Metals Exploration Grows Nicaragua Land Position with Four New Concessions at La India

• Four exploration concessions covering approximately 64,400 hectares in total have been granted adjacent to the La India Gold Project in Nicaragua, each secured for a 25-year term.
• La Grecia, the highest-priority target, carries historical gold grades of up to 97.42 grammes per tonne and a documented underground mining history stretching back to the 1890s.
• Dos Hermanos returned rock chip samples of up to 62.6 g/t gold from surface and has not yet been drill-tested, meaning its resource potential at depth remains unquantified.
• Las Cruces broadens the Company's exposure beyond epithermal gold, as it is prospective for a large copper-gold porphyry deposit linked to a major volcanic caldera feature in the area.
• A first drill programme on the new concessions is planned for H2 2026, with first gold at La India targeted for December 2026.

Metals Exploration PLC (AIM: MTL) is a UK-based gold production, development and exploration company with assets in the Philippines and Nicaragua. Its primary producing asset is the Runruno gold mine in Nueva Vizcaya, the Philippines, which has been in operation since 2016 and is currently the second largest operating gold mine in the country. Following the acquisition of Condor Gold PLC in January 2025, the Company added the La India Gold Project in Nicaragua to its portfolio, a fully permitted and construction-ready asset holding approximately 2.2 million ounces of gold in resource. La India is currently under construction, with first gold targeted for December 2026.

Four New Exploration Concessions Granted at La India

Metals Exploration was formally granted four exploration concessions covering approximately 64,400 hectares in total, all situated directly adjacent to the La India Gold Project in Nicaragua. The concessions were granted for a 25-year term, subject to a 3% gross royalty payable to the government and annual surface rights payments that start at US$0.25 per hectare in year one and scale to US$12.00 per hectare from year eleven onwards.

The new licences sit within the broader La India Gold Mining District and include areas with a documented history of prior exploration. Parts of the concession package were previously examined by Newcrest Mining, and the new licences also include historical gold workings within the La Grecia project area.

CEO Darren Bowden commented: 

"Securing these concessions adjacent to our La India Gold Project further consolidates our position within the historical La India mining district, and marks another important step in strengthening the Company's long-term growth in Nicaragua. Our ongoing technical work has identified four high priority targets, with encouraging historical results indicating the potential for future gold resources."

High-Priority Exploration Targets Identified

Within the four new concessions, geologists have identified four high-priority targets, each supported by varying degrees of historical data. The most advanced is La Grecia, where an epithermal gold system, a type of mineralisation formed by hot fluids circulating close to the earth's surface, has been identified at surface. Historical rock chip sampling carried out by Newcrest returned grades of up to 97.42 g/t gold across 80 samples, with an average of 18.84 g/t across all samples. More recent sampling by Metals Exploration's own geologists returned grades of up to 7.07 g/t gold and 695 g/t silver. La Grecia was also Nicaragua's largest mining district from 1895 to 1909, with an extensive system of historical underground tunnels still present on site.

Dos Hermanos, the second target, was the first location mined in the La India District by the London-based Corduroy Syndicate in the early 1900s. Surface rock chip sampling has returned grades of up to 62.6 g/t gold, and trench sampling has intersected up to 1.95 metres at 17.9 g/t gold. No drilling has been undertaken at Dos Hermanos to date. San Cristobal is the third target, where historical mapping has defined gold-bearing vein occurrences over a strike length, the horizontal extent of a geological feature, of approximately 1.0 kilometre, associated with anomalous gold, antimony, and arsenic in soil and rock samples.

Las Cruces, the fourth target, is geologically distinct from the other three. Rather than an epithermal setting, it shows features consistent with a lithocap, an alteration zone commonly found above large copper-gold porphyry deposits. Porphyry systems are typically larger in scale than epithermal deposits and can carry both gold and copper mineralisation. The Las Cruces concession is located to the south-east of the La India Gold Project and is associated with a major Tertiary volcanic caldera approximately 9.0 kilometres wide, which lies directly along strike from the La India Corridor.

Exploration Programme and Development Strategy

The Company has outlined a clear sequence of near-term field work across the new concessions. At La Grecia, the priority is to rehabilitate and sample the historical underground workings and to conduct surface trenching over outcropping vein structures, with the aim of better understanding the grade and geometry of mineralisation before committing to drilling. At San Cristobal, Dos Hermanos and Las Cruces, the next steps involve geological mapping and soil sampling over areas that have not yet been systematically covered.

Once the field data from all four targets has been compiled, the Company plans to rank and prioritise them to determine which warrant drilling first. Subject to rig availability, Metals Exploration hopes to commence its first drill programme on the new concessions in H2 2026.

CEO Darren Bowden added: 

"While these new licences provide further exploration prospects for the Company, our focus remains on advancing the La India Gold Project towards production, with first gold expected by December 2026. By prioritising near-term development and continuing to build a strong exploration portfolio, we aim to deliver on our immediate objectives while also supporting future resource growth."

Conclusion

Metals Exploration closes the announcement with an expanded land position in Nicaragua, four identified targets with historical data supporting their priority status, and the La India Gold Project advancing through construction. Near-term milestones include completion of mapping and sampling work across all four new concessions, target ranking and prioritisation, and the commencement of a first drill programme in H2 2026. Construction progress at La India, where the Company is targeting first gold by December 2026, remains the stated near-term priority. 

CEO Darren Bowden added:

"We look forward to providing further updates as construction activities on-site accelerate."

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