South Pacific begins Ontenu Northeast prospect drilling

Mr. Timo Jauristo reports SOUTH PACIFIC METALS CORP ANNOUNCES START OF DRILLING PROGRAM AT ONTENU NORTHEAST South Pacific Metals Corp. has commenced its maiden drilling program at the Ontenu Northeast prospect within its Osena project area, Papua New Guinea. The project lies within a major northeast-southwest corridor known as the Kainantu transfer zone, which also hosts the large Kainantu gold-copper mine being mined by K92 Mining Ltd. The drilling will test whether the northwest-trending mineralized structures discovered by SPMC (and described in Sept. 17, 2025, and Oct. 6, 2025, news releases) are surface expressions of deeper epithermal gold-copper veins, like those currently mined by K92 at its Kora and Judd deposits. Targets include recently discovered mineralized structures where surface samples returned up to 3.95 grams per tonne gold, 645 g/t silver and 1.56 per cent copper across a six-metre-wide outcrop. In addition, five other structures with rock chip samples up to 13.9 g/t Au and 388 g/t Ag will also be tested. The company expects to drill four to six holes, for a total of about 1,500 metres, to the end of 2025 field season. "The drill program marks a major milestone for South Pacific. Ontenu Northeast has not been drilled before," said Timo Jauristo, chief executive officer of the company. "The whole team is excited to start drilling these holes, aimed at testing the deeper parts of these mineralized structures for high-grade epithermal Au-Cu veins. The first drill hole is planned to intersect several of these structures at depths between 100 m to 250 m. The remainder of the program will further test this structure as well as some of the other mineralized structures." We seek Safe Harbor.