Golden Horse Minerals Identifies High-Priority Targets at Sorrel Copper Project

Golden Horse Minerals Uncovers a Portfolio of High-Priority Targets at Sorrel, Flagging Strategic Review as Copper Nudges $20,000 Per Tonne

Golden Horse Minerals (ASX: GHM) has announced the results of an independent prospectivity review of its Sorrel Copper Project in the Northern Territory, completed by specialist geological consultancy Maverick Geo Pty Ltd. The review has identified numerous high-priority targets across at least four distinct mineralisation styles — copper, copper-cobalt, rare earth elements (REE), base metals (zinc, lead, copper), and roll-front uranium — across what is shaping up as a district-scale mineral system.

The timing is deliberate. With the Northern Territory wet season drawing to a close, Golden Horse is preparing to mobilise exploration teams into the field, with soil and rock chip sampling programs planned to run concurrently with its Southern Cross gold operations. Equally significant, management has confirmed it has engaged external financial advisers to assess value-maximising strategic options for the project — a process that signals growing corporate confidence in Sorrel's potential.

A Robust Foundation with Significant Room to Grow

The Sorrel Copper Project already carries meaningful substance. The existing Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) stands at 8.4 million tonnes at 1.1% copper, containing 88,000 tonnes of copper metal — underpinned by historical drilling that has demonstrated high-grade intercepts across multiple deposits.

Critically, the project also benefits from a production history that validates the quality of mineralisation in the ground. Past production of 170,000 tonnes at 4.6% copper from the Sandy Flat open pit mine in the 1990s confirms the district's ability to deliver ore at commercially meaningful grades.

The numbers tell a clear story: the vast majority of the known breccia pipe system remains untested by modern drilling. With only seven of more than 50 identified pipes having been drill-tested to date, the exploration runway at Sorrel is substantial.

Standout Historical Drill Results That Set the Benchmark

The historical drilling programme that underpins the existing MRE produced a suite of high-grade intercepts that demonstrate the project's grade potential across multiple deposits.

The Redbank results in particular — with sub-intervals grading 20.7% copper — illustrate the kind of high-grade core mineralisation that can exist within these breccia pipe systems. Near-surface oxide mineralisation at depths of approximately 30–40 metres has historically returned grades locally exceeding 5% copper, adding optionality across multiple metallurgical pathways.

What Is a Breccia Pipe? Understanding the Key Geological Concept

Breccia pipes are a specific type of mineral deposit that investors in copper exploration should understand, because they represent one of the more distinctive — and potentially high-grade — geological settings in the industry.

A breccia pipe forms when a vertical or near-vertical column of broken, fragmented rock (breccia) is intruded by mineralising hydrothermal fluids. At Sorrel, these cylindrical features are steeply dipping to near-vertical and typically present as circular outcrops at surface, ranging from 50 to 150 metres in diameter. At depth, limited drilling suggests copper mineralisation extends beyond 300 metres, indicating the pipes remain open and potentially richer at depth.

Why Does This Matter to Investors?

• Breccia pipes can host very high grades in a concentrated volume of rock, as demonstrated by the Redbank results above.
• Their cylindrical geometry means a single drill hole can confirm or deny a target efficiently, reducing exploration cost per discovery.
• The presence of more than 50 identified pipes across the Sorrel tenure — with fewer than 15% tested — represents a portfolio of discrete exploration targets, each capable of adding incrementally to the resource base.

Glossary of Key Terms

• Breccia pipe: A near-vertical, cylindrical body of broken rock that has been mineralised by copper-bearing fluids.
• MRE (Mineral Resource Estimate): A formal estimate of the quantity and grade of mineralisation, reported under the JORC Code (2012).
• JORC Code: The Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves — the reporting standard used by ASX-listed miners.
• RC drilling: Reverse circulation drilling, a common and cost-effective drilling method used in greenfields and resource definition work.
• Geochemical anomaly: An area where surface or subsurface sampling shows elevated concentrations of metals, indicating potential mineralisation below.
• Roll-front uranium: A style of uranium mineralisation that forms at the boundary between oxidising and reducing chemical environments, often in sedimentary sequences.

Four Mineralisation Styles Across One Land Package

One of the more compelling aspects of the Maverick Geo review is the confirmation that Sorrel is not simply a copper story. At least four distinct mineralisation styles have been identified across the broader tenure.

1. Copper-Cobalt (Breccia Pipe Style)

The Wollogorang Copper-Cobalt Project, situated in the northeastern portion of the land package, hosts several prospects including Stanton (Cu-Co-Ni), Running Creek (Cu-Co), and Gregjo (Cu-Co). Despite approximately 57,000 metres of historical drilling across 1,748 holes at Wollogorang, around 74% of those holes are less than 50 metres deep — leaving the deeper portions of the system essentially untested by modern exploration.

2. Copper (Breccia Pipe — Redbank/Sorrel Style)

The core copper asset with the existing MRE. Mineralisation is hosted in breccia pipes intruding the Gold Creek Volcanics and Wollogorang Formation.

3. Rare Earth Elements (REE) and Base Metals (Zinc, Lead, Copper)

The Selby prospect within the Wollogorang tenure has been identified as prospective for Cu-P-U-REE. Furthermore, the broader region sits in the eastern McArthur Basin, proximal to world-class base metal systems, with the McArthur River Mine hosting 117Mt at 9.05% Zn, 4.08% Pb, and 42g/t Ag as a nearby regional analogue.

4. Roll-Front Uranium

The review confirmed roll-front uranium prospectivity across parts of the tenure, including at the Karns prospect (Co-U), adding another commodity dimension to the land package.

"The review has identified at least four mineralisation styles across multiple metals, with unique opportunities to explore for potential economic quantities of copper, cobalt, rare earths, uranium and base metal mineralisation. These targets coexist across our large NT land package reflecting Golden Horse's dominant position in the north-eastern corner of the Territory."
— Nicholas Anderson, Managing Director & CEO, Golden Horse Minerals

New Targets Identified — Clear Pathway to Discovery

The integration of historical surface geochemical datasets — soils, stream sediments, and rock chips collected across multiple exploration campaigns — has yielded a set of high-priority, previously untested targets. The key new targets emerging from the review include:

• El Rae: Located 7km east of the Sandy Flat mine, this is a coherent multi-point soil anomaly situated within prospective host rocks. No drilling has been conducted here to date.
• Ridgeback: Positioned 3km northeast of the Sandy Flat mine, this is an untested copper anomaly with strong geochemical support.
• Clustered anomalies within the Redbank corridor: Several geochemical anomalies occur in areas interpreted to be under shallow cover, suggesting the potential for blind deposits concealed beneath younger sedimentary sequences (the Masterton Sandstone unit).

The methodology applied by Maverick Geo involved normalising geochemical data against host geology to distinguish genuine mineralisation signatures from background lithological variation — a robust approach that lends credibility to the anomaly rankings.

Strategic Review Underway — Financial Advisers Engaged

In a notable corporate development, Golden Horse has confirmed it has commenced a formal assessment of potential strategic pathways for the Sorrel asset. External financial advisers have been engaged to evaluate a range of options aimed at maximising shareholder value. Management noted that the current copper price environment — with copper approaching $20,000 per metric tonne — has been a key catalyst for this assessment.

The company has been clear that this process does not guarantee any specific transaction or outcome, and that normal operations will continue throughout. Golden Horse will keep shareholders informed in line with its continuous disclosure obligations.

This strategic review, running in parallel with active field exploration, positions the company to capture value from Sorrel via multiple potential pathways simultaneously.

Near-Term Exploration Plan: Boots on the Ground

With the dry season approaching, Golden Horse has outlined a focused exploration programme for the Sorrel Copper Project. Key planned activities include:

1. Field validation — mapping, soil sampling, and rock chip sampling to be undertaken by a dedicated second exploration group, allowing concurrent progress with the Southern Cross programme.
2. Target consolidation and ranking — prioritising the anomalies identified in the prospectivity review for systematic field verification.
3. Geophysical survey review — assessing existing and potential new surveys over main resource areas to identify blind deposits beneath shallow cover.
4. Drill target refinement — refining targets to test pipe extensions and blind targets at depth.
5. JORC compliance review for Wollogorang — subject to field validation and appropriate due diligence, assessing the previously announced Stanton cobalt-copper mineral resource to bring it into JORC Code (2012) compliance, which may require drill hole twinning, data verification, and database quality control protocols.

Elsewhere in Golden Horse's portfolio, RC and diamond drilling is ongoing at the Hopes Hill region within the Southern Cross tenure, with results to be released progressively. RC drilling is also set to recommence shortly at several Southern Cross Regional prospects.

Investment Thesis: Why Sorrel Deserves Closer Attention

Several factors combine to make this announcement material for investors tracking Golden Horse Minerals.

The Scale of Unexplored Ground Is Exceptional

More than 40 of the identified 50+ breccia pipes remain undrilled. The existing MRE of 88,000 tonnes of contained copper was built from just seven pipes. Even a modest discovery rate across untested targets has the potential to materially expand the resource base.

Grade Quality Is Clearly Demonstrated

Historical intercepts including 10 metres at 20.7% copper and 22 metres at 13.2% copper are not marginal results — they reflect the kind of high-grade mineralisation that breccia pipe systems can host. Near-surface oxide zones grading locally above 5% copper add early-stage processing optionality.

Multi-Commodity Exposure on One Land Package

The simultaneous presence of copper, cobalt, REE, base metals, and uranium across the Sorrel tenure means the company holds optionality across several commodity cycles, not just copper. Each style of mineralisation represents an independent exploration opportunity.

In addition, the copper price tailwind is real. Copper approaching $20,000 per metric tonne creates a commercial backdrop that improves the economics of both resource definition and potential asset transactions. The strategic review, moreover, adds a corporate catalyst that is separate from and additional to the exploration newsflow.

Why Investors Should Keep a Close Eye on Golden Horse Minerals

Golden Horse sits at an interesting inflection point. It holds a large, district-scale land package in the Northern Territory with a verified copper resource, a production history, and an independent review confirming the existence of multiple high-priority, untested targets.

The company is now entering its most active exploration phase at Sorrel, armed with a clearly defined set of targets, a concurrent strategic review process, and a copper price that makes the economics of this project increasingly compelling.

The combination of near-term field exploration catalysts, the potential for resource expansion across more than 40 undrilled breccia pipes, multi-commodity optionality, and a formal strategic review creates a range of potential value-inflection events for investors to monitor over the coming months.

"Golden Horse Minerals has positioned Sorrel as a district-scale copper project with substantial unexplored upside, confirmed by an independent geological review identifying multiple high-priority targets across four mineralisation styles. With field programmes commencing in the near term, a formal strategic review underway, and copper approaching $20,000 per metric tonne, investors should monitor Golden Horse closely for exploration results and corporate developments in the months ahead."

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