Engineer Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX-V: EAU | OTC: EGMLF | WKN: A3EEVJ) has announced the commencement of its 2026 Phase I exploration program at its wholly owned Engineer Gold Project, located 30 kilometres southwest of Atlin in northwestern British Columbia. The program is designed to expand known mineralization and assess new targets across the project's 18,319-hectare contiguous claim block, which hosts the historic Engineer Gold Mine, the TAG Property, the Wann River Prospect, and numerous other mineral occurrences.
The Phase I program includes soil and rock sampling at the Engineer Mine area, soil geochemistry at TAG, and an in-depth core review and resampling of historical drill core at TAG. The company is fully permitted to proceed with a Phase II program, which may include diamond drilling, excavator trenching, and induced polarization geophysical surveys at the Engineer Mine area, with plans to be announced once finalized.
The Engineer Project features multiple styles of mineralization, including high-grade epithermal gold-silver veins, polymetallic veins, and structurally controlled bulk tonnage gold systems. At the Engineer Mine, Phase I work aims to expand high-grade gold mineralization and adjacent bulk tonnage targets along strike of previously identified structural corridors, Shear A and Shear B, which have been traced by geophysics and geochemistry for over 3 kilometres south of the past-producing mine.
At the TAG property, located 6 kilometres north of Engineer Mine, Phase I includes a rigorous core review and infill sampling program. Historical drilling from 2006-2008 totalled 11,520 metres in 69 holes, and recent re-examination suggests that several drill intercepts crossing the mineralized trend were not fully sampled, with samples sometimes missing adjacent to significant gold values. The company plans to complete infill sampling to produce a detailed model and target potential expansion of gold mineralization, potentially leading to an updated resource estimate for TAG. Additional soil geochemical sampling will also be conducted to test for a subparallel second mineralizing structure indicated by anomalous gold and silver values uphill from known mineralization.
The announcement highlights the company's systematic approach to advancing the project, leveraging historical data to identify untested potential. The implications of this program are significant: successful expansion of mineralization could enhance the project's economic viability and attract further investment. The historic Engineer Mine produced approximately 14,263 tonnes grading 39.4 g/t gold and 19.5 g/t silver between 1910 and 1952, and a historical inferred resource of 25,000 ounces of gold at 19 g/t was estimated in 2011, though it is not current. The TAG property has also yielded notable intercepts, such as 1.7 g/t gold over 26.7 metres in hole TAG06-23 and 1.3 g/t gold over 35.0 metres in TAG07-29.
Linda Dandy, P.Geo., is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical content in this news release.
