Vancouver, British Columbia — February 12, 2026 — Leads & Copy — Ridgeline Minerals Corp. has announced a mineral exploration target outlining the potential of its Chinchilla Oxide Ag-Au-Pb-Zn deposit at the Selena project in Nevada.
The company completed preliminary 3D modeling at the Chinchilla Oxide deposit that supports an exploration target of 38.3 – 58.0 million tonnes of mineralized material. The material grades between 39.8 – 52.0 grams per tonne Ag, 0.12 – 0.15 g/t Au, 0.42% – 0.55% Pb and 0.40% – 0.51% Zn.
According to the company, the quantity and grade of the exploration target are conceptual in nature and there has not been sufficient exploration to define a mineral resource. It is uncertain whether further exploration will result in the exploration target being delineated as a mineral resource.
Ridgeline’s President, CEO & Director Chad Peters said that the Chinchilla Oxide deposit was Ridgeline’s original outcropping Ag-Au oxide discovery made by the team in 2020 and they always knew it had the potential to become a deposit of significant scale. Peters added that announcing a mineral exploration target helps to further highlight this exciting opportunity and better frame the upside potential across multiple mineralized zones at the Selena project.
Peters also said that the Selena project exhibits over four kilometers of proven mineralized strike between the outcropping Chinchilla Oxide zone and their recent high-grade CRD discovery at Chinchilla Sulfide, which was made in collaboration with their partners at South32. According to Peters, the company’s strategy in 2026 will be to continue drill testing the Chinchilla Sulfide discovery to better understand the potential scale and grade of the sulfide system, which will help their teams better understand the combined resource potential of the greater mineralized system at Selena as they continue to grow this polymetallic deposit.
The company believes the Chinchilla Oxide Zone has the potential to host 38.3 to 58.0 MT of mineralized material ranging from 39.8 – 52.0 g/t Ag and 0.12 – 0.15 g/t Au. The company noted that the Pb-Zn grades range between 0.42% – 0.55% Pb and 0.40% – 0.51% Zn.
According to the company, the Chinchilla Oxide zone remains open for expansion along strike and down-dip with additional infill drilling required to complete a NI 43-101 compliant maiden resource estimate.
The company noted some of Chinchilla Oxide’s highlight drill intercepts:
- SE22-045: 32.5 m grading 153.42 g/t Ag, 0.09 g/t Au, and 4.1% Pb-Zn
- Including 6.1 m grading 480.52 g/t Ag, 0.1 g/t Au, and 18.4% Pb-Zn,
- Including 0.7 m grading 1,347.73 g/t Ag, 0.11 g/t Au and 40.9% Pb-Zn
- SE23-047: 60.7m grading 69.8 g/t Ag, 0.4 g/t Au, and 1.8% Pb-Zn
- Including 7.7m grading 146.5 g/t Ag, 0.9 g/t Au, and 1.7% Pb-Zn
- SE21-025: 44.2m grading 123.2 g/t Ag, 0.1 g/t Au, and 2.1% Pb-Zn
- Including 7.6m grading 237.8 g/t Ag, 0.2 g/t Au, and 3.8% Pb-Zn
The exploration target assay database is comprised of thirty-three RC and Core drillholes totaling 8,250.3m and 5,650 assay samples and five surface trenches totaling 180.4m and 122 assay samples.
According to the company, select bottle roll metallurgical testing on Chinchilla Oxide RC composites in 2021 averaged 31.5% – 50.0% Ag and 76.7% – 83.3% Au cyanide solubility suggesting the deposit may be amenable to heap leach processing methods. The company’s metallurgical consultant has indicated that additional metallurgical testing on drill core samples (vs. original RC samples) is required and may materially improve bottle roll cyanide solubility results for silver.
Core drilling at Selena (2023-2025) has confirmed that RC drilling methods were “washing” out the Ag-rich clays in the oxide zone, diluting grades and effectively reducing overall cyanide solubility. Neither Pb nor Zn were analyzed during the 2021 bottle roll program with additional testing required to define potential cyanide solubility ranges of either metal.
The company also stated that the metallurgical recoveries at Chinchilla Oxide do not apply to the potential metallurgical recoveries at the Chinchilla Sulfide discovery, which is sulfide mineralization that would require a different milling process.
The Chinchilla Oxide exploration target has been prepared under NI 43-101 guidelines for Mineral Exploration Target reporting and utilized a 3rd party qualified person for all grade shell models and interpolations. Grade interpolations utilized a low-grade cutoff of 15.0 g/t Ag with three-meter composites and a radial basis function numeric model. The quantity and grade of the exploration target are conceptual in nature and there has not been sufficient exploration to define a mineral resource. It is uncertain whether further exploration will result in the exploration target being delineated as a mineral resource. The exploration target model has not been evaluated for reasonable prospects of potential economic extraction.
The Project is currently operated by Ridgeline under Phase 1 of an earn-in agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary of South32 Limited, where South32 may earn up to an 80% interest in the Project by satisfying all commitments under the earn-in agreement.
Selena is located in White Pine County, Nevada, approximately 64 kilometers north of the town of Ely, NV. The Project is currently being operated by Ridgeline under Phase 1 of an earn-in agreement South32 and shares a property boundary with the Butte Valley project, a $33M earn-in agreement between Freeport-McMoRan and the underlying owner, Falcon Butte Minerals. The Project is comprised of 39 square kilometers of highly prospective exploration ground including Ridgeline’s shallow-oxide Ag-Au ± Pb-Zn Chinchilla Oxide and deeper Chinchilla Sulfide discoveries. Subsequent drilling has continued to highlight the potential for high-grade CRD type mineralization (Ag-Zn-Pb-Au ± Cu-Sb-W) between Chinchilla Oxide and Freeport-McMoRan’s Butte Valley Cu-Au-Ag-Zn porphyry located directly west of the property.
Ridgeline Minerals is a discovery focused precious and base metal explorer with a proven management team and a 200 km2 exploration portfolio across seven projects in Nevada, USA. The Company is a hybrid explorer with a mix of 100%-owned exploration assets as well as two earn-in exploration agreements with Nevada Gold Mines at its Swift and Black Ridge projects and a third earn-in with South32 at its Selena project.
Source: Ridgeline Minerals Corp.
