Buen Retiro's 21.84% Copper Hole Lands Inside Fitzroy's First Resource

• The 2 of the 4 rigs at Buen Retiro are expected to leave in September, at a data cut-off for the maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) targeted for the first quarter of 2027.  
• From the fourth quarter of 2026, both remaining rigs are dedicated primarily to exploration: the reverse circulation (RC) rig tests shallow regional targets, and the diamond rig tests deep targets.
• The round's highest grade, 1 meter (m) at 21.84% copper, came from shallow infill drilling.
• Two of the round's standout intervals came from holes drilled outside the infill program, including 105 m at 0.74% copper from a 100-m extension of the Tenorita area. 
• An RC hole extended the main Tenorita trend by 200 m to 1.9 kilometers (km) along strike, with assays pending. 

What Has Happened

Fitzroy Minerals (TSXV: FTZ | OTCQX: FTZFF | FSE: C3Y) reported assay results from 20 drill holes at the Buen Retiro Copper Project near Copiapó, Chile, on August 20, 2026. 14 returned the reported intervals.

Two shallow holes returned the round's 2 highest interval grades, the higher of them from the shallow infill program drilled to better define resources for extraction early in the mine plan. One returned 8.8 m at 3.70% copper from 30 m downhole, approximately 21 m below surface, with 2.8 m at 11.35% copper inside it and the 1-m interval at 21.84% copper, approximately 26 m below surface. The hole ended in 5.81% copper mineralization on breaking into a void left by artisanal miners. A second shallow hole returned 31 m at 0.96% copper from 16 m depth, including 7 m at 2.28% copper.

The other 2 came from holes with a different job. A 100-m extension to known mineralization in the northeast of the Tenorita area returned 105 m at 0.74% copper from 58 m, including 12 m at 3.01% copper. A hole into a newly identified area on the boundary between the Manto Negro and Nativo zones returned 83 m at 0.46% copper from 69 m, including 49 m at 0.68% copper. It was drilled beneath an earlier hole that had returned 112 m at 0.25% copper from 57 m, including 69 m at 0.54% copper. Reported intervals are estimated at 80% to 90% of true thickness, against a reporting floor of 5 m and 0.20% copper. 

The mineralizing system at Buen Retiro is strong, and new exploration targets are being identified as drilling progresses. The holes drilled to extend or test the ground, not to infill it, returned the 2 widest intervals in the round.

What Closes in September & What Stays Open

Fitzroy has completed 92 diamond drill holes for 16,376 m since February 2026, with 3 diamond rigs and 1 reverse circulation (RC) rig on site in August. Two of the diamond rigs are expected to leave in September, at a data cut-off that allows time for logging and assaying ahead of the maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE).

The cut-off fixes what the first estimate can use, and 2 of the round's results fall on the far side of it. 

Fitzroy has prioritized defining measured and indicated resources capable of supporting a development plan, and aimed to complete the drill-out of the Tenorita area in August. From here, laboratory turnaround sets the pace of the estimate, not meters drilled.

An RC hole passed through a fault zone that had stopped an earlier diamond attempt at the southeastern end of Tenorita, and it intersected native copper and chalcocite, a copper sulfide mineral, at 239 m depth. The hole extends the main mineralized trend by 200 m to 1.9 kilometers (km) along strike. Its assays are pending, as are those of a hole drilled west of the northeast extension that intersected little visible mineralization. 

The Program After September

After the cut-off, the drilling at Buen Retiro changes jobs, and the change is already scheduled. Before the cut-off, the 4 rigs have 4 assignments: 1 diamond rig on copper sulfides in the Ortuzar area, 1 on copper oxide mineralization at Manto Negro, 1 on the northeast extension of Tenorita, and the RC rig on regional targets.

From the fourth quarter of 2026, Fitzroy will run 2 rigs at Buen Retiro. The RC rig will primarily test shallow regional exploration targets, and the diamond rig will primarily test deep targets. The company plans a further 6,000 m of drilling in 2026, bringing the year's total to 22,000 m.

The second project gets its own program in the same quarter. At Caballos, Fitzroy's 100%-owned copper porphyry project, 5,500 m of drilling is planned for the fourth quarter of 2026 to test multiple geophysical and geological targets. Between the 2 projects, the meters drilled after September are exploration meters, while the estimate is built from what came before.

Broader Context 

Buen Retiro is an iron oxide copper gold deposit that carries copper alongside iron oxides and gold, in a district that hosts the producing Candelaria and Mantoverde mines, held 80% by Lundin Mining and 70% by Capstone Copper. Buen Retiro's geology resembles both. Chile supplied 23% of the global copper mine supply in 2025, at 5.3 million metric tons. 

The development plan is a heap leach. Fitzroy plans a conventional, enhanced-recovery operation in which ore is stacked and irrigated to dissolve copper, with Pucobre's Planta Biocobre identified as a potential processing facility under a letter of intent for joint development. The exploration rigs are working the same geology for whatever comes after that plan.

What to Watch Next

Every stage after the cut-off has a quarter attached, and the exploration results arrive alongside them.

Fitzroy is targeting an environmental submission in the fourth quarter of 2026, the first MRE in the first quarter of 2027, and a pre-feasibility study in the second quarter of 2027, ahead of production in early 2028. Financing and the investment decision fall in the third quarter of 2027, and environmental and metallurgical work occupies the third and fourth quarters of 2026.

Between those dates come assays for the RC hole that extended the Tenorita trend, results from the Ortuzar sulfide drilling, the deep and regional holes from the 2 remaining rigs, and the first 5,500 m at Caballos. The 1.9-km trend, the 21.84% grade, and the Tenorita drill-out are in the data set the first estimate draws on. Everything the rigs find from the fourth quarter is the start of the next one.

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