Vancouver, British Columbia - TheNewswire - February 18, 2026: Headwater Gold Inc. (CSE: HWG) (OTCQX: HWAUF) (the "Company" or "Headwater") is pleased to announce that CSAMT resistivity and ground gravity geophysical surveys are underway at its 100%-owned Jake Creek project in Nevada. The surveys are fully funded pursuant to the earn-in agreement with OceanaGold Corporation (“OceanaGold”) (TSX: OGC, OTCQX: OCANF) (“Oceana”) announced on October 15, 2025.

Highlights:

• CSAMT and Gravity Geophysical Surveys Underway: 12.5 line-kilometre CSAMT and 600-station gravity survey designed to define structural controls and prioritize drill targets. 

• New Surface Vein Discovery: Detailed mapping identified a new zone of outcropping high-level epithermal quartz veining (“Pete’s Vein”) in the northern portion of the project. 

• Soil Sampling and Geological Mapping Completed: 500-sample soil survey and comprehensive geologic mapping have significantly refined the structural and stratigraphic framework of the project. 

• Drilling Planned for Summer 2026: An initial drill program is currently scheduled for early summer 2026.  The ongoing geophysical surveys will inform the final target areas and program scope.   

Caleb Stroup, President and CEO of the Company, states: “Historic drilling at Jake Creek confirmed the presence of blind gold mineralization at moderate depth, including 11.3 g/t Au over 1.52 metres within a broader 45.72 metres grading 0.96 g/t Au in hole JC-005. What has been missing is a clear understanding of the structural framework controlling that mineralization, which is a key reason the system was never adequately followed up. Our current program of detailed mapping, relogging, soils and rock sample geochemistry and modern geophysics is focused on defining the fault architecture and district-scale fluid pathways responsible for mineralization. As we refine this structural and geological model, we are generating increasingly well-constrained, high-quality drill targets in advance of an initial drill program, funded by OceanaGold and scheduled for early summer 2026.”

Jake Creek Geophysical Surveys:

Headwater has engaged geophysical service providers to perform CSAMT and gravity surveys at Jake Creek including:

CSAMT: A controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotelluric (“CSAMT”) resistivity survey totaling 12.5 line-kilometres (“line-km”) on five parallel lines that align with soil survey lines (Figure 1) and one perpendicular (northwesterly) line. The main array is designed orthogonal to the primary set of northwest-oriented faults that align with the margin of the Northern Nevada Rift and are interpreted by Headwater geologists to be the main control of epithermal mineralization. The northwest-oriented CSAMT line is designed to pinpoint the location of a significant northeast-striking fault that bounds a modern basin at the southern portion of the Property. Structural intersections between northwest and northeast-striking faults are important centres of mineralization at the nearby Hecla Midas and Hollister mines.

Gravity: A ground gravity survey consisting of 600 stations on a 200-metre-spaced grid with 400 metre spacing along the margins (total survey footprint of 28 km2) to cover the entire Project area. Headwater geologic mapping demonstrates the Property is comprised of a series of fault blocks at the edge of the Northern Nevada Rift. Detailed gravity data will permit further refinement of property-wide structural trends and identify fault segments that have potential to serve as mineralized epithermal feeder structures.

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Figure 1:  District-scale map showing the proximity of the Jake Creek Project to the Turquoise Ridge Complex and planned CSAMT and gravity survey areas overlain on simplified geology.

2025 Exploration Program Update

The 2025 exploration program at Jake Creek consisted of detailed geologic mapping, relogging of historic reverse circulation (“RC”) drill chips, rock chip sampling and a 500-sample soil geochemistry survey. The objective of this work was to refine the geological model, better understand structural controls and prioritize areas for follow-up with geophysical surveys and drilling.

 

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Figure 2:  Left and Centre: “Pete’s Vein”—Outcropping high-level chalcedonic quartz-opal vein with sparse bladed quartz-after-calcite epithermal boiling texture. Right: Rhyolite flow with chalcedonic quartz crackle breccia and highly anomalous pathfinder element geochemistry (579 ppm As, 167 ppm Mo, 50 ppm Sb, 1% Mn)

Mapping and RC chip relogging confirm that Jake Creek is situated along the western margin of the Northern Nevada Rift and is characterized by west-dipping fault blocks that control volcanic stratigraphy and mineralization. The work has improved understanding of the Tertiary unconformity and its relationship to epithermal mineralization intersected in historic drilling.

Reconnaissance mapping in the northern portion of the project identified a linear array of outcropping chalcedonic quartz-opal veins and crackle breccias hosted within flow-banded rhyolite (Figure 2). These veins exhibit classic high-level epithermal textures, including local bladed quartz-after-calcite and are associated with strongly anomalous arsenic, mercury, antimony, molybdenum, tungsten and manganese geochemistry. This represents the first significant outcropping veining identified at Jake Creek.

The soil survey, completed on 50-metre-spaced samples along broadly spaced orientation lines, highlights coherent pathfinder element anomalies that align with mapped northwest-trending structures and areas of silicification and clay alteration. These results provide important vectors for drill targeting, particularly where geochemical anomalies coincide with mapped or inferred structures, such as in the area of Pete’s Vein in the northern project area.

About the Jake Creek project:

The Jake Creek project is 100% owned by Headwater and consists of 189 unpatented lode mining claims on BLM land in Humboldt County, Nevada, located 65 km northwest of Winnemucca and 8 km east of the Nevada Gold Mines’ Turquoise Ridge Mine Complex. A portion of the project is subject to a 1% NSR, half of which can be purchased for $1,000,000 at any time.  For further information see Headwater news release - March 3, 2025.  

The project covers 3,700 acres on the western margin of the Northern Nevada Rift, a north-northwest trending structural corridor known for hosting significant precious metal mineralization including Hecla’s past-producing Midas Mine and Hollister Mine.

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Figure 3:  Soil geochemistry maps showing sample locations and rasterized images of gold and weighted sum model (WSM) results. Values binned using unequal percentile bin ranges shown in map legends. Input weights for weighted sum model: Au 2, Ag 1, As 1, Mo 1, Tl 1, Cs 1, W 1 and Mn 1.

 

The geology is dominated by mid-Miocene bimodal volcanic rocks, including rhyolite to dacite flows and welded tuffs, unconformably overlying Paleozoic sedimentary rocks at depths of 50 to 300 metres. North-northwest and east-northeast trending faults, likely related to the rift’s 14-16 Ma extension, dissect the property and may control mineralization. Historic drilling by Evolving Gold Corp. in 2010 and 2011 (13 RC holes total) intersected widespread epithermal mineralization at the Tertiary unconformity, with notable intercepts1 such as 11.3 g/t Au over 1.52 m within 45.72 m grading 0.96 g/t Au from 210.3 m in hole JC-005 (see Headwater news release - March 3, 2025).  This mineralization, associated with silicification, clay alteration and banded quartz veining, suggests a robust low-sulfidation epithermal system with potential for high-grade feeder zones at depth or along strike.  

About Headwater Gold

Headwater Gold Inc. (CSE: HWG, OTCQB: HWAUF) is a technically driven mineral exploration company focused on exploring for and discovering high-grade precious metal deposits in the Western USA.  Headwater is actively exploring one of the world’s most well-endowed, mining-friendly jurisdictions, with a goal of making world-class precious metal discoveries.  The Company has a large portfolio of epithermal vein exploration projects and a technical team with diverse experience in capital markets and major mining companies.  Headwater is systematically drill-testing several projects in Nevada and has strategic earn-in agreements with Oceana on its TJ, Jake Creek, and Hot Creek projects, Newmont on its Spring Peak and Lodestar projects, and Centerra on its Crane Creek project.  In August 2022 and September 2024, Newmont and Centerra Gold Inc. acquired strategic equity interests in the Company, further strengthening Headwater’s exploration capabilities.

For more information about Headwater, please visit the Company's website at www.headwatergold.com.

Headwater is part of the NewQuest Capital Group which is a discovery-driven investment enterprise that builds value through the incubation and financing of mineral projects and companies.  Further information about NewQuest can be found on the company website at www.nqcapitalgroup.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Caleb Stroup

President and CEO

+1 (775) 409-3197

cstroup@headwatergold.com

For further information, please contact:

Brennan Zerb

Investor Relations Manager

+1 (778) 867-5016

bzerb@headwatergold.com

Qualified Person

The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Gregory Dering, P.Geo (AIPG CPG-12298), a “Qualified Person” (“QP”) as defined in National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Dr. Dering is the Company’s Vice President of Exploration and is not independent.

References

1Historical drill intercepts included in this release were sourced from primary historical Evolving

Gold Corp. data and NI43-101 Technical Report on the Jake Creek Gold Project Humboldt

County, Nevada, June 19, 2012, Effective Date: June 19, 2012, prepared for Evolving Gold Corp.,

37 p. Drill results and surface samples have not been independently verified by Headwater and

are treated by the Company as historical in nature and not current or NI 43-101 compliant.

2NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Turquoise Ridge Complex Humboldt County, Nevada, USA,

March 15, 2024, Effective Date: December 31, 2023, prepared for Barrick Gold Corporation, 304

p.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, “forward-looking statements”) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding future capital expenditures, exploration activities and the specifications, targets, results, analyses, interpretations, benefits, costs and timing of them, Newmont’s anticipated funding of the earn-in projects and the timing thereof, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by words such as “pro forma”, “plans”, “expects”, “may”, “should”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “potential” or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, risks related to the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, including the Company’s exploration plans and the proposed expenditures for exploration work thereon, the ability of the Company to obtain sufficient financing to fund its business activities and plans, the risk that Newmont will not elect to obtain any additional prognostic interest in the earn-in projects in excess of the minimum commitment, the ability of the Company to obtain the required permits, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, the Company’s limited operating history, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims, environmental issues and liabilities, as well as those factors discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company’s prospectus dated May 26, 2021 and other filings of the Company with the Canadian Securities Authorities, copies of which can be found under the Company’s profile on the SEDAR+ website at www.sedarplus.ca.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements, except as otherwise required by law.