Emperor Metals begins drilling at Duquesne West
2025-12-04 18:25 ET – News Release
Mr. John Florek reports
EMPEROR COMMENCES 10,000-15,000 METRE DRILLING PROGRAM AT THE DUQUESNE WEST GOLD PROJECT
Emperor Metals Inc. has started its 10,000- to 15,000-metre diamond drilling program at its flagship Duquesne West gold project in Quebec for the 2025-2026 winter season.
Vice-president, exploration, John Labrecque commented: “We are excited to resume drilling at Duquesne West. Building on the strong results from 2024, our team has clearly defined the key targets for this next phase. With approximately $11.1-million in working capital (press release dated Oct. 17, 2025), Emperor is well funded to execute this focused exploration program.”
2025-2026 winter exploration program
Leveraging insights from the 2024 results, the company’s advanced artificial intelligence models will guide targeting efforts to improve and refine the economic limits of the conceptual open-pit environment by following up on poorly understood areas (for example, DQ24-12: 21.7 metres of 35.2 grams per tonne gold), focus on converting some of the ounces from inferred to indicated, and extend the footprint an additional one kilometre east of the conceptual open pit toward the Nip zone.
Key components of the 2025 season include:
- Expand the open-pit footprint: target additional discoveries within the host rock containing high-grade gold lenses, focusing on the conceptual open-pit model;
- Increase the thickness of the high-grade lenses: incorporate previously unaccounted lower-grade gold from the margins of high-grade lenses and enhance their overall thickness;
- Expand mineralized zones: extend the lateral footprint of mineralized zones along strike and dip;
- Discover new zones: explore potential new zones not yet included in the conceptual open-pit model, with a particular focus on eastward expansion;
- Validate historical zones: confirm existing high-grade historical zones along plunge to determine extent of mineralization and bring inferred material into measured and indicted categories.
The 2024 program clearly demonstrated the project’s strong potential, underpinning a new initial resource estimate that more than doubled the historical figure (see press release dated July 9, 2025) and identifying multiple priority targets for the current phase of work. This substantial increase in resources was achieved by evaluating and integrating both open-pit and underground mining scenarios.
Coming catalysts
The current drill program is scheduled to continue through early spring 2026, with initial assay results anticipated between mid- to late January, 2026. Its first drill hole of 2025 is planned to reach a depth of 550 metres and will test several gold-bearing intercepts, reflecting the multiple mineralized lenses that characterize this deposit. These multiple lenses not only support the potential of the company’s conceptual open-pit model but also indicate a robust and laterally extensive gold-mineralizing system, suggesting meaningful opportunities for future expansion within and outside of the main conceptual open-pit model.
Emperor is currently drilling hole DQ25-01 and is encountering the hallmark replacement-style mineralization characteristic of the deposit. This style of mineralization commonly develops with substantial thickness, thereby reducing dilution in a mining scenario and further underscoring the enduring strength of the southern Abitibi and the advantages of exploring a region repeatedly proved to be richly endowed with economic mineralization.
About the Duquesne West gold project
The Duquesne West gold property is located 32 kilometres northwest of the city of Rouyn-Noranda and 10 km east of the town of Duparquet. The property lies within the historic Duparquet gold mining camp in the southern portion of the Abitibi greenstone belt in the Superior province.
Under an option agreement, Emperor agreed to acquire a 100-per-cent interest in a mineral claim package comprising 38 claims covering approximately 1,389 hectares, located in the Duparquet township of Quebec from Duparquet Assets Ltd., a 50-per-cent-owned subsidiary of Globex Mining Enterprises Inc. For further information on the Duquesne West property and option agreement, see Emperor’s press release dated Oct. 12, 2022, available on SEDAR+.
The property hosts a recent inferred mineral resource (see press release dated July 9, 2025). The gold system remains open for resource identification and expansion.
A reinterpretation of the existing geological model was created using artificial intelligence and machine learning. This model shows the opportunity for additional discovery of ounces by revealing gold trends unknown to previous workers and the potential to expand the resource along significant gold-endowed structural zones.
Qualified person disclosure
The technical content for the Duquesne West project in this news release has been reviewed and approved by John Labrecque, PGeol, a qualified person pursuant to Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum guidelines.
About Emperor Metals Inc.
Emperor Metals is an innovative Canadian mineral exploration company focused on developing high-quality gold properties situated in the Canadian Shield.
We seek Safe Harbor.
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