• Targeting JORC Ore Reserves, PFS and Mining Lease application by end of 2026
• ~900m water drilling underway to identify new water sources
• ~28,000m RC drilling and ~3,000m diamond drilling programs planned

Barton Gold Holdings Limited (ASX:BGD) has announced the start of water bore drilling and planned resource upgrade drilling programs at its Tunkillia Gold Project in South Australia. The company is expediting Tunkillia's development, with the aim of submitting a Mining Lease application by the end of 2026. The key highlights include:- Approximately 900m of water drilling has commenced, targeting potential new water sources near the optimised open pits outlined in the May 2025 Optimised Scoping Study (OSS). Successful identification of additional water sources has the potential to de-risk and improve the project economics.- Around 28,000m of second phase reverse circulation (RC) drilling will begin in March 2026, targeting the conversion of the remaining OSS-modelled open pit mineralisation to the JORC (2012) 'Indicated' category. - A parallel 3,000m diamond drilling (DD) program is also planned, to infill and expand the geotechnical and metallurgical databases in support of further open pit design optimisation, detailed recovery and production modelling, and the Pre-Feasibility Study.- The 2026 development drilling programs follow recent successful 'phase 1' RC upgrade drilling, which returned high-grade intersections including 28m at 2.60 g/t Au from 129m, 44m at 3.68 g/t Au from 103m, and 16m at 5.03 g/t Au from 126m.- Barton is targeting the completion of JORC Ore Reserves, a Pre-Feasibility Study, and a Mining Lease application for Tunkillia by the end of 2026.

The company is targeting JORC (2012) Ore Reserves, a Pre-Feasibility Study, and a Mining Lease application for the Tunkillia Gold Project by the end of 2026.

Barton's objective is to bring the Tunkillia project online as soon as possible to realise its gold production target of 150,000 ounces annually.