Highlights

• Mamba Exploration has begun drilling at its Meeka East Gold Project near Meekatharra in Western Australia's Murchison region.

• Mamba owns 70 per cent of Meeka East, which covers about 152 square kilometres of the Meekatharra greenstone.

• The programme will test three gold targets, 140 Foot Well, New Australian and Lady Maud, which Mamba said.

• The company pointed to 47 historical holes that intersected high-grade copper, including 26m at 1.

Mamba Exploration (ASX:M24) — has begun drilling at its Meeka East Gold Project near Meekatharra in Western Australia's Murchison region. The company said the reverse circulation (RC) programme, which has started at the 140 Foot Well target, will comprise up to 50 holes for about 6,000m and is expected to finish by mid-December 2026. No drilling or assay results have been reported so far.

The drilling programme

Mamba owns 70 per cent of Meeka East, which covers about 152 square kilometres of the Meekatharra greenstone belt, roughly 20km south-east of the town. The company is targeting stratabound gold in Yaloginda Formation sediments, a style it said previous explorers largely did not test.

The programme will test three gold targets, 140 Foot Well, New Australian and Lady Maud, which Mamba said together define more than 20km of gold-in-soil anomalism along the Mulga Bill trend. Drilling has started at 140 Foot Well, an undrilled corridor of about 7km that lies under cover. Holes are spaced 50m apart and are about 120m deep, equivalent to roughly 100m vertically. Topdrill is the contractor, using a Schramm 685 rig in two campaigns.

The company noted that the 140 Foot Well targets are under cover and untested, so drilling success is uncertain.

Copper Hills diamond drilling

Meeka East also contains the Copper Hills copper project (tenement E51/1716). Mamba plans an initial diamond programme of up to 10 holes of about 200m each, roughly 2,000m in total, in the southern area. The Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration has approved the programme of work. The broader plan covers up to 40 holes across the Copper Hills to Lady Alma corridor, which spans about 3.5km, and an extension programme of up to 30 RC and diamond holes totalling about 7,500m at the northern Lady Alma area has been submitted but not yet approved.

The company pointed to 47 historical holes that intersected high-grade copper, including 26m at 1.0 per cent copper and 0.33 g/t gold from 24m in hole CHRC14. These are historical results that Mamba has not independently verified. The company has reinterpreted the host sequence as volcanics and collected about 140 surface samples over previously unsampled areas.

Mamba is targeting a start in the March quarter of 2027, subject to heritage arrangements and regulatory approvals. It described contractor discussions as well advanced, but said the timing is a target rather than a firm date.

Poison Hills and funding

At Poison Hills, about 80km south-east of Meekatharra, Mamba has a binding earn-in agreement to earn up to 80 per cent of a copper-gold and polymetallic project. About 790 surface geochemical samples are in progress across a 20km belt. The company quoted historical vendor rock chips of up to 2.63 g/t gold, 0.63 per cent copper, 0.73 per cent lead and 2,906 g/t silver.

On funding, the Meeka East programme is co-funded by up to A$90,000 under the Western Australian Government's Exploration Incentive Scheme. The company said an October 2026 placement of A$6.0 million funds expanded technical capability and its exploration programmes, and that Omni GeoX has been appointed as exploration consultants to manage them. Executive Director Matt Freedman's base salary rises to A$250,000 a year, excluding superannuation, from 29 October 2026.

Risks and what to watch

Mamba listed the usual exploration risks, including commodity prices, market conditions, variable grades and recoveries, changes to project parameters and cost overruns. Copper Hills drilling depends on heritage arrangements with the YNPBC and regulatory approvals, and the Copper Hills and Poison Hills projects rely partly on historical data. The Competent Person, Peter Schwann, is a consultant and technical adviser to the company and holds securities in it.

The company did not give a date for the release of results. The confirmed milestones are completion of the Meeka East RC programme by mid-December 2026 and the targeted Copper Hills diamond start in the March quarter of 2027.