K2 Gold Corporation: The Discovery Group Playbook, From

There is a specific pattern in junior mining that has produced some of the largest gold acquisitions of the last decade.

A small group identifies an overlooked piece of geology. Builds a technical team around it. Stakes the ground. Applies modern exploration methods earlier operators did not have access to. Delivers a discovery. And then, once the deposit has taken shape, sells the resulting asset to a larger miner with the balance sheet to build it out.

That pattern has a name in Canadian mining circles. It is called the Discovery Group playbook. The Discovery Group has been associated with more than C$2.6 billion in aggregate acquisition and transaction value, including three major gold transactions involving Kaminak Gold, Northern Empire Resources and Great Bear Resources.

K2’s leadership includes members with experience across prior Discovery Group companies and successful gold discoveries and transactions, and that experience is now being applied at Mojave.

The pattern, in plain language

The Discovery Group is an alliance of resource companies whose members have collectively generated more than $2.6 billion in acquisition activity. Three specific exits define the pattern.

Kaminak Gold (2016). Kaminak was advancing the Coffee Gold Project in the Yukon's Tintina Gold Belt. Goldcorp acquired Kaminak in 2016 for approximately $520 million. Coffee had moved from grassroots exploration to a defined resource under the team's leadership.

Northern Empire Resources (2018). Northern Empire's Sterling Gold Project in Nevada was acquired by Coeur Mining in 2018 for approximately $117 million. The pattern was the same: identify undervalued geology, build a technical case, attract a major miner.

Great Bear Resources (2022). Great Bear's Dixie Project in Ontario delivered one of the most significant Canadian gold discoveries of the last decade. Kinross Gold acquired Great Bear in 2022 for approximately $1.8 billion. This was the largest exit in the group's history.

Past success at other companies does not guarantee a similar outcome at K2, but the pattern is worth understanding on its own terms.

What each exit had in common

Three specific things showed up in each Discovery Group exit, and each of the three is present at K2 today.

First, an underexplored piece of geology in a proven jurisdiction. Kaminak was working the Yukon's Tintina Belt. Northern Empire was in Nevada. Great Bear was in Ontario's Red Lake district. Each project sat in a region that had produced gold before, but the specific ground had not been drilled with modern exploration tools. K2's Mojave Project fits the same profile: 6,000-plus hectares in Inyo County, California, covering more than 200 historic mine workings, none of which had been re-tested with modern geophysics, drone magnetics, and systematic drilling before K2 began work.

Second, a technical team that had done it before. Executive Chairman John Robins was involved in Kaminak, Northern Empire, and Great Bear Resources. He has been involved in gold discoveries totalling more than 10 million ounces. CEO Anthony Margarit joined K2 from Rio Tinto. VP Exploration Eric Buitenhuis was previously at Kaminak. The technical bench running K2 is not new to this playbook. Past success at other companies does not guarantee a similar outcome at K2.

Third, a fully permitted, fully funded drilling program. Each of the earlier Discovery Group exits had one thing in common: they drilled through their discovery stage without needing to interrupt work to raise emergency capital. K2's current 14,000-metre Mojave program is fully permitted after receiving the required federal environmental approval from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management earlier in 2026, and fully funded by a treasury of approximately $27 million. The drills are already turning.

Where K2 sits in the playbook

Every Discovery Group exit had a specific inflection point when the geology stopped being a hypothesis and started being a defined system. That inflection point is a drilling one. It is where multiple holes into the same target start to confirm a coherent structure rather than isolated hits.

K2's Dragonfly Zone at Mojave is where the current program is testing that inflection. Earlier drilling returned 86.9 metres of 4.0 grams per tonne gold from surface. Subsequent step-out drilling returned 39.62 metres of 5.35 grams per tonne. On September 9, 2026, the company announced four more holes from a pad 40 metres west of the 2020 discovery, including a 27.43-metre interval at 4.08 grams per tonne gold. All four September holes intersected multiple stacked gold-bearing structures, and the system remains open in every direction the drill has tested. (Reported widths are drilled widths and may not represent true thickness.)

Beyond Dragonfly, K2 holds three additional projects in tier-one North American gold jurisdictions: Si2 in Nevada's Walker Lane, Wels in the Yukon's Tintina Gold Belt (the same belt Kaminak worked), and the district-scale Wolf project in the Yukon. Each represents a different geological model at a different stage of exploration.

K2 remains at the exploration stage. It has not yet defined a mineral resource at Mojave and has not completed an economic study. The Discovery Group pattern is a pattern, not a guarantee.

What is different this time

There is one meaningful structural difference between K2 and the three earlier exits.

Great Bear, Kaminak, and Northern Empire were each working the discovery phase in isolation. K2 is running the same discovery phase into a gold market at record prices and a federal policy environment that has made domestic mineral production a stated national priority. Those tailwinds do not guarantee outcomes. But they do change the context in which the same playbook is being run.

The tickers are KTO on the TSX Venture Exchange, KTGDF on the OTCQX, and 23K on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. For additional information, visit k2gold.com or public filings on SEDAR+.

Disclaimer: This content has been paid for by K2 Gold Corp. Cashu Group was compensated by K2 Gold Corp. for the creation and distribution of this content. The creator is not a registered investment advisor. Investing in securities involves significant risk, including the possible loss of all capital invested. Mineral exploration companies face project-specific risks including permitting, financing, geological uncertainty, and market conditions. K2 Gold is an exploration-stage company with no defined mineral resource or economic study at any of its projects (Mojave, Si2, Wels, or Wolf). Drill widths reported are drilled or apparent widths from angled drill holes and may not represent true thickness. Grab samples and surface samples referenced are selective by nature and are not representative of average grade across a target. Drill results, while encouraging, do not guarantee the existence of an economically viable deposit. Comparisons to other companies' deposits and prior Discovery Group acquisition activity, including the acquisitions of Kaminak Gold Corporation by Goldcorp in 2016, Northern Empire Resources by Coeur Mining in 2018, and Great Bear Resources by Kinross Gold in 2022, are historical and are not an indication of future performance or acquisition activity at K2 Gold. References to prior work by Executive Chairman John Robins, CEO Anthony Margarit, VP Exploration Eric Buitenhuis, and other team members are historical and are not an indication of future performance at K2 Gold. The 2026 TSX Venture 50 recognition reflects historical trading activity rather than a forecast of future results. Readers should conduct their own due diligence, consult K2 Gold's public filings on SEDAR+, and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.