Key Highlights

• West Cobar Metals completed 91 aircore holes for 2,941m at the 100%-owned Salazar Project in Western Australia

• The campaign represents the company's first dedicated scandium drilling program, targeting higher-grade zones in shallow saprolite

• All assay results are expected during the current quarter, with batches progressively submitted to SGS for analysis

• The drilling complements ongoing metallurgical testwork investigating the extraction of scandium and rare earth elements

West Cobar Metals Limited (ASX:WC1), an ASX-listed exploration and development company, announced on 5 November 2026 the completion of its first dedicated scandium drilling campaign at the 100%-owned Salazar Project, located approximately 130km northeast of Esperance in Western Australia. The program was carried out by Wallis Drilling and is the initial step in evaluating the project's scandium potential.

Drilling Program Details

The campaign comprised 91 aircore holes for a total of 2,941 metres. The program was designed to target potentially higher-grade scandium mineralised zones within shallow, clay-rich saprolite and to test extensions to known mineralisation at the project. Aircore drilling was selected as the appropriate technique for the shallow target horizon, allowing efficient coverage of the prospective area.

Batches of samples have been progressively submitted to SGS for analysis, with all assay results expected before the end of the current quarter. Until assays are returned, the company cannot confirm the grade distribution or extent of scandium mineralisation encountered during the program.

Metallurgical Testwork Context

The drilling program runs alongside ongoing metallurgical testwork that is investigating the extraction of scandium and rare earth elements from the Salazar mineralisation. Together, the drilling results and metallurgical work are intended to guide the next stage of evaluation at the project. The combination of resource definition and metallurgical understanding is a standard development pathway for critical mineral projects, where the viability of extraction processes is as important as the grade and tonnage of mineralisation in the ground.

Managing Director Matt Szwedzicki noted that completing the first dedicated scandium drilling campaign is an important step in evaluating Salazar's potential. He indicated that the results, alongside the metallurgical testwork, will guide the company's next steps at the project.

Company Overview and Project Portfolio

West Cobar Metals is focused on advancing three projects: the Salazar Scandium and Critical Minerals Project in Western Australia, the Cobar West copper-antimony-silver project in New South Wales, and the Mystique Gold Project in Western Australia. The Salazar Project represents the company's primary critical minerals exposure, with scandium and rare earth elements both classified as critical minerals under Australian and international frameworks due to their importance in advanced manufacturing, aerospace, and clean energy applications.

The company is headquartered in Subiaco, Western Australia. The Salazar drilling program marks the transition from regional-scale exploration to targeted evaluation of specific mineralised zones, a step that, subject to the assay outcomes, could lead to more advanced resource definition work.

What Comes Next

West Cobar Metals' completed drilling program at Salazar positions the company to receive a batch of data over the coming months that will determine the next phase of work at the project. The assay results, when combined with the metallurgical testwork findings, will provide the technical basis for decisions on whether to advance toward resource estimation or additional drilling. For a project centred on critical minerals in a shallow saprolite-hosted setting, the metallurgical pathway will be as determinative as the drill grades in shaping the project's development trajectory.