By 
A maiden NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate of 480,100 Inferred and 99,700 Indicated ounces transforms the Tembo Gold Project from a collection of high-grade drill intercepts into a defined resource on granted Mining Licences, with a higher-grade core, a focused development pathway at Ngula 1, and 36 additional exploration targets still untested across a 34-square-kilometre property immediately adjacent to Barrick's Bulyanhulu Mine.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- USA News Group News Commentary - In junior gold exploration, there is a well-understood transition that separates companies still making their investment case from companies that have made it: the publication of a maiden NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate. Before an MRE, a project is a collection of drill intercepts, geological interpretations, and exploration targets that an investor must trust or discount entirely based on the quality of the team and the coherence of the story. After an MRE, a project is a defined, independently estimated, regulatory-standard body of mineralization with tonnage, grade, and ounces that can be modelled, valued, and stress-tested. Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. crossed that line at its Tembo Gold Project in northwestern Tanzania when it published a maiden MRE of 480,100 Inferred ounces at 1.12 g/t gold and 99,700 Indicated ounces at 1.16 g/t gold across three near-surface deposits on granted Mining Licences, immediately adjacent to Barrick's Bulyanhulu Mine. The drill story is over. The resource story has begun.
The Resource: What the Numbers Mean
The headline figures are straightforward. The maiden MRE, prepared by independent Qualified Persons Noleen D. Pauls and Dean Richards of Obsidian Consulting Services, reports an Inferred Mineral Resource of 13.33 million tonnes at 1.12 g/t gold containing 480,100 ounces and an Indicated Mineral Resource of 2.69 million tonnes at 1.16 g/t gold containing 99,700 ounces, all within conceptual open-pit shells at a 0.25 g/t cut-off.
The grade-tonnage sensitivity analysis is where the resource reveals its more interesting characteristics. As the reporting cut-off increases from 0.25 g/t to 1.00 g/t, the retained Inferred resource moves from 13.33 million tonnes at 1.12 g/t to 4.79 million tonnes at 2.15 g/t. The contained ounces in the Inferred category decline from 480,100 to 331,700 -- a reduction of about 31% in ounces -- but the grade almost doubles. At a 1.50 g/t cut-off, 2.27 million tonnes at 3.18 g/t retains 232,100 Inferred ounces. This grade-escalation behaviour is the fingerprint of a robust higher-grade core embedded within a broader mineralized envelope, and it was specifically captured using multiple-indicator kriging -- a geostatistical method that treats the erratic high-grade gold distribution separately from the continuous lower-grade background. It is not an artefact of the estimation method; it reflects the geological structure of the deposit.
At Ngula 1, the higher-grade behaviour is even more pronounced. At a 1.00 g/t cut-off, Ngula 1's Inferred resource is 2.28 Mt at 2.33 g/t for 170,700 ounces and its Indicated resource is 0.66 Mt at 1.96 g/t for 41,400 ounces. Historical drilling has confirmed both wide, near-surface mineralization and the continuity of the higher-grade core to depth: TDD0041 returned 22.81 g/t gold over 15.00 metres from 299.00 metres, TDD0004 returned 3.13 g/t gold over 25.89 metres from 41.00 metres including 9.38 g/t over 6.30 metres, and TDD0054 returned 8.17 g/t gold over 11.05 metres from 116.96 metres. These intercepts are selected highlights and are not necessarily representative of all drilling at Ngula 1.
Ngula 1: The Development Pathway
Ngula 1 is the most advanced of the three deposits and the natural focus of near-term development planning. It hosts an Inferred Mineral Resource of 8.12 Mt at 1.03 g/t for 267,900 ounces and an Indicated Mineral Resource of 1.78 Mt at 1.10 g/t for 62,700 ounces -- approximately 56% of the project's Inferred ounces and 63% of its Indicated ounces in a single deposit defined over approximately 600 metres of strike, across a corridor up to approximately 200 metres wide and to depths of about 200 metres. The deposit remains open along strike and at depth.
The independent Qualified Persons recommend approximately 5,000 metres of close-spaced drilling on a 20m by 20m pattern. The program is intended to improve confidence in the continuity and geometry of near-surface mineralization, support resource conversion from Inferred to Indicated, and provide the geological information required for future mine planning. Much of Nyakagwe Village and Nyakagwe East remains Inferred largely because of wider drill spacing -- meaning the resource conversion opportunity at those deposits is also a close-spaced drilling exercise rather than a greenfield exploration risk.
In parallel, LVG is advancing a toll-milling arrangement with Nyati Resources using a 500-tonne-per-day processing plant located on a Tembo licence adjacent to Bulyanhulu. The proposed arrangement is designed to provide a capital-efficient route to process near-surface material from Ngula 1 without requiring LVG to build its own processing infrastructure at Tembo. The arrangement remains subject to confirmatory drilling, permitting, financing, and the negotiation and execution of a definitive agreement, and there is no certainty it will be completed or that production will result.
"This maiden resource gives Tembo a defined foundation and a clear next step. The meaningful higher-grade component and concentration of Indicated ounces at Ngula 1 allow us to focus drilling where it can most directly improve geological confidence and support future mine planning, while the broader licence package provides substantial additional exploration opportunity. With Imwelo advancing as our near-term development priority and Tembo now supported by a maiden NI 43-101 resource, LVG is building the disciplined, multi-asset Tanzanian gold company we set out to create," said LVG management.
The Strategic Position: What It Means to Sit Next to Bulyanhulu
The geological and strategic significance of Tembo's position adjacent to Barrick's Bulyanhulu Mine is not incidental to the investment case -- it is central to it. Bulyanhulu is one of Africa's most significant high-grade gold mines, with a 12-million-ounce resource and a production history extending back to 2001. The northwest-trending shear structures that host Bulyanhulu's Reef 1 and Reef 2 are interpreted to continue onto the Tembo licences, and LVG has used the Bulyanhulu deposit model to guide its targeting along this structural corridor.
Barrick itself has provided the most direct external validation of the district's value. In December 2021, Barrick acquired six of LVG's non-core licences for US$6 million in cash plus up to US$45 million in ounce-based contingent payments -- a transaction that reflects the scale of endowment a senior operator sees across this district. Following that sale, the Tembo project is now effectively surrounded by Bulyanhulu ground, which has a practical implication: two of Tembo's remaining untested targets, the Buly Trend and Iyenze, lie directly against the Bulyanhulu boundary and are interpreted as the northwestern continuation of the structural corridor that hosts Bulyanhulu's Reef 1 and Reef 2. The maiden MRE does not include those targets. They remain to be drilled.
The 2020 GoldSpot Discoveries study identified and ranked 39 exploration targets across the Tembo licence package. The maiden MRE covers three of them. Surface sampling reported in December 2025 returned high-grade results across several artisanal workings beyond the three defined deposits: Ngula 2 returned up to 35.21 g/t gold, Nyangomango returned 8.50 g/t and 7.86 g/t gold from newly identified workings, and Mgusu returned 5.90 g/t gold at an under-drilled target. Grab samples are selective and are not representative of average grades across the sampled zones. But they illustrate the scale of the geological system that the maiden MRE has only begun to define.
LVG as a Multi-Asset Tanzanian Gold Company
The publication of the Tembo MRE is not only a Tembo milestone. It is a portfolio milestone. LVG now has two defined gold assets in Tanzania: the fully permitted Imwelo Gold Project, which is advancing toward construction with Phase 1 earthworks commenced, Phase 3 land compensation underway, a Tanzanian-led EPCM team in place, and a gold loan facility advancing through regulatory channels; and the Tembo Gold Project, which has just moved from drill story to defined resource. The two assets are distinct in nature -- Imwelo is a permitted, near-term development; Tembo is an early-stage defined resource with a clear path to growth -- but together they describe a company with a genuine multi-asset Tanzanian gold platform, which is what the management team said it was building.
Barrick's equity investment in LVG and the strategic partnership with Taifa Group, Tanzania's largest mining contractor, provide institutional validation and operational infrastructure that most juniors at this stage cannot access. Management, directors, and strategic partners together own more than 60% of shares outstanding. That alignment of interests is the structural foundation on which both Imwelo's construction timeline and Tembo's development pathway rest.
The African Gold Development Names Investors Are Watching
West African Resources Limited (ASX: WAF) (OTCPK: WFRSF)
West African Resources is the most instructive comparator for understanding what a disciplined African gold producer looks like when it converts a well-defined resource into a high-margin operating mine in a challenging jurisdiction. The company operates the Sanbrado Gold Mine in Burkina Faso, which has been producing since 2020 and continues to generate strong cash flow. West African is guiding 2026 production of 270,000 to 290,000 ounces at an AISC well below the current gold price, having achieved its lowest AISC on record in 2025. The company is also advancing its Kiaka Gold Project toward development, adding a second asset to its Burkinabe portfolio. West African Resources demonstrates that a well-capitalized African junior that successfully builds and operates its first mine -- through jurisdiction risk, cost inflation, and commodity price volatility -- can create substantial and durable value. Its operational track record is the benchmark against which LVG's Imwelo and Tembo development timelines will ultimately be measured.
Predictive Discovery Ltd. (ASX: PDI) (OTCPK: PDIYF)
Predictive Discovery provides the most directly relevant exploration analogue to Tembo's current development stage: a company that discovered a large, high-grade African gold resource through disciplined drilling and is now advancing it toward economic study and development. Its Bankan Gold Project in Guinea has defined a total resource of 5.38 million ounces, including 4.89 million ounces at the main Bankan deposit and 487,000 ounces at the BC deposit, making it one of the largest undeveloped gold resources in West Africa. The company is now advancing Bankan through environmental and community consultation toward an exploitation permit, with a COO -- Henk Diederichs -- who previously led the Nyanzaga Gold Project in Tanzania through its Scoping Study, PFS, and DFS phases before its acquisition by Perseus Mining. Predictive Discovery illustrates how the market re-rates an African junior as it moves from high-grade drill results through a major resource estimate toward development-stage status, and the trajectory it has followed is the reference point for understanding where Tembo's resource growth journey could lead.
Amaroq Minerals Ltd. (LSE: AMRQ)
Amaroq Minerals offers the most structurally relevant analogue to Tembo's strategic position: a junior gold developer whose most advanced assets are geologically and structurally adjacent to a major company's existing operations, providing both a geological blueprint for deposit development and a potential future strategic relationship. Amaroq's Nalunaq Gold Mine in Greenland sits adjacent to ground previously explored by major mining companies, and the company has been advancing Nalunaq through a phased restart toward small-scale underground production while simultaneously building out its exploration pipeline across an extensive Greenlandic land package. Amaroq's experience navigating the relationship between a junior developer's assets and a major company's adjacent ground -- and the geological insights that proximity provides -- parallels the dynamic that LVG is managing at Tembo, where Barrick's adjacent Bulyanhulu operations both validate the district's geological endowment and inform the structural targeting that guides LVG's own exploration. These companies are referenced to illustrate the sector only and do not imply any partnership, endorsement, affiliation, or comparable financial performance.
Centamin plc
Centamin operates the Sukari Gold Mine in Egypt -- one of Africa's largest open-pit and underground gold mines, with annual production of approximately 450,000 ounces -- and provides the most direct example of what a high-grade, multi-zone African gold system looks like when it reaches its commercial potential at scale. Sukari has produced more than 5 million ounces since its 2009 start-up and continues to generate strong cash flow at current gold prices. Centamin reported 2025 production of approximately 440,000 ounces and declared a final dividend of US$0.06 per share, reflecting the cash generation profile of a well-managed, low-cost African gold producer in an elevated price environment. The structural geology of Sukari -- a shear-hosted system with multiple ore zones at varying depths, with an open-pittable surface expression transitioning to an underground operation at depth -- is not identical to Tembo, but the development model it illustrates is relevant: near-surface open-pit mining generating the cash flows that fund the delineation and development of deeper, higher-grade underground resources on the same property. Tembo's grade-tonnage sensitivity, with a pronounced higher-grade core that strengthens with depth, is consistent with this type of system evolution.
What to Watch
The immediate next step at Tembo is the close-spaced infill drilling program at Ngula 1. The approximately 4,000 to 5,000 metres on a 20m by 20m pattern will determine whether the geological continuity and grade characteristics at Ngula 1 support the resource conversion from Inferred to Indicated that is required for mine planning. The results of that program are the most consequential near-term catalyst for the Tembo investment case.
In parallel, the advancement of the Nyati toll-milling initiative toward a definitive agreement will establish whether LVG has a capital-light near-term production pathway at Tembo that can operate independently of -- and potentially ahead of -- the development of a standalone mine. Any announcement of a definitive toll-milling agreement would represent a material step toward near-term cash flow from Tembo and would need to be evaluated against the cautionary statement that any production decision not based on a feasibility study of Mineral Reserves involves increased uncertainty and technical and economic risks.
The filing of the supporting NI 43-101 Technical Report within 45 days of this press release will provide the full geological and estimation methodology documentation that investors and analysts require to complete their independent evaluation of the resource. And the broader exploration program -- step-out and target drilling across the 39-target property, reinterpretation of historical aeromagnetic data, and assessment of follow-up airborne electromagnetic surveying -- will begin to test whether the maiden MRE's 580,000 ounces is the beginning of the Tembo resource story or the middle of it.
CONTINUED... Learn more about Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. at: https://lakevictoriagold.com
The best positioning happens before the crowd catches on. Eagle Eye is a real-time investor signal-intelligence platform that surfaces sentiment shifts, news flow, and trending tickers as they form, so you see attention building instead of chasing it. Watch it live at eagle-eye.dev.