This report is based on public company disclosures, filings and announcements reviewed by GSN; figures are as stated by the company and have not been independently verified.

Westhaven Gold Corp. (TSX-V: WHN) reported on September 22, 2026 the sixth batch of assay results from resource infill drilling at the South Zone gold and silver deposit on its Shovelnose property in southern British Columbia. Thirteen more holes bring the number of reported holes to 72. The company said 109 holes totalling 34,265 metres have been drilled, six holes remain, and the 35,000-metre program is on track to finish by the end of September.

The same table of results was published the same morning by Dundee Corporation (TSX: DC.A), which is funding the work under an earn-in agreement. Dundee’s release carries the same intervals, the same qualified person and the same timetable. Readers scanning the wires saw two high-grade headlines for one set of holes.

The intervals the two companies chose to headline were hole SNR26-108, 37.89 metres grading 5.29 grams per tonne gold and 32 grams per tonne silver from 183.11 metres downhole, and hole SNR26-129, 14.00 metres grading 13.09 grams per tonne gold and 106 grams per tonne silver from 254.00 metres. Holes SNR26-116 and SNR26-120 returned 32.06 metres at 5.05 grams per tonne gold and 30.00 metres at 2.34 grams per tonne gold respectively. Westhaven said the results show continuity of mineralisation in each of Vein Zones 1, 2 and 3, and that they are to feed an updated mineral resource estimate for the South Zone.

Alongside the assays, Westhaven said a 4,000,000 Canadian dollar sonic drilling program has begun and will run through mid-December to support geotechnical and hydrogeological work for a pre-feasibility study, which the company is targeting for the second half of 2027. Once infill drilling ends, a 15,000-metre exploration program is to ramp up from one drill to four through the rest of 2026.

The money comes from Dundee. Under an earn-in closed on February 23, 2026, Dundee may earn up to a 60 percent interest in Westhaven’s four Spences Bridge Gold Belt properties through up to 85,000,000 Canadian dollars of staged project spending. Dundee has committed a minimum of 30,000,000 Canadian dollars in the first phase, which the companies say covers a 50,000-metre drilling program and the pre-feasibility work, including the sonic program announced this week.

Reading the release

The headline intervals are drilled lengths, not vein thickness. Both releases state that reported intervals are downhole intersections and that true widths are roughly 70 to 80 percent of the reported figures. On the company’s own guidance, the 37.89-metre intercept in SNR26-108 is about 27 to 30 metres of true width. The table footnotes also record that two of the reported intervals each include about three metres of material assaying below 1 gram per tonne gold, within the company’s stated reporting rule of no more than three contiguous metres of dilution.

This is infill, not discovery. The program drills at nominal 25-metre centres inside a deposit that already has a preliminary economic assessment. Westhaven’s own summary of that 2025 study describes an 11-year underground mine producing an average of 56,000 ounces of gold and 313,000 ounces of silver a year, with an after-tax net present value of 454 million Canadian dollars at a 6 percent discount rate and a 43.2 percent internal rate of return, at 2,400 US dollars per ounce gold and 28 US dollars per ounce silver. Infill drilling exists to raise confidence in ounces that are already counted, so the test of the coming resource update is less the headline ounce count than how much of it moves into the measured and indicated categories, and whether the grade holds when the holes are closer together.

The qualified person who signed off on both releases is Westhaven’s vice-president of exploration. Dundee’s release notes he is independent of Dundee; he is an officer of Westhaven. That is normal practice for drill results. It also means no independent technical sign-off on the South Zone numbers exists yet in the public record beyond the 2025 study, and the pre-feasibility study is where that will arrive.

On the earn-in, the arithmetic is worth doing. Sixty percent of the 2025 study’s 454 million Canadian dollar after-tax net present value is about 272 million Canadian dollars. Dundee can earn that interest for up to 85 million Canadian dollars of spending, and the spending goes into the ground rather than to Westhaven’s treasury, as the agreement is described. Whether that looks generous to Dundee or fair to Westhaven depends on things the releases do not say: what the pre-feasibility study does to the net present value, what gold price it assumes, and the fact that a preliminary economic assessment is, by definition, preliminary.

Questions worth asking

Will the updated resource estimate change the category split rather than the total? Drilling at 25-metre centres is designed to move ounces from inferred into indicated. A larger number with the same confidence would be a different outcome from the same number with higher confidence.

Do the higher grades in the southeast of the deposit change the mine plan? The three best holes this batch, SNR26-108, 116 and 129, are all described as being in the southeastern part of the South Zone. The 2025 study assumed an underground mine; the pre-feasibility study will show whether the plan, the mining rate and the mine life stay the same.

What gold price will the pre-feasibility study use? The 2025 study used 2,400 US dollars per ounce. Neither release says what the 2027 study will assume, and the assumption moves the net present value more than any single drill hole.

How is the remaining 40 percent funded through construction? The earn-in describes Dundee’s spending up to the 60 percent interest. Neither release addresses how the joint venture would fund a mine build after that, or what Westhaven’s share of that cost would be.

Key terms in this story

Infill drilling and step-out drilling. Infill holes are drilled between existing holes to confirm that mineralisation is continuous; here the spacing is 25 metres. Step-out or exploration drilling, the 15,000-metre program that starts next, tests ground beyond the known deposit.

True width. A drill hole rarely crosses a vein at a right angle, so the length of mineralised core is longer than the vein is thick. Companies report the drilled length and, as here, state a conversion factor.

Preliminary economic assessment and pre-feasibility study. Under Canadian disclosure rules a preliminary economic assessment is an early study that may include inferred resources, the lowest-confidence category. A pre-feasibility study applies a higher engineering standard, and mineral reserves, the ounces a company can call economically mineable, can be declared only from measured and indicated resources.

Earn-in. An agreement under which one company acquires an interest in another company’s project by spending money on it in stages, rather than by paying the owner. The interest vests as the spending thresholds are met.

What to watch

End of September 2026: infill drilling complete, per Westhaven.

Through mid-December 2026: the 4,000,000 Canadian dollar sonic program for geotechnical and hydrogeological data.

Rest of 2026: exploration drilling ramps to four rigs.

Updated South Zone mineral resource estimate: the company says results will support it but gives no date.

Second half of 2027: pre-feasibility study target.

Sources