In 2025, Rio Grande Resources has systematically advanced Poverty Creek from a newly identified exploration area into one of the priority targets within the Winston Gold-Silver Project. Surface sampling, detailed structural mapping and interpretation of the broader Winston structural system have traced multiple mineralized vein corridors across the area and significantly improved the Company’s understanding of their orientation, geometry and continuity.
Earlier work identified Poverty Creek as a previously unsampled mineralized trend within the northern portion of the claim block, while subsequent 2026 fieldwork expanded the geological model and demonstrated that high-grade mineralization occurs across several interpreted structural corridors and drill-ready targets.
The 2026 field program connected high-grade surface results with detailed mapping of the structures that appear to control mineralization. This matters because Poverty Creek is not being advanced as a single isolated sample story — it is being developed as a mapped corridor system that can be tested below surface.
Channel sampling is the key lead-in. Unlike selectively collected grab samples, channel samples were collected systematically across exposed mineralized veins over measured intervals, providing a more representative assessment of grade distribution and continuity within the exposed mineralization.
Figure 1. Structural trends of the Poverty Creek area with 2026 sample points Channel sampling across exposed in-situ quartz veins returned some of the strongest results from the May 2026 sampling program (see news release July 06, 2026), including 46.3 g/t gold and 1,030 g/t silver from Channel D, 15.7 g/t gold and 703 g/t silver from Channel D2, and 5.93 g/t gold and 190 g/t silver from Channel C. Because channel samples are collected systematically across measured intervals of exposed mineralized veins, they provide important information about grade distribution and the continuity of mineralization at surface. When combined with detailed structural mapping and the broader 2025–2026 exploration dataset, the results defined multiple northeast-, southeast- and southwest-trending mineralized structural corridors across Poverty Creek. This work significantly refined Rio Grande’s understanding of the orientation, geometry and continuity of the interpreted vein systems and provided greater confidence in selecting drill targets. Several initial Phase 1 drill pad locations have now been finalized, with additional locations continuing to be optimized across the target area.
The map below illustrates the interpreted mineralized vein corridors defined through the integration of 2025 and 2026 surface sampling and structural mapping at Poverty Creek.
Assay Results
Representative assay results are shown in Figure 3 and demonstrate that significant gold and silver mineralization occurs along several of these interpreted vein systems on both sides of Highway 59. Highlights included 67.1 g/t gold from a grab sample, 26.1 g/t and 24.4 g/t gold from rock chip samples, together with silver values of up to 759 g/t, 491 g/t and 470 g/t. The broad distribution of high-grade samples across multiple structural corridors further supports the scale and prospectivity of the Poverty Creek target area. Complete analytical results are presented in Table 1 and 2.
| Sample ID | Type | Au g/t | Ag g/t |
|---|---|---|---|
| WIN-051226-13 | Rock Chip | 2.02 | — |
| WIN-051226-14 | Rock Chip | 1.96 | — |
| WIN-050926-18 | Rock Chip | 1.85 | 115 |
| WIN-050726-04 | Rock Chip | 1.83 | — |
| WIN-050926-06 | Rock Chip | 1.80 | — |
| WIN-050826-06 | Rock Chip | 1.68 | 292 |
| WIN-050826-05 | Rock Chip | 1.58 | 759 |
| WIN-051326-01 | Rock Chip | 1.38 | 317 |
| WIN-051026-01 | Rock Chip | 1.25 | — |
| WIN-050826-01 | Rock Chip | 1.23 | 152 |
| WIN-050726-01 | Rock Chip | 1.19 | — |
| WIN-051226-15 | Rock Chip | 1.18 | — |
| WIN-050726-06 | Rock Chip | 1.17 | — |
| WIN-051326-02 | Rock Chip | — | 181 |
| WIN-051026-12 | Rock Chip | 1.01 | 110 |
| Sample ID | Type | Au g/t | Ag g/t |
|---|---|---|---|
| WIN-050926-01 | Grab | 67.10 | 63.1 |
| WIN-26-D1-CH | Channel | 46.30 | 1,030 |
| WIN-051226-12 | Rock Chip | 26.10 | 348 |
| WIN-050926-20 | Rock Chip | 24.40 | 358 |
| WIN-26-D2-CH | Channel | 15.70 | 703 |
| WIN-051026-13 | Rock Chip | 8.36 | 470 |
| WIN-050926-02 | Rock Chip | 6.07 | 286 |
| WIN-050926-04 | Rock Chip | 6.06 | 306 |
| WIN-26-C1-CH | Channel | 5.93 | 190 |
| WIN-051226-08 | Rock Chip | 4.33 | 6.2 |
| WIN-051326-03 | Rock Chip | 3.21 | 351 |
| WIN-051226-07 | Rock Chip | 2.86 | 491 |
| WIN-051326-05 | Rock Chip | 2.69 | — |
| WIN-26-C2-CH | Channel | 2.21 | — |
| WIN-050726-07 | Rock Chip | 2.21 | — |
— indicates no corresponding assay value reported in the summary tables.
Mapping has identified multiple steeply dipping vein corridors, vein swarms and structural intersections. Fieldwork also documented textures characteristic of a low-sulfidation epithermal environment, including bladed quartz, drusy quartz, comb quartz, amethyst, colloform banding and vuggy textures. The resulting model is being used to refine targets where future drilling may test for vein intersections, continuity along strike and mineralization at depth.
Together, the high-grade channel results and mapped structural corridors have moved Poverty Creek beyond isolated surface occurrences toward a defined geological targeting model. With the orientation and geometry of multiple mineralized vein systems now better understood, Rio Grande has established several initial Phase 1 drill pad locations to begin testing these interpreted structures below surface
