Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd. Announces Discovery of Hard Rock Gold Zone at Wingdam Project

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan — August 6, 2026 — Leads & Copy — Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd. has announced the discovery of a hard rock (“lode”) gold zone from its 2025 winter drill program results at the Wingdam gold exploration program in the Cariboo Mining District of south-central British Columbia. The initial gold intercepts, drilled 500 meters west of and at depths lower than the elevation of Omineca's Wingdam underground paleoplacer gold project, validate the company's assertion of a proximal lode source for the rich paleoplacer gold found beneath Lightning Creek.

These results align with recent empirical evidence from underground placer workings suggesting Lightning Creek flowed from west to east when the gold was eroded into the valley, indicating the source lies downstream of the placer deposits. Omineca's ongoing exploration program will concentrate on expanding the footprint of this discovery, with further details to be announced once finalized.

Key highlights from the program include WD25-41, which yielded 4.84 grams per tonne of gold from 158.98-160.05 meters (1.07 meters), and WD25-42, which returned 1.25 grams per tonne of gold from 345.00-347.00 meters (2.0 meters).

Omineca has now identified a lode source that could explain the presence of autochthonous (close distance from source) placer gold in the rich paleoplacer deposit, 165 years after placer gold was first discovered in the Lightning Creek valley. The company notes the well-known structural relationship between ophiolites and orogenic gold deposits in British Columbia is of particular interest at Wingdam, given the preservation of the Slide Mountain Terrane along the Eureka Thrust Fault in the immediate area. The highest-grade intercept in this program was found in a section of amygdaloidal basalt associated with the Slide Mountain Terrain, ultramafic oceanic crustal rocks affiliated with many of British Columbia’s orogenic gold camps.

The company's exploration thesis is predicated on evident changes in watershed flow direction due to isostatic depression of the crust under the weight of the Cordilleran glacial ice sheet. This weight is believed to have pushed down the area west of Wingdam, causing the Fraser River to switch from a northerly flow to its present southern course approximately 760,000 years ago, and later, about 200,000 years ago, causing Lightning Creek to change from flowing east to flowing west.

These forces, combined with the potential re-activation and subsidence of the Eureka Thrust Fault, explain why the newly identified lode source of the rich placer gold beneath Lightning Creek is located downstream (west) at depths equivalent to and below the Wingdam underground placer project workings. In 2012, 173.4 ounces of placer gold were recovered from a single 2.4-meter-wide, 2.4-meter-high, and 23.5-meter-long crosscut sample in this area.

The reversed water flow thesis has now been confirmed in Omineca’s underground workings. The imbrication observed in the brown gravel layer in Crosscut #2 indicates that the water flow was west to east along the Lightning Creek valley, a direction now reversed from the present flow west.

During the 2025 season, a total of 3,091.9 meters were completed in six NQ diamond drill holes at the Wingdam gold exploration project. Drilling was conducted by Newmac, and core was logged and sampled by TerraLogic Exploration. The program aimed to follow up on mineralization found in 2024, with continuation drilling further to depth below the underground placer workings, specifically in areas downdip of mineralization in the ultramafic unit intersected in WD24-37. Additional drilling targeted an area southeast of WD24-37 along strike of the Eureka Thrust Fault toward a UAV magnetic high.

WD25-41, a downdip follow-up hole of WD24-37, tested anomalous gold results from the 2024 season. This hole intersected the most anomalous gold result to date on the Property from 158.9 to 160.05 meters, returning 4.84 g/t gold. The sample displayed localized fracturing and contained calcite-quartz veins and disseminated pyrite traces.

WD25-42, drilled from the same pad as WD25-41, targeted the magnetic high identified by the 2024 UAV Magnetic survey and anomalous mineralization southeast along strike in WD24-37. This hole intersected mineralization deeper than the previous hole from 345.00 to 347.00 meters, reporting 1.25 g/t gold in a lithic wacke containing minor quartz veinlets and disseminated pyrrhotite and pyrite.

The 2025 drilling confirmed the presence of high-grade gold mineralization on the southeastern side of Lightning Creek associated with ultramafic rocks and quartz-calcite veining. With the discovery of lode gold in close proximity to the underground paleoplacer at Wingdam, Omineca will increase its investigation of hydrothermal gold mineralization associated with the Eureka Thrust Fault. The next phase of exploration will focus on the immediate vicinity of this discovery.

All scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Stephen Kocsis, P.Geo., an independent qualified person. Omineca's flagship Wingdam project includes mineral tenures totaling 61,392 hectares and over 15 linear kilometers of placer claims along the Lightning Creek valley. The company is also exploring for potential hard rock sources of the placer gold at Wingdam. Omineca also has the Fraser Canyon Project, slated to reinitiate the development of an underground paleochannel for placer gold recovery.

Source: Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd.