Reward Minerals Begins Maiden Drilling at Mountain Pond Gold Project
Key Takeaways
- Reward Minerals has commenced its maiden seven-hole diamond drilling program at the Jackpot Au-Cu Prospect within the Mountain Pond Gold Project in Newfoundland — the first drill testing ever completed at this project.
- Surface rock chip sampling at Jackpot previously returned high-grade results of 23.77 g/t Au and 1.77% Cu at QV-3 and 14.13 g/t Au at QV-1, establishing the target the drill program is now testing at depth.
- The program covers approximately 600m of HQ diamond core across up to seven holes ranging from 40m to 160m depth, with a three-week completion timeline and assay results to be released as available.
- New soil geochemistry from 505 samples has identified a copper-dominant Ante Up Prospect (peak 510 ppm Cu) and a Wildcard Prospect with copper anomalism extending more than 800m of strike, expanding the project's target inventory beyond Jackpot.
- Five prospects — Ante Up, Bingo, Jackpot, High Stakes, and Wildcard — together define a prospective corridor of at least 2.2km of strike along the Sullivan Pond Fault trend.
Reward Minerals puts drill in the ground for the first time at Mountain Pond
Reward Minerals (ASX: RWD) has commenced a maiden seven-hole diamond drilling program at the Jackpot Au-Cu Prospect within its Mountain Pond Gold Project in Newfoundland, Canada. This is the first drill testing ever completed at the Mountain Pond Project, marking a genuine inflection point for a tenement that has never been tested at depth.
The Mountain Pond Project sits approximately 530km by road northwest of St John’s and 7km from the regional service town of Springdale. It covers approximately 10km² across 41 contiguous claims and is fully road-accessible. The project sits within a highly active regional gold-copper district, with neighbours including New Found Gold, Firefly Metals, and Equinox Gold visible on the regional map.
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What the drill program is targeting — and why it matters
The Jackpot Prospect: high-grade surface results set the target
The Jackpot Prospect comprises an outcropping gold-copper mineralised quartz vein hosted within an 8m-wide shear zone developed in mafic volcanic rocks, including pillowed basalts. The structure is spatially associated with the regional Sullivan Pond Fault. Historical and recent rock chip sampling at the prospect returned high-grade surface results, with Figure 3 of the announcement indicating assay values including 23.77 g/t Au and 1.77% Cu at QV-3 and 14.13 g/t Au at QV-1, as previously reported in the RWD ASX announcement dated 15 September 2026.
The approved program is designed to test both the depth and strike extensions of the known vein and shear zone. Key program parameters include:
- Up to seven holes
- Approximately 600m of HQ-oriented diamond core
- Hole depths ranging from 40m to 160m
- Target: depth and strike extensions of the gold-copper quartz vein and 8m-wide shear zone
The program is anticipated to take approximately three weeks to complete, with assay results to be released to the market as they become available.
Core logging and assay workflow
All drill core will be transported to Reward’s purpose-built core facility in Springdale, where it will be systematically logged, photographed, cut, and sampled. Samples will be submitted for analysis to Eastern Analytical Laboratories in Springdale or MSALABS in Grand Falls-Windsor, providing established laboratory coverage for the program.
New soil results expand the copper story across the project
Alongside the drilling commencement, Reward Minerals has released multi-element assay results from 505 soil samples (including quality control material) collected as part of its regional geochemical program targeting the Sullivan Pond Fault trend. Gold results from this program were previously reported on 15 September 2026; this release delivers the copper element data.
The program has identified multiple zones of anomalous copper mineralisation, with two prospects standing out as particularly significant:
- Ante Up Prospect: A new copper-dominant target delineated, with a peak soil value of 510 ppm Cu returned
- Wildcard Prospect: Copper anomalism identified across three consecutive sample lines, defining a copper-in-soil anomaly extending for more than 800m of strike
- Prospective corridor: The Ante Up, Bingo, Jackpot, High Stakes, and Ante Up Prospects together define a corridor of at least 2.2km of strike
The table below summarises the three key prospects from this program:
| Prospect | Anomaly Type | Key Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ante Up | Copper-dominant | Peak soil value of 510 ppm Cu | New target defined; follow-up planned |
| Wildcard | Copper-in-soil anomaly | Anomaly extending more than 800m of strike | Three consecutive sample lines; follow-up planned |
| Jackpot | Gold-copper (vein-hosted) | High-grade rock chip results previously reported | Maiden drilling commenced |
Planning has commenced for a follow-up programme of soil and rock chip sampling across the project area, with interpretation to be integrated with ongoing geological observations.
What diamond drilling means for junior gold-copper explorers
Surface rock chip and soil sampling are exploration’s first language — they identify anomalies and prioritise targets. Diamond (core) drilling is how geologists move from “interesting surface signal” to understanding what actually exists at depth.
An HQ-diameter diamond drill produces intact cylindrical rock samples, allowing geologists to directly observe mineralisation style, structural controls, and continuity far below the surface. That level of detail is simply not available from rock chips collected at the outcrop. The key question that drilling answers is whether mineralisation continues downward and along strike at the scale required to support a resource estimate.
For Reward’s Mountain Pond Project, the significance is clear. The Jackpot Prospect has returned compelling surface grades, but those grades have never been tested at depth. The first drill results will be the first information the market has ever seen on whether the mineralisation has scale beyond the outcrop — a genuine data event for RWD investors.
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Next steps and exploration pipeline
The announcement outlines four near-term activities across Reward’s Canadian projects:
- Complete diamond core logging, cutting, sampling and dispatch of samples for analysis at the Jackpot Prospect
- Compile fire assay gold and ICP-34 multi-element soil analyses from the Copper Lance Project
- Conduct field mapping and further rock chip sampling at the Bingo Prospect
- Conduct follow-up exploration activities based on results
Assay results from the drilling program will be released to the market as they become available, making the coming weeks a material news flow period for RWD investors watching the Mountain Pond Project.
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