XXIX Updates on Cooke Drill Program: Wide Copper Intersections and Visible Gold; and Opemiska Growth Plans
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The November 24, 2025, news release provides an update on the 6,000-metre drill program at the Cooke Gold and Chibougamau Copper Zones at its flagship Opemiska Project. The company has completed 1,017 metres across seven holes.
Key points from the update are: - Six of the 23 planned holes at the Cooke Gold Zone have been completed, intersecting wide copper-bearing intervals ranging from 12 to 48 metres. - Visible and native gold were observed in two holes at Cooke. - All seven holes drilled at the separate Chibougamau Copper Zone target intersected copper mineralization. - To accelerate the program, a second drill rig is being mobilized to the site.
The company states the Cooke zone has the potential to add meaningful resources to enhance the economics of a forthcoming Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS). Assay results are pending.
The news is a positive operational update that confirms the company is executing its previously announced exploration plan. The key takeaways are:
- Confirmation of Mineralization: Visual confirmation of copper mineralization across wide intervals and the presence of visible gold is encouraging. However, this is qualitative information. The market will wait for quantitative assay results to determine the actual grade and economic significance of these intercepts. "Visible gold" can be exciting but does not always translate into high-grade bulk tonnage.
- Program Acceleration: The decision to add a second drill rig is a strong signal of management's confidence in the targets. This will accelerate the news flow of drill results and potentially shorten the timeline to an updated resource and PFS.
- Strategic Context: This drill program is strategically important. The October 2025 PEA for Opemiska outlined a project with robust economics (C$505M NPV, 27.2% IRR) but a very high initial CAPEX of C$617M. A key path to improving the project's attractiveness and financeability is to add higher-grade ounces, particularly gold, early in the mine life. The Cooke Zone is the primary target for achieving this.
The update is in line with expectations, confirming progress and visual indications of success. However, without assays, its impact is limited. It de-risks the program slightly by confirming the presence of mineralization but does not yet provide the grade data necessary for a significant re-rating of the stock. Therefore, the news is rated as Routine - Positive. It successfully builds anticipation for the forthcoming assay results.
XXIX Metal Corp. is a Canadian copper exploration and development company. It controls two of Eastern Canada's largest copper projects. - Opemiska Project (Flagship): Located in the Chapais-Chibougamau district of Quebec, Opemiska is a past-producing mine complex. The company is advancing it as a large-scale, open-pit copper-gold project. An October 2025 PEA demonstrated a 17-year mine life with an after-tax NPV8% of C$505 million and an IRR of 27.2%. The project has excellent infrastructure. - Thierry Project: Located near Pickle Lake, Ontario, this is another past-producing copper-nickel project. It has a large historical resource at the K1 and K2 deposits, and the company is working on data validation and planning a major drill program to update the resource.
The company's strategy is to advance these two large, undervalued copper assets in established Canadian mining jurisdictions.