Opus One Gold (TSXV:OOR) has resumed drilling activities at its 100% owned Noyell gold project in northwestern Quebec, marking the start of a new exploration phase following results generated during its 2025 campaign. The project is situated within the Abitibi mining district, near the town of Matagami, an area with a long history of gold production and active exploration.

According to the company, two diamond drill rigs have now been mobilized on the property, with the possibility of deploying a third rig in February should it be required to complete the planned work. The current program is designed as a follow-up to the 2025 drilling campaign, which focused on the Zone 1 gold discovery and produced results that informed the selection of new targets for additional drilling.

The 2026 drill program is expected to comprise approximately 26 diamond drill holes, totaling about 14,000 metres of core. The majority of this work will concentrate on Zone 1, where numerous targets have been outlined to support both infill drilling and step-out drilling aimed at extending the mineralized zone laterally and at depth. Drill planning has been guided by a combination of geological interpretation and data collected during earlier phases of exploration, including longitudinal section analysis and property-scale mapping.

In addition to further work at Zone 1, Opus One plans to test a separate target area located in the western portion of the Noyell property. This area lies roughly three kilometres west of the Zone 1 discovery and has not previously been drilled by Opus One. Historical drill records from the 1980s and 1990s, generated by earlier operators, reported the presence of significant gold mineralization in this part of the property, prompting renewed interest.

The western target corresponds to what the company describes as the eastern extension of a mineralized system currently being delineated on an adjacent property to the west. That neighboring ground, known as the N2 Project and held by Formation Metals (formerly Wallbridge), hosts a significant historical gold resource, as disclosed in a press release dated December 11, 2025. A major drilling program is presently underway on the N2 Project.

Opus One’s geological interpretation suggests that the gold mineralization observed in the western sector of the Noyell property may be associated with the same gold-bearing geological structure that hosts Zone 1 in the central portion of the property. To test this concept, the company plans to complete a total of five shallow drill holes in the western area. These holes will represent the first drilling carried out by Opus One in this part of the project.

During 2025, Opus One completed approximately 9,000 metres of drilling at Zone 1, which formed the foundation for the current program. That work was complemented by additional studies aimed at improving the company’s understanding of the mineralized system. These included a bio-geochemical sampling survey conducted around Zone 1, as well as a laser-induced breakdown spectrometry study performed on mineralized drill core to help characterize the gold-bearing horizon and its host rock units.

Based on the results of these activities, Opus One has continued to refine its geological model for the Noyell project and to develop additional gold targets across the property. The 2026 program reflects this evolving interpretation, with objectives that include expanding the known mineralized zone, advancing mineralogical characterization of the gold-bearing structure, and testing new areas considered prospective along the same structure and potentially along parallel trends.

The Noyell property is located within the Abitibi Greenstone Belt, a region recognized for hosting numerous high-grade gold deposits and operating mines. Opus One Resources Inc., the exploration company behind the project, maintains a portfolio of assets in the Val-d’Or and Matagami mineral districts of northwestern Quebec and northeastern Ontario.