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Lavras Gold Corp (2)
Symbol LGC
Shares Issued 62,249,383
Close 2026-09-14 C$ 3.87
Market Cap C$ 240,905,112
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Lavras Gold approves drill program at Caneleira

2026-09-14 16:36 ET - News Release

Mr. Federico Velasquez reports

LAVRAS GOLD APPROVES ACCELERATED DRILL PROGRAM ON EXPANDED CANELEIRA TARGET; AND ANNOUNCES COMPLETION OF EIA FIELD STUDIES, AHEAD OF PRELIMINARY LICENSE PERMIT APPLICATION

Lavras Gold Corp. today provided an update on its exploration, resource-definition strategy and project development key milestones at the Lavras do Sul project (LDS project) in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, for the next six to eight months.

  • The company has approved a focused diamond drilling program on the Caneleira target, commencing immediately, designed to expand the mineralized footprint, and delineate shallow, potentially open pit mineable mineral resources.
  • Following the specialist technical workshop (see news release dated May 12, 2026) and continuing geological interpretation, Caneleira has been reframed as a single consolidated target, encompassing Caneleira Central, Caneleira East (previously referred to by the company as the Olaria gold discovery), and earlier-stage targets to the west and north.
  • The decision follows the high-grade, near-surface results announced on Aug. 24, 2026, which the company considers directly relevant to the design and economics of its Fazenda-Butia development project (Fazenda-Butia):
    • Hole 26CN044 returned 24.30 grams per tonne (g/t) gold (Au) over a drilled width of nine metres (m) from 87 m, including 99.56 g/t Au over a drilled width of 0.85 m;
    • Hole 26CN051 returned 9.31 g/t Au over a drilled width of four m from 10 m, including 17.29 g/t Au over a drilled width of two m from 11 m.
  • Drilling will prioritize the higher-grade portions of the system, which are characterized by abundant visible gold at shallow depths and which the company considers having the potential to provide early, higher-grade feed to Fazenda-Butia, subject to the establishment of mineral resources and completion of the appropriate technical and economic studies.
  • A major permitting milestone has been achieved with the completion of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) field studies -- the most critical and time-intensive component of the application preparation. Completion of this fieldwork represents a significant step forward in advancing the Fazenda-Butia project toward its preliminary environment licence application by December, 2026. The application will encompass the Fazenda-Butia and Caneleira targets.
  • Metallurgical testwork is planned on samples from the Caneleira target, including higher-grade material, to assess the potential for gravity-recoverable gold following first pass crushing and ahead of milling.

Exploration and resource definition

The company has approved a focused diamond drilling program on the Caneleira target, due to start immediately. The program is directed at expanding the mineralized footprint, delineating additional mineral resources and converting the shallow, potentially open-pit mineable portion of those mineral resources into the measured and indicated categories, with priority given to the higher-grade areas of the system.

This decision follows the final 2026 drill results from the Caneleira target announced on Aug. 24, 2026, which confirmed high-grade gold mineralization at shallow depths at both Caneleira and Caneleira East, and builds on the high-grade intercepts previously reported in hole 25CN016 (21.66 g/t Au over 15 m from 131 m; see news release dated Feb. 24, 2026) and hole 26CN019 (33.72 g/t Au over a drilled width of seven m from 107 m; see news release dated May 19, 2026).

Project development

The company is pleased to announce that it is on track to submit its preliminary licence permit application by December, 2026. This major permitting milestone was achieved with the completion of the EIA field studies. Completing this fieldwork marks a significant step forward in advancing the project toward permitting. The company is now well positioned to finalize all the EIA technical reports and submit its environmental preliminary licence permit application by December, 2026, which will include the Fazenda-Butia and Caneleira targets.

"Completing the EIA field studies is a major permitting milestone for Lavras and keeps us on track to submit our preliminary licence permit application before the end of year," commented Federico Velasquez, president and chief executive officer. "The inclusion of Caneleira reflects the significant potential we see in this nearby target and its ability to contribute to the next phase of the Fazenda-Butia development project. With the environmental fieldwork now complete, we are advancing the project toward permitting while continuing to focus our exploration efforts on defining higher-grade, shallow mineral resources at Caneleira."

The expanded Caneleira target

Caneleira is located approximately two kilometres north of the Fazenda-Butia target. Drilling to date has defined northwest-southeast-trending, higher-grade vein structures associated with magnesium-rich sphalerite and coarse visible gold, overprinting north-northeast-oriented cataclastic zones, together with a structurally controlled cataclastic system at Caneleira East.

Following the specialist technical workshop held in April, 2026, and the geological interpretation completed since, including the hydrothermal alteration study described in the company's Aug. 24, 2026, news release, the company has reframed Caneleira as a single consolidated target. The consolidated Caneleira target now encompasses Caneleira Central, Caneleira East (previously referred to by the company as the Olaria gold discovery), and a number of earlier-stage targets to the west and north of Caneleira Central. The company's current interpretation is that these areas sit within a materially larger target footprint that was not recognized when the individual occurrences were first drilled.

"The consolidation of Caneleira into a single, larger target is the direct outcome of the specialist workshop and of the interpretation work that followed," added Jonathan Hill, director and interim vice-president of exploration. "What were treated as separate occurrences -- Caneleira Central, Caneleira East, and the ground to the west and north -- are now understood as parts of one hydrothermal system with a much larger footprint than we were drilling into. While this upcoming drilling progresses and expands the Caneleira target the exploration team continues with generative work aimed at identifying and prioritizing quality targets for drill testing through 2027 across the company's strategic district-scale prospective 20,000-hectare tenement package."

Drill program and objectives

The approved program comprises approximately 25,000 metres of diamond drilling, to be executed over the next six to eight months. The final number of holes will be determined as the program progresses and as results are received. The program has four objectives:

  • Footprint expansion -- stepout drilling to test the extent of the mineralized system across the consolidated target, including the earlier-stage areas to the west and north of Caneleira Central;
  • Mineral resource delineation -- drilling at spacings sufficient to support the estimation of inferred mineral resources at Caneleira and Caneleira East;
  • Mineral resource conversion -- definition drilling on the shallow, potentially open-pit mineable portion of the mineralization, with the objective of supporting classification in the measured and indicated mineral resource categories;
  • Grade focus -- priority sequencing on the higher-grade portions of the system, which the company considers having the potential to provide early, higher-grade feed to the processing facility planned at Fazenda Butia.

Higher grades at shallow depths, if confirmed by this drilling and subsequently converted into mineral resources, have the potential to materially enhance the design and economics of the company's initial development project. Readers are cautioned that no mineral resources have been estimated to date at Caneleira or Caneleira East, that mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability, and that there is no certainty that the drilling described in this release will result in the estimation of mineral resources in any category, or that any mineralization delineated will prove to be economically extractable.

Metallurgical testwork

The company intends to submit samples from the Caneleira target for metallurgical testwork, including higher-grade material. The objective is to assess the amenability of the mineralization to gravity separation, and in particular the potential to recover a portion of the contained gold by gravity following first pass crushing and ahead of milling. The coarse visible gold observed in the higher-grade intervals at Caneleira is the basis for this testwork. Results will be reported once received and interpreted. No metallurgical testwork has been completed on Caneleira material to date, and no recovery assumptions have been established.

Continuing and planned work

Over the next six to eight months, the company's exploration effort will be concentrated on the consolidated Caneleira target. The company considers that defining material higher-grade mineral resources close to surface, adjacent to its initial development project, is the highest-value use of its drilling capacity at this stage of the project's development.

Assay results from the drilling described in this release will be reported as they are received and interpreted. The consolidated mineral resource update for the LDS project (comprising an initial mineral resource estimate for Caneleira, updated mineral resource estimates for Fazenda-Butia and Cerrito, and an initial mineral resource estimate for Matilde) is expected by the end of Q1 2027, allowing the results of the Caneleira program described above to be incorporated into that work.

Advancing Fazenda-Butia through permitting remains the company's core development focus and is unaffected by the exploration sequencing described in this release.

Qualified person

Jonathan Hill, director and interim vice-president of exploration for Lavras Gold, is the qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this release.

QA/QC (quality assurance/quality control)

Quality assurance and quality control: Sample handling, preparation, and analysis are monitored through the implementation of formal chain-of-custody procedures and quality assurance/quality control programs designed to follow industry-best practices.

All drill hole samples in the drilling programs referred to in this release consist of split NQ diamond drill core. Drill core is logged and sampled in a secure facility located in Lavras do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. Drill core samples for gold assay are cut in half using a diamond saw and submitted to ALS Laboratories Inc. in Goiania, Goias state, Brazil, for preparation by crushing to 85 per cent passing 1.0 millimetre, riffle splitting to obtain 500 g aliquots and pulverizing to 85 per cent passing 75 micrometres.

Pulps are shipped to ALS Laboratories Inc. in Lima, Peru, and analyzed by a 50 g fire assay and AAS finish. Three 50 g aliquots are taken for samples in the mineralized zone, and one aliquot is taken in fresh rocks. The average grade of the three aliquots is used to determine the final grade of the mineralized sample.

Certified standards, non-certified blanks and field duplicates are inserted into the sample stream at regular intervals, so that QA/QC accounted for about 10 per cent of the total samples. Results are routinely evaluated for accuracy, precision and contamination.

Lavras Gold has been targeting larger intersections of greater than 0.25 g/t gold. Intersections that are lower than this threshold may provide exploration insight and may therefore be disclosed. The company maintains a robust QA/QC program that includes the collection and analysis of duplicate samples and the insertion of blanks and standards (certified reference material).

About the LDS project

The LDS project is centred on the town of Lavras do Sul in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It is approximately 320 kilometres, or a 4.5-hour drive, from the state capital of Porto Alegre. The company, through its subsidiary, holds, directly or indirectly, contractual interests over 31 mineral rights covering approximately 20,300 hectares.

The LDS intrusive complex is a multiphase intrusive centre surrounded by coeval volcanic rocks to the east. Geologically, LDS lies in the far south of the Neoproterozoic Mantiqueira province, a 2,700-kilometre-long belt of tectonically and magmatically accreted terrains stretching as far south as the coastline of central Uruguay and north into southern Bahia state in Brazil. The most advanced targets are the Butia and Cerrito gold deposits. Butia hosts measured mineral resources of 4.6 million tonnes grading 0.88 g/t gold containing 132,000 ounces of gold and indicated mineral resources of 8.3 million tonnes grading 0.92 g/t gold containing 246,000 ounces of gold (total measured and indicated mineral resources of 12.9 million tonnes grading 0.91 g/t gold containing 377,000 ounces of gold) and inferred mineral resources of 3.7 million tonnes grading 0.97 g/t gold containing 115,000 ounces of gold. Cerrito hosts indicated mineral resources of 8.3 million tonnes grading 0.70 g/t gold containing 188,000 ounces of gold and inferred mineral resources of 13.2 million tonnes grading 0.69 g/t gold containing 293,000 ounces of gold. Mineral resources are reported at a gold cut-off grade of 0.30 g/t. Numbers may not sum due to rounding. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Caneleira mining concession is 100 per cent controlled by the company and forms part of the LDS project.

About Lavras Gold Corp.

Lavras Gold is a Canadian exploration company focused on realizing the potential of its LDS project situated in a highly prospective gold district in southern Brazil. The LDS project is located near the town of Lavras do Sul in Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, and is primarily an intrusive-hosted gold system of possible alkaline affinity. More than 24 gold prospects centred on historic gold workings have been identified on the LDS project properties, which span approximately 20,300 hectares.

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