Highlights

• RC hole 26YRC002 at the Yindi Gold and Lithium Project intersected gold in fresh mafic rock beneath palaeochannel cover, the first such result from Marquee's own drilling at Yindi.

• Key intervals include 4 metres in transitional rock above the base of complete oxidation and 4 metres in altered mafic rock below it, with gold also returned in the final metre of the hole.

• Ground conditions prevented the RC rig from reaching its planned target depth of 140 metres, stopping at 95 metres — meaning the priority target below 95 metres remains untested.

• Marquee is now planning a diamond drilling program to twin 26YRC002, test below 95 metres, and drill nearby ranked targets in the central corridor.

Marquee Resources Limited (ASX:MQR), a minerals exploration company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker MQR, reported the first assay results from its Phase 1 Reverse Circulation Drilling program at the Yindi Gold and Lithium Project in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields on 12 November 2026. The results from hole 26YRC002 mark the first time Marquee has reported gold in fresh rock from its own drilling at Yindi — a milestone that provides the company with a specific sub-surface target for follow-up work and validates the geological model underpinning the project's exploration thesis. The Yindi project covers approximately 180 square kilometres along the Yilgani Fault, a structural corridor in the Kurnalpi Terrane of the Yilgarn Craton, an Archean geological domain recognised as one of Australia's most enduringly productive gold provinces. Much of the historical exploration at Yindi was shallow, failing to test effectively beneath the Tertiary palaeochannel and sheetwash sediments that blanket much of the project area, making the penetration of fresh rock a critical objective for the current program.

First-Pass Drilling Results and Geological Context

Hole 26YRC002, drilled at negative 65 degrees in the central corridor of the project, returned two distinct mineralised intervals above and below the base of complete oxidation logged at 77 metres. The shallower interval, from 72 to 76 metres in transitional rock, returned a length-weighted average of 0.29 grams per tonne gold over four metres, including a one-metre sample assaying 0.81 grams per tonne. The deeper interval, from 85 to 89 metres in fine- to medium-grained mafic rock with chlorite and sericite alteration, disseminated pyrite of approximately two percent, and increasing quartz veining, returned an average of 0.32 grams per tonne gold over four metres, including a one-metre sample at 0.73 grams per tonne. Additionally, the final metre of the hole — from 94 to 95 metres — returned 0.18 grams per tonne gold, a result that is particularly significant because it was obtained at the very end of the hole before ground conditions forced an early termination. The adjacent hole, 26YRC003, returned a maximum of 0.06 grams per tonne gold across 22 assayed samples, below the reporting threshold, indicating that mineralisation at this stage appears spatially focused rather than widespread.

Drilling Challenges and What Remains Untested

The RC rig was unable to reach its planned target depth of 140 metres in 26YRC002 because drill rods became repeatedly stuck in the water-bearing palaeochannel sequence, halting progress at 95 metres — 45 metres short of the target depth and without testing the geophysical and geochemical priority identified by the company's earlier geostatistical analysis of gold and arsenic data from more than 6,000 soil samples and 577 historical drill holes. The gold result in the final metre of the hole therefore takes on added significance: it confirms that mineralisation was still occurring at the point where drilling stopped, leaving the most prospective part of the target — the zone below 95 metres within the prioritised central corridor — entirely untested by the RC program. This situation provides Marquee with a clear and well-defined rationale for diamond drilling follow-up. Diamond drilling, using pre-collared holes with casing through the problematic palaeochannel sequence, is the technically appropriate next step to access the target zone and obtain continuous oriented core.

Diamond Follow-Up Program and Next Steps

The company is now planning a diamond drilling program designed to address the specific limitations of the RC campaign. The proposed program would include twinning 26YRC002 with a diamond drill tail to obtain continuous core through the mineralised interval and test below 95 metres, drilling a further four to five diamond holes at nearby ranked targets in the central corridor that the RC program could not access due to ground conditions, and using cased pre-collars through the water-bearing palaeochannel to avoid the circulation problems that stopped the RC rig prematurely. Core logging will capture structural and alteration data that RC chips cannot provide, enabling the company to refine its understanding of the geological controls on gold mineralisation at the target. The program remains subject to assay verification, funding, and board approval, and Marquee indicated it will also request pulp duplicate and screen fire assays on the higher-grade samples before finalising drill plans. For investors monitoring exploration progress at Yindi, the first-pass RC results have converted a geochemically and geophysically ranked target into a drill-defined gold intersection in fresh rock, a meaningful step in the progressive de-risking of an exploration-stage project. The fact that the most prospective depth interval was not reached by the RC rig, and that gold was still present in the last metre drilled, provides geological motivation for continued Investment in the program. The broader context for the Yindi project is the persistent exploration challenge of working in covered terrain, where transported sediments mask the bedrock geology and prevent surface expressions of mineralisation from being identified by conventional soil sampling or rock chip methods alone. Marquee's investment in developing a comprehensive dataset of soil geochemistry and historical drilling data to build a geostatistical targeting model — ranking potential gold positions beneath the cover using gold and arsenic pathfinder geochemistry — is an example of the methodical targeting approach required to unlock value in this geological setting. The validation of one of those ranked targets through RC drilling, even at an early stage, is a meaningful outcome that supports the credibility of the broader targeting model and provides a rational basis for continued investment in the project.

Key Insights

The company is now planning a diamond drilling program designed to address the specific limitations of the RC campaign. The proposed program would include twinning 26YRC002 with a diamond drill tail to obtain continuous core through the mineralised interval and test below 95 metres, drilling a further four to five diamond holes at nearby ranked targets in the central corridor that the RC program could not access due to ground conditions, and using cased pre-collars through the water-bearing palaeochannel to avoid the circulation problems that stopped the RC rig prematurely. Core logging will capture structural and alteration data that RC chips cannot provide, enabling the company to refine its understanding of the geological controls on gold mineralisation at the target. The program remains subject to assay verification, funding, and board approval, and Marquee indicated it will also request pulp duplicate and screen fire assays on the higher-grade samples before finalising drill plans. For investors monitoring exploration progress at Yindi, the first-pass RC results have converted a geochemically and geophysically ranked target into a drill-defined gold intersection in fresh rock, a meaningful step in the progressive de-risking of an exploration-stage project. The fact that the most prospective depth interval was not reached by the RC rig, and that gold was still present in the last metre drilled, provides geological motivation for continued investment in the program. The broader context for the Yindi project is the persistent exploration challenge of working in covered terrain, where transported sediments mask the bedrock geology and prevent surface expressions of mineralisation from being identified by conventional soil sampling or rock chip methods alone. Marquee's investment in developing a comprehensive dataset of soil geochemistry and historical drilling data to build a geostatistical targeting model — ranking potential gold positions beneath the cover using gold and arsenic pathfinder geochemistry — is an example of the methodical targeting approach required to unlock value in this geological setting. The validation of one of those ranked targets through RC drilling, even at an early stage, is a meaningful outcome that supports the credibility of the broader targeting model and provides a rational basis for continued investment in the project.