The Conversation (0)
Sun Summit Minerals Corp. (TSXV: SMN,OTC:SMREF) (OTCQB: SMREF) ("Sun Summit" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the 2025 exploration program has now been completed at the JD Project, Toodoggone Mining District, north-central British Columbia.
Highlights:
- Extensive drill program completed: 21 drill holes were completed for a total of 6,864 meters. Drilling in 2025 represented a 37% increase in the overall meterage from the original planned 5,000 meters. Highlights include:
- Fifteen holes for 5,103 meters were drilled at the epithermal Au-Ag Creek Zone. Results from the first hole, CZ-25-007, demonstrated strong potential for near surface high-grade and bulk-tonnage style gold mineralization (78.0 meters of 3.72 g/t gold from 30.0 meters downhole, see news release September 8, 2025 entitled "Sun Summit Drills 78.0 Meters of 3.72 g/t Gold Including 19.1 Meters of 7.50 g/t Gold at the JD Project, Toodoggone District, B.C."). Logging and sampling of the drill core from the three final CZ-25-007 follow-up holes remains ongoing.
- Four holes for 950 meters were drilled at the epithermal Au-Ag near-surface, shallow Finn Zone. Holes were designed to follow-up historic drill results and explore at depth (e.g., 35.7 meters of 7.26 g/t gold with 94 g/t silver, JD95-0472).
- Two holes for 811 meters were drilled at the Belle South Cu-Au porphyry target located at the southern end of ~12 km long JD Porphyry Trend, which aligns with the significant McClair Creek alteration zone.
- Results are pending for the remaining 20 drill holes including 14 holes from the Creek Zone, four holes from the Finn Zone and two holes from the Belle South porphyry target. The 2025 exploration program was completed on target date and within budget even while adding a second drill later in the season.
- Comprehensive surface sampling and geological mapping: The field program included the collection of over 1,500 soil samples and over 120 rock samples across numerous target areas. Detailed geological mapping along McClair Creek and across the greater JD Project was completed with the aim of defining the structural and stratigraphic setting of the epithermal gold-silver systems as well as potentially related porphyry copper-gold systems.
- Extensive geophysical surveying: Induced polarization (IP) surveys across the JD Porphyry trend consisted of over 35 line kilometers which defined a broad 8.5 km long chargeability-high anomaly which significantly enhances the project's prospectivity for porphyry-related copper and gold systems. A further 23 line kilometers of IP surveying was also completed across the significant Finn to Creek corridor aimed at defining additional epithermal-related gold-silver targets. Total IP survey coverage in 2025 was over 58 line kilometers.
"We are extremely proud to have successfully completed our second ever exploration program at the JD Project, since we acquired the property in February 2024. The 2025 program was more than twice as large as the inaugural program in 2024. All told, we have completed a significant drill program comprising 9,400 meters of drilling over 33 drill holes since 2024 and, with the success of Hole CR-25-007, we are continuing to build on the impressive results from our 2024 drill program at the Creek Zone," said Niel Marotta, CEO of Sun Summit Minerals. "Additionally, we were able to add a second drill rig late in the season to ramp up our work program in order to be able to complete drilling at the Finn Zone and to conduct our first-ever drill test at the Belle South porphyry copper-gold target. It is a testament to talent and hard work of our geological planning and field execution teams that we were able to execute a large, complex program on time and on budget with no downtime or weather-related delays. We hit the ground running in early June 2025 and shut the last drill hole down on October 6, 2025 for a total of greater than 1,670 person-days spread across four months with 10 key contractors".
Summary and Next Steps
Core samples from all recently completed drill holes have been sent to the lab for assay and geochemical analyses and will be reported once received and reviewed. Assay results will provide important vectors for follow-up drill planning and targeting for 2026 which is well underway. Geochemical results and associated inverted chargeability and resistivity models from the IP surveys, together with results from the recently completed mapping, prospecting and geochemical surveys, will inform drill targeting elsewhere on the property.
Table 1: 2025 Drill Hole Collars
| Hole ID | Zone | Easting | Northing | Elevation | Azimuth | Dip | Depth (m) |
| JD-25-013 | Belle South | 614642 | 6363128 | 1295 | 225 | -65 | 485 |
| JD-25-014 | Belle South | 614550 | 6363450 | 1307 | 45 | -80 | 326 |
| CZ-25-007* | Creek | 608277 | 6368391 | 1508 | 255 | -45 | 341 |
| CZ-25-008 | Creek | 608279 | 6368388 | 1507 | 217 | -45 | 243 |
| CZ-25-009 | Creek | 608472 | 6368271 | 1575 | 240 | -55 | 296 |
| CZ-25-010 | Creek | 608473 | 6368270 | 1575 | 225 | -50 | 251 |
| CZ-25-011 | Creek | 608539 | 6368200 | 1594 | 225 | -45 | 263 |
| CZ-25-012 | Creek | 608541 | 6368200 | 1594 | 200 | -55 | 341 |
| CZ-25-013 | Creek | 608355 | 6368345 | 1534 | 200 | -50 | 377 |
| CZ-25-014 | Creek | 608353 | 6368346 | 1533 | 225 | -53 | 317 |
| CZ-25-015 | Creek | 608662 | 6368133 | 1629 | 230 | -45 | 320 |
| CZ-25-016 | Creek | 608663 | 6368133 | 1630 | 230 | -65 | 455 |
| CZ-25-017 | Creek | 608769 | 6368089 | 1646 | 230 | -50 | 503 |
| CZ-25-018 | Creek | 608269 | 6368487 | 1508 | 225 | -45 | 310 |
| CZ-25-019 | Creek | 608269 | 6368487 | 1508 | 200 | -52 | 373 |
| CZ-25-020 | Creek | 608269 | 6368487 | 1508 | 225 | -65 | 363 |
| CZ-25-021 | Creek | 608281 | 6368395 | 1511 | 230 | -68 | 350 |
| FZ-25-001 | Finn | 611231 | 6367672 | 1792 | 160 | -60 | 215 |
| FZ-25-002 | Finn | 611229 | 6367673 | 1793 | 200 | -48 | 215 |
| FZ-25-003 | Finn | 611247 | 6367800 | 1782 | 188 | -50 | 269 |
| FZ-25-004 | Finn | 611247 | 6367800 | 1782 | 188 | -80 | 251 |
*Results announced by Sun Summit on September 8th, 2025 in news release entitled "Sun Summit Drills 78.0 Meters of 3.72 g/t Gold Including 19.1 Meters of 7.50 g/t Gold at the JD Project, Toodoggone District, B.C."
Figure 1. Oblique view through the Creek Zone drill holes showing downhole assays for all drill holes including CZ-25-007 and holes with pending results. Selected highlights from the 2024 drill program at the Creek Zone are also shown (see news releases of Sun Summit dated (i) October 2, 2024 and entitled "Sun Summit Drills 122.5 m of 2.1 g/t Gold Including 20.0 m of 10.0 g/t Gold at the Creek Zone, JD Project, Toodoggone District, B.C.", and (ii) October 16, 2024 and entitled "Sun Summit drills 57.95 m of 2.69 g/t gold including 19.50 m of 7.31 g/t gold at the Creek Zone, JD Project, Toodoggone District, B.C."). See references 1 and 2 for sources of historical drill data.
To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/6142/269752_103fa498a424f913_001full.jpg
Figure 2. Map of JD Project showing the locations of all 2025 drill collars and the locations of all historic drill collars. Targets circled in red (Creek, Finn, and Belle South) were the focus of 2025 drilling. The targets with grey stars were advanced in 2025 through programs consisting of varying proportions of mapping, geochemistry, and geophysics.
To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/6142/269752_103fa498a424f913_002full.jpg
Figure 3. Map of the Toodoggone District showing the location of the JD Project in relation to other development and exploration projects. Data sourced from Thesis, TDG and Centerra's corporate websites. The QP has been unable to verify the information and that the information is not necessarily indicative to the mineralization on the property that is the subject of the disclosure.
To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/6142/269752_103fa498a424f913_003full.jpg
National Instrument 43-101 Disclosure
This news release has been reviewed and approved by Sun Summit's Vice President Exploration, Ken MacDonald, P. Geo., a "Qualified Person" as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators. Some technical information contained in this release is historical in nature and has been compiled from public sources believed to be accurate. The historical technical information has not been verified by Sun Summit and may in some instances be unverifiable dependent on the existence of historical drill core and grab samples.
Community Engagement
Sun Summit is engaging with First Nations on whose territory our projects are located and is discussing their interests and identifying contract and work opportunities, as well as opportunities to support community initiatives. The Company looks forward to continuing to work with local and regional First Nations with ongoing exploration.
About the JD Project
The JD Project is located in the Toodoggone mining district in north-central British Columbia, a highly prospective deposit-rich mineral trend. The project covers an area of over 15,000 hectares and is in close proximity to active exploration and development projects, such as Thesis Gold's Lawyers and Ranch projects, TDG Gold's Baker-Shasta projects, Amarc Resource's AuRORA project, Centerra's Gold's Kemess East and Underground projects, as well as the past-producing Kemess open pit copper-gold mine.
The project is 450 kilometres northwest of the city of Prince George, and 25 kilometres north of the Sturdee airstrip. It is proximal to existing infrastructure in place to support the past-producing Kemess mine, including roads and a hydroelectric power line.
The JD Project is in a favourable geological environment characterized by both high-grade epithermal gold and silver mineralization, as well as porphyry-related copper and gold mineralization. Some historical exploration, including drilling, geochemistry and geophysics, has been carried out on the property, however the project area is largely underexplored.
About Sun Summit
Sun Summit Minerals (TSXV: SMN,OTC:SMREF) (OTCQB: SMREF) is a mineral exploration company focused on the discovery, expansion and advancement of district scale gold and copper assets in British Columbia. The Company's diverse portfolio includes the JD and Theory projects in the Toodoggone region of north-central B.C., and the Buck Project in central B.C.
Further details are available at www.sunsummitminerals.com.
References
1. Hawkins, P.A. (1998), 1997 Exploration Report on the Creek Zone for Antares Mining and Exploration Corporation and AGC Americas Gold Corporation, JD Property, Toodoggone River Area, Omineca Mining Division, Internal Report #98-065-1.
2. Davis, J.W., and Jamieson, M.D. (1998), Drilling and Geophysical Report on the M.H. Mineral Clain Group, Toodoggone District, Assessment Report Indexing System, Report 25757, https://apps.nrs.gov.bc.ca/pub/aris.
Link to Figures
On behalf of the board of directors
Niel Marotta
Chief Executive Officer & Director
info@sunsummitminerals.com
For further information, contact:
Matthew Benedetto, Simone Capital
mbenedetto@simonecapital.ca
Tel. 416-817-1226
Forward-Looking Information
Statements contained in this news release that are not historical in nature may be "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation ("forward-looking statements"), which involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, by their nature, require Sun Summit to make certain assumptions and necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. Words such as "may", "will", "would", "could", "expect", "believe", "plan", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "continue", "objective", "strategy", or the negative or comparable terminology, as well as terms usually used in the future and the conditional, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Information contained in forward-looking statements is based upon certain material assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection, including the assumptions, qualifications, limitations or statements relating to the pending results of the drill holes, the success of the exploration program, the impressive results of the drill campaign, the ability of exploration activities (including drilling) to accurately predict mineralization, future drill programs and high-priority targets, our timing and ability to receive assay results, the reliability of historical information that cannot be independently verified by Sun Summit, interests in the JD Project, errors in geological modelling, and the adjacent properties having any significance to the projects in which Sun Summit has an interest. There is significant risk that the forward-looking statements will not prove to be accurate, that the management's assumptions may not be correct and that actual results may differ materially from such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions which may prove to be incorrect which, without limiting the generality of the following, include: the Company's ability to obtain assay results for the completed drill program; the anticipated results varying from current indications, including the already released drill results; risks inherent in exploration activities; volatility and sensitivity to market prices; volatility and sensitivity to capital market fluctuations; and fluctuations in metal prices. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof or the dates specifically referenced in this news release, where applicable. Except as required by applicable securities laws and regulation, Sun Summit disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. All forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/269752
