Up to 50,000 Meters at Beskauga Leads Mogotes' Northern Value Test

• Mogotes Metals plans up to 50,000 meters (m) of drilling at Beskauga in Kazakhstan over the next 12 months.
• Beskauga already has 67,995 m of drilling in 150 holes.
• Copper Cliff in Montana has 8,000 to 9,000 m planned, with drill permits still pending.
• Management says the Copper Cliff program doubles the drilling into that deposit within 1 year.
• Mogotes is targeting a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on Beskauga within 12 months.

What Has Happened 

On September 22, 2026, Mogotes Metals (TSXV: MOG | FSE: OY4 | OTCQB: MOGMF) published drilling plans for the next 12 months at its 2 projects outside the Andes. At Beskauga in Pavlodar Province, Kazakhstan, drilling has started, with up to 50,000 meters (m) planned until winter weather sets in, and the company is targeting a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) within 12 months. At Copper Cliff in Montana, the company plans 8,000 to 9,000 m, with the earliest possible start in November 2026, while permitting is pending.

Both programs run alongside up to 20,000 m at the flagship Filo Sur project in Argentina and Chile. Across the 3 projects, approximately 78,000 m of drilling is planned for the coming year.

Copper Cliff Drilling Against the Deposit's Record

Copper Cliff already carries a long drill record, built by a major before Mogotes arrived. The property has 25 holes totaling 32,000 m, drilled on a gold-copper porphyry target, a large, lower-grade deposit type formed around an intrusion, which Rio Tinto discovered in 2013. There has been no exploration on it since 2017. The highlight intercept returned 1,252 m at 0.41 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 0.34% copper from 665 m depth. Other historical holes returned 712 m at 0.44 g/t gold and 0.3% copper from 663 m depth, and 541.3 m at 0.69 g/t gold and 0.47% copper from 976 m depth. These intercepts are historical Kennecott and Rio Tinto results that Mogotes has not verified.

The top of porphyry mineralization at 0.3% copper equivalent, a grade that counts gold at its copper value, lies about 620 m down, with more than 1,000 m of vertical extent below it. Mogotes' initial exploration target around the discovery holes, which is conceptual and not a resource, covers a surface footprint of 450 by 300 m over that vertical interval. Management says about 8,000 m of past drilling went into the deposit itself, and that the planned program will double that figure within 1 year. Copper Cliff is held under an option to enter a joint venture with Kennecott Exploration Company, a Rio Tinto subsidiary. Mogotes may earn 51% by funding US$16 million in exploration over 3 years, and up to 60% in total, with this year's budget at around US$5.5 million, management estimates. 

President and Chief Executive Officer of Mogotes Metals, Allen Sabet, names the ground the first Montana holes will chase:

"We're going to be drilling the areas that we see that are open and untested around the high-grade intervals that I mentioned."

To reach that depth at lower cost, management plans a mother-daughter hole configuration, with a mother hole drilled to about 1 kilometer (km) and several daughter holes branching off it from the same pad.

Beskauga Drilling Against 67,995 Meters on Record

Beskauga takes up to 50,000 m of the year's approximately 78,000 m, on a deposit with 67,995 m already drilled in 150 holes. Beskauga is at an advanced, resource-defined stage, while Filo Sur and Copper Cliff are at the discovery, pre-resource stage. That resource is an estimate effective February 20, 2022: 111.2 million tonnes indicated at 0.30% copper and 0.49 g/t gold, plus 92.6 million tonnes inferred at 0.24% copper and 0.50 g/t gold. It is treated as a historical estimate under NI 43-101. Mogotes' Qualified Person has not verified it, and the 2022 figures predate 18,657 m of drilling completed afterward. Integrating those meters is among the work a verification or upgrade would include.

Management says low costs let Mogotes use drilling as its main exploration tool at Beskauga. Diamond drilling at Beskauga runs as low as US$100 per meter, and reverse circulation (RC) drilling runs US$60 per meter. Mogotes says it has budgeted about C$8 million for about 50,000 m. The higher-grade gold-copper-silver core starts 40 m below the surface, and the highlight hole returned 957.0 m at 0.58 g/t gold, 0.34% copper, and 1.92 g/t silver from a depth of 44 m.

The project has road, rail, power, and water in place. It lies 70 km from Pavlodar, with a 1,100-kilovolt power line crossing the property, sealed highway and rail access, and freshwater from the Irtysh River via the Karaganda Canal. Its arid steppe setting makes exploration and mining feasible year-round, although the current program stops when winter weather sets in.

What the 2 Programs Are Set to Test

Copper Cliff and Beskauga are drilled for different ends. At Copper Cliff, management says the property also holds a large regional land package that has barely been explored, and that porphyry deposits tend to form in clusters. The first year focuses primarily on the existing deposit, management says. At Beskauga, Mogotes says RC holes of 300 to 500 m return data faster, while diamond core builds the geological model and supports the resource categories.

At Beskauga, management says the previous explorer ran only a couple of induced polarization lines, a geophysical survey that detects sulfide minerals at depth, across part of the property. Mogotes has since run its own geophysics and submitted a mining license application, management says.

Sabet ties the Kazakh meters to the study that follows them:

"So grow the resource, potentially find new deposits or new discoveries or new porphyry centers in that same vicinity, put out a PEA. What does that do? I think that's a step change for the value of the project on a standalone basis."

A pre-feasibility study is planned after the PEA. Mogotes has an option to acquire 100% of Beskauga for US$24.7 million in total, with 3 years to complete the acquisition.

Broader Context

The 3 projects are scheduled so that exploration runs in all 12 months of the year. Filo Sur drills from about November to May in the Southern Hemisphere summer and has funding priority, while Beskauga and Copper Cliff are planned around the Northern Hemisphere summer. Rio Tinto's exclusivity over Filo Sur expires in November 2027. Copper Cliff lies in western Montana, where exploration and mining activity are picking up again.

Mogotes held C$77 million in cash and equivalents, against a market capitalization of C$286 million at C$0.47 per share, as at September 21, 2026. Sabet sets the goal for the 2 projects outside the Andes against the company's own valuation:

"Take them from what is effectively a very close to zero valuation in our company to a substantial portion of our valuation and in doing so take us from a single risk exploration company to a multiple project company."

Management says the shift is meant to reduce the company's exposure to a single asset.

What to Watch Next

Beskauga is already drilling. Mogotes is targeting the first assays from the current program in the fourth quarter of 2026. A second northern summer program and further Beskauga assays are planned for 2027.

Copper Cliff depends first on its permits. Management says the project is on patented claims, which give the holder both the surface and mineral rights, and that permits run to a statutory deadline, but declines to set a firm start date. The earn-in decision point is about 2.5 years away, according to management, while drill results come within the first year, in view of both the market and Rio Tinto.

Management says the value of Copper Cliff will be clearer and, it hopes, higher after 1 year of drilling. The 3 markers on record are Beskauga assays in the fourth quarter of 2026, a Copper Cliff start no earlier than November 2026, and the Beskauga PEA targeted within 12 months.

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