Soma Gold’s vice president of exploration. “The vein intersection and tenor of gold mineralization are consistent with mineralized material that has been mined from this area.”

A second hole, EZDDH-26-002, aimed to intercept the vein 50 meters down-dip of the first but was lost to drilling difficulties about 25 meters above the target depth. A third hole, EZDDH-26-003, reached the target zone 50 meters down-dip and 65 meters southwest of the first intercept; its core has been shipped to Actlabs’ Medellín facility and assays are pending. A fourth hole, EZDDH-26-004, has been collared to retest the point the lost hole was meant to reach.

Underground channel sampling, conducted as crews pumped out and rehabilitated the mine’s lowest workings, returned higher grades than the drill hole. Workers collected 29 channels comprising 81 samples from areas developed since the company’s last underground sampling campaign in 2022. Three of the highest-grade results were CHU600005, at 15.40 g/t Au over 1.0 meter, including 38.22 g/t Au over 0.40 meters; CHU600006, at 16.61 g/t Au over 1.0 meter, including 36.72 g/t Au over 0.45 meters; and CHU600008, at 19.24 g/t Au over 1.0 meter, including 38.26 g/t Au over 0.5 meters.

The Escondida Vein has been traced 800 meters along strike to the northeast and about 135 meters down-dip, dipping steeply at 70 to 80 degrees to the northwest. The mine’s previous operator worked 200 meters of that strike length to a vertical depth of 105 meters, developing five-meter levels that are now mostly backfilled. Soma Gold describes the vein’s style, alteration and sulphide mineralization as consistent with an intermediate sulphidation epithermal system.

La Escondida Mine holds a permiso de trabajo de obra (small-scale mining work permit), an environmental permit and an explosives permit, and is developed through two internal winzes feeding a small on-site mill. Soma Gold recently repaired the access road linking the project to an all-season route from Zaragoza or Cáceres, Colombia, making the roughly 90-minute drive to the company’s El Limón mill passable for trucks. The previous operator produced 10 tons per day at a diluted grade of about 9.0 g/t Au from a vein 15 to 65 centimeters thick, accompanied by a wider clay-altered zone that is also variably mineralized. Soma Gold is now extending the mine’s main decline by 10 meters to open four working faces on two new levels, targeting production of 20 to 30 tons per day.

Beyond Escondida, Soma Gold continues exploring across its broader Antioquia land package. At the Cordero Deposit, two surface rigs are testing targets down-dip of the Cordero, Atenas and Cordero Viejo zones, and two underground rigs at the Cordero Mine are focused on infill drilling to support mine planning. Regional teams are also running surface geochemistry programs at the company’s El Bagre and Machuca projects.

Drill core and channel samples are split, tagged and shipped under documented chain of custody to Actlabs Colombia SAS in Rionegro, where pulps are prepared and gold is assayed by fire assay with an atomic-absorption finish; overlimit samples are re-assayed with a gravimetric finish. Pulps are then sent to Actlabs’ laboratory in Ancaster, Ontario, for a 51-element analysis. Soma Gold said its quality-control program includes regularly inserted blanks, duplicates and certified OREAS reference standards, checked against certified values and standard deviations. Buchanan, a professional geologist and the qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, reviewed and approved the technical disclosures in the release.

Soma Gold Corp’s flagship operation, the Cordero Mine, feeds two mills in Antioquia — the El Bagre mill, with a capacity of 450 tons per day, and the El Limón mill, with a capacity of 225 tons per day — for a combined 675 tons per day, permitted for up to 1,400 tons per day. Escondida, the smaller, separately permitted operation Soma Gold acquired in July 2025, has its own small on-site mill and also feeds ore to the El Bagre and El Limón complexes. Internally generated funds are financing the company’s regional exploration program. Soma Gold also holds an exploration property near Tucumã, in Brazil’s Pará state, that it has optioned to Ero Copper Corp (TSX: ERO) (NYSE: ERO).

Key Drill Intercepts from the Pound Target

Drilling at the Pound target has focused on defining a recently discovered porphyry system. Two of the latest holes, SAC-18 and SAC-15, were drilled from the same pad and successfully intersected significant mineralization.

Figure 1: Plan View of the San Antonio Project Highlighting the Mineralized Corridor of the Pound Target and Significant Assay Results Announced Today and Previously (CNW Group/Collective Mining Ltd.)

Hole SAC-18: Drilled vertically 250 meters south of the discovery hole SAC-11, SAC-18 intersected multiple mineralized zones. The hole returned 172.40 meters at 1.88 g/t gold equivalent (AuEq), including a higher-grade section of 28.50 meters at 3.32 g/t AuEq and another section of 60.75 meters at 2.27 g/t AuEq. The hole was terminated prematurely due to rig limitations while still in strong mineralization, with the final 1.60 meters averaging 2.03 g/t AuEq. The company noted that this hole cut a late-stage porphyry-related sheeted vein system before entering the main gold-copper-silver-molybdenum porphyry system.

Hole SAC-15: Drilled to the south-southwest at a flatter angle from the same pad as SAC-18, this hole intersected a gold-rich zone of sheeted veinlets. Key results include 154.20 meters at 1.22 g/t AuEq, with higher-grade intervals of 58.00 meters at 2.15 g/t AuEq and 16.05 meters at 2.17 g/t AuEq. Similar to SAC-18, this hole was also stopped due to rig depth capacity, with the final 9.90 meters averaging 3.18 g/t AuEq.

Drill holes SAC-11, SAC-15, and SAC-18 have tested a north-to-south strike length of approximately 450 meters, with the system remaining open. To address the rig limitations that have prematurely ended several holes, the company has upgraded all rigs at the San Antonio Project. A higher-capacity rig is currently drilling hole SAC-21.

Figure 2: Cross-section along SAC-11, SAC-15, SAC-18, and SAC-21 showing the High MVI Anomaly Correlated with Au-Ag-Cu-Mo Porphyry Mineralization at the Pound Target (CNW Group/Collective Mining Ltd.)

Mineralization and Geological Context

Collective Mining’s geologists have identified three distinct, porphyry-related mineralized phases at the Pound target:

Phase 1: This phase is a large, 3-by-3-kilometer porphyry halo zone characterized by phyllic alteration. It hosts low-grade gold mineralization (0.2-0.5 g/t Au) and extends from the surface to a depth of at least 700 meters. This large zone covers the entire San Antonio project and includes multiple targets like Pound, COP, Euro, and their western extensions.

Phase 2: Described as a late-stage, gold and silver-rich sheeted veinlet system, this phase begins near the surface but shows more robust grades from 300 meters downhole. This mineralization is located in proximity to or in contact with the Phase 3 porphyry system.

Phase 3: This is the core gold-copper-silver-molybdenum porphyry system. It is characterized by potassic alteration and begins at approximately 400 meters below the surface. A notable feature of this phase is an unusually high gold-to-copper grade ratio, which can be as high as 4:1.

Figure 3: Drill Hole SAC-18 Split Core Highlighting the Gold-Copper-Silver-Molybdenum Porphyry Mineralization (Left) and the Late-Stage High-Grade Gold and Silver Sheeted Porphyry Veinlets (Right) Encountered from Drilling at the Pound Target (CNW Group/Collective Mining Ltd.)

Both Phase 2 and Phase 3 mineralized zones are found within the larger Phase 1 porphyry halo. The company is using Magnetic Vector Inversion (MVI) modeling of airborne geophysical data to help guide drilling. The current hole, SAC-21, is being directed toward a high MVI anomaly.

Project and Corporate Overview

Collective Mining’s drilling campaign for 2025 is fully funded with a target of 70,000 meters. The company is operating eleven drill rigs, with three dedicated to the San Antonio Project and eight at the Guayabales Project.

The San Antonio Project’s location, between 2 and 5 kilometers east-northeast of the Guayabales Project, offers the potential for shared infrastructure in the future. Executive Chairman Ari Sussman commented on the project’s scale and logistical advantages, noting its proximity to the Pan-American Highway and existing hydropower lines.

Collective Mining was founded by the team that developed and sold Continental Gold Inc. to Zijin Mining. The company’s Guayabales Project is anchored by the Apollo system, a large-scale, bulk-tonnage gold-silver-copper-tungsten system. The company’s current work at Apollo includes defining shallow mineralization and expanding high-grade zones. Collective is listed on both the NYSE and TSX under the ticker symbol “CNL”. The company’s ownership structure is heavily concentrated, with management, insiders, a strategic investor, and close associates holding a 44.5% stake.

Figure 4: Image of the San Antonio Project and its Targets (foreground) and the Guayabales Project (background), highlighting the Potential for Shared Future Infrastructure. Note the Hydro Power and the Vastly Unpopulated Landscape (CNW Group/Collective Mining Ltd.)

David J. Reading, a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”), has reviewed and verified the technical information in this report. Sample analysis is conducted at SGS and Actlabs facilities in Colombia and Canada. The company utilizes a standard QA/QC program, and no capping has been applied to the reported grades. The gold equivalent (AuEq) calculations are based on specific metal prices and recovery rate assumptions.