VANCOUVER, British Columbia — December 18, 2025 — Leads & Copy — Miata Metals Corp. has announced the arrival of another drill rig at its Sela Creek Gold Project in Suriname, enabling a fully funded 25,000 m drill program planned for 2026.
The expanded program builds on a successful 2025 campaign, during which Miata completed 10,061 m of drilling and achieved a 100% hit rate at the Jons Trend Zone. The company also identified multiple new mineralized zones and significantly increased operational efficiency across the project.
Miata achieved a 100% hit rate across drilling at Jons Trend, drilling 10,061 m in 2025 across 59 holes. Assay results for six drillholes at Jons Trend and six drillholes at Golden Hand remain pending.
The company is targeting 25,000 m of drilling in 2026, with approximately 50% focused on Jons Trend and the other 50% dedicated toward six compelling discovery targets such as Puma East (5.3m at 8.25 g/t gold), Big Berg (14 m at 1.72 g/t gold), and Puma West (18m at 2.70 g/t gold).
A new Sandvik 710 track-mounted diamond rig has arrived on site, allowing two rigs to operate throughout 2026. On-site optimization continues with the construction of a prep lab, improved wet-season access and expanded fuel storage, all of which will further reduce the cost per metre drilled on Sela Creek.
According to Dr. Jacob Verbaas, CEO, Miata’s 2025 exploration program proved a turning point for discovery strength and operational efficiency, positioning the company to scale aggressively in 2026. Since the first intercepts at Jons Trend, the drilling hit rate has remained at 100 % for that target, reinforcing geological continuity and supporting the potential scale of this emerging mineralized system.
Verbaas added that with a second track-mounted diamond drill rig on site and a fully funded 25,000 m program planned for 2026, the company is positioned for its most active year of discovery and value creation to date. Miata expects to further grow the Jons Trend zone, which remains open in all directions, while simultaneously engaging in systematic discovery drilling across a minimum of six high-priority targets including Puma East and Puma West.
The dual strategy of delineation and discovery gives the company multiple pathways to unlock significant value at Sela Creek, where work to date covers just 5km of a 14km artisanal mining corridor that remains largely untested and highly prospective.
The company has deployed a third drill rig to Sela Creek, and expects to run two rigs continuously for the majority of 2026 while having a third available for optionality. With the two drill rigs, Miata expects to be able to comfortably drill 25,000 m in 2026. The Company can operate through both the dry and wet seasons. The recently arrived rig is a Sandvik 710, a tracked drill rig with a depth capacity of over 1,000 m. The Company works closely with Major Drilling, a reputable international Canadian drill-contractor with a branch of operations established in Suriname.
Miata has completed an extensive surface program including measuring artisanal activity and the reinterpretation of historical geochemical and geophysical datasets, resulting in six prospects being advanced to drill-ready status for the first half of 2026. These prospects represent some of the most compelling targets on Sela Creek:
- Puma East: 5.3 m at 8.25 g/t gold from 37.7 m
- Puma West: 18m at 2.70 g/t gold from 5.60 m
- Big Berg: 14 m at 1.72 g/t gold from 164 m
- Howler, Stranger and Golden Hand, where drill targets are defined based on early-stage exploration work
These prospects will be drill-tested in parallel with a continued surface program to define further discovery drill targets. While this discovery program is ongoing, the Company will continue to delineate Jons Trend, which is emerging as a 750 x 250 m mineralized zone and remains open in all directions.
The company’s discovery at Jon’s Trend was a major de-risking event in 2025, with potential expansion of that zone being another catalyst for 2026. The company has completed 10,061 m of drilling, of which 3,000m was completed in the last two months of drilling. This indicates the efficiency of the program has increased substantially from the start of drilling in March, a trend that Miata intends to continue over the course of its fully funded 25,000 m drill program.
Miata also announced the exercise of 1,300,000 incentive stock options with an exercise price of $0.23 per common share and expiring on December 19, 2025. A total of 400,000 common shares were sold by directors and senior management in a pre-arranged trade using the facilities of the Canadian Securities Exchange, to partially cover the aggregate exercise costs. The participating Insiders retain the substantial net shares acquired, maintaining strong alignment with shareholders and demonstrating continued confidence in the Company’s gold exploration prospects in Suriname. There is no intention of further dispositions by Insiders. Details of the transactions will be filed on SEDI.
Samples were analyzed at FILAB Suriname, a commercial certified laboratory under ISO 9001:2015. Samples are crushed and pulverized to 85% passing 88 µm prior to analysis using a 50 g fire assay (50 g aliquot) with an Atomic Absorption (AA) finish. For samples that return assay values over 5.0 grams per tonne (g/t), another cut was taken from the original pulp and fire assayed with a gravimetric finish. Miata Metals inserts certified reference standards, as well as blanks and ¼ core duplicates in the sample sequence for quality control and assurance.
Dr. Jacob Verbaas, P.Geo., a director of the Company and Qualified Person as defined under the definitions of National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this news release.
Dr. Jacob (Jaap) Verbaas, P.Geo | CEO and Director
info@miatametals.com
+1 778 488 9754
Source: Miata Metals Corp.
