Manhattan Gold Secures $4.5M to Accelerate Hook Lake Drilling Program

$4.5M placement secured to push high-grade Hook Lake gold system further

Manhattan Gold Corporation (ASX: MHC) has received firm commitments to raise up to A$4.5 million through a placement at $0.02 per share, with proceeds applied towards completing its 2026 exploration drilling program at the Hook Lake Project in Nunavut, Canada. The raise was joint lead managed by Euroz Hartleys and Alpine Capital, with Leeuwin Wealth acting as co-manager.

The placement drew strong support from domestic and international professional and institutional investors. Clients of Viaticus Capital, along with existing shareholders and Manhattan’s Directors and Management, committed over $1.8 million combined. The issue price represents a 20% discount to the last traded price of $0.025 on Thursday, 10 September 2026.

What this placement funds — the 2026 Hook Lake drilling program

Placement proceeds are applied directly to completing the active 2026 exploration drilling program at Hook Lake. Key activities funded include:

• Over 4,000m of Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling, covering further follow-up at the flagship Jaws target and first-ever drilling at Quantum, Lotus, and the Omega banded iron formation (BIF) prospect
• 14 drillhole assays across multiple targets, including further results from Jaws, the high-grade volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit Spectre, and first-time drill targets at Quantum, Lotus, and Omega
• Project-scale till sampling, channel sampling, geophysical surveys, and consulting support on completion of the drilling program

Hook Lake spans 665km² across 12 prospects within the Rankin-Ennadai greenstone belt — the same belt that hosts Agnico Eagle’s Meliadine mine. This is capital going to work immediately in a program already underway, not to fund future planning.

The Hook Lake multi-target discovery spans prospects including Jaws, Spectre, Quantum, Lotus, and the Omega BIF, each sitting within the same Rankin-Ennadai greenstone belt corridor and representing distinct mineralisation styles across the 665km2 tenure.

What the drill bit has already found at Jaws

The strong investor support for this placement reflects what the drill bit has already returned. The maiden 2026 RC program at the Jaws target has produced two standout intercepts.

Drillhole JWS26009 intersected 74.67m @ 1.61 g/t Au from 21.34m, including 15.24m @ 5.35 g/t Au, while JWS26006b returned 41.15m @ 4.66 g/t Au from 83.82m, including 7.62m @ 18.67 g/t Au.

Drillhole JWS26008 confirmed gold mineralisation at a depth greater than 223m below surface, well below the historic 1988 drilling. Drillhole JWS26010 expanded the gold-bearing system by more than 290m to the northeast beyond that same historic drilling.

The exceptional Hook Lake results across the maiden 2026 RC program established Jaws as the flagship target, with the high-grade intercepts extending the known mineralised corridor well beyond the footprint tested by historic 1988 drilling.

Historical diamond drilling at Jaws, conducted in the late 1980s, defined a “Foreign” estimate of 3.4Mt @ 2.38 g/t Au (approximately 285,000 oz Au). Investors should note this is a “Foreign” estimate that is not reported in accordance with the JORC Code 2012. Relevant information on the work program, methodology, and material assumptions used to calculate this estimate is not available to the Company, and a competent person has not done sufficient work to classify it as Exploration Results, Mineral Resources, or Ore Reserves under the JORC Code. It is uncertain whether, following further evaluation or work, this historical estimate will be able to be reported in accordance with the JORC Code (2012).

Beyond Jaws, Hook Lake hosts additional high-priority targets. Spectre, a high-grade VMS system, returned historic drilling results of 10.51m @ 2.91% Cu, 6.70% Zn, 95.67 g/t Ag, and 1.04 g/t Au. Quantum and Lotus remain undrilled but returned surface grades of 16.75 g/t and 8.01 g/t Au respectively from sampling conducted in 2025.

Understanding RC drilling — why it matters for gold explorers

Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling is a method where air pressure forces rock chips back up through the drill rods to the surface, where they are collected and sampled for assay. It generates a continuous, reliable sample of the rock at each depth interval.

RC drilling is faster and more cost-effective than diamond drilling, making it the preferred tool for systematically testing large target areas at this stage of exploration. Rather than recovering a solid core, it produces chips that can be quickly analysed to determine gold content. The grade is expressed in grams per tonne (g/t Au) — that is, grams of gold present in every tonne of rock sampled.

The metric investors watch closely is grade multiplied by thickness: a 41.15m interval at 4.66 g/t Au is more significant than either number in isolation, because it reflects both how rich the mineralisation is and how wide a body it occurs in. Planning over 4,000m of RC drilling across Jaws, Omega, Quantum, and Lotus is a meaningful program for a company of MHC’s size — it is enough metreage to meaningfully test multiple targets and generate the data needed to define the system’s full extent.

Placement structure and shareholder entitlement options

The placement is structured across two tranches:

1. Tranche 1: Up to 168 million shares raising $3.36 million, to be issued under ASX Listing Rules 7.1 (93,554,946 shares) and 7.1A (74,445,054 shares). Settlement is scheduled for Monday, 21 September 2026.
2. Tranche 2: Up to 57 million shares raising $1.14 million, subject to shareholder approval under ASX Listing Rules 7.1 and 10.11 at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) scheduled for 6 November 2026. This tranche includes $200,000 committed by Directors and related parties (10,000,000 shares).

Following the AGM, Manhattan intends to undertake an entitlement issue of unlisted options on a 1-for-4 basis to eligible shareholders, with a subscription price of $0.001, an exercise price of $0.025, and a 6-month term from the time of issue. Further details on the record date are proposed to be released once finalised.

Subject to shareholder approval, the Joint Lead Managers are proposed to receive 37,500,000 options at an exercise price of $0.04, expiring 3 years from the date of issue. The Joint Lead Managers will also receive a cash fee of 6% of gross proceeds, excluding the amounts subscribed by Viaticus Capital clients, Manhattan Directors and Management, and existing shareholders.

The indicative placement timetable is as follows:

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