The Mizobe Project lies within the Hokusatsu Region of southern Kyushu, along the western edge of the Kagoshima Graben in a similar geological setting as the Hishikari Mine, located 23 km to the north. Hishikari is one of the highest-grade Tier 1 gold mines in the world. The Hishikari Mine produced approximately 9 million ounces of gold (8.6 Moz Au past production 1985-2024, 4.98 Moz Au reserves) at +20 g/t Au and is Japan’s only gold mine that is still operating today (Source: Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., LTD. Integrated Report, 2nd August 2024).

The Hokusatsu district has produced more than 13 million ounces of gold from several mines and remains one of the most prospective regions in Japan (Sources: Garwin, S. L., Hall, R., & Watanabe, Y. (2005). Tectonic setting, geology, and gold and copper mineralization in Cenozoic magmatic arcs of Southeast Asia and the West Pacific; The Mining and Materials Processing Institute of Japan (1989, March). Journal of Japanese gold mines, Vol. 1: Kyushu, Japan Izawa, E., & Zeng, N. (2001); Kushikino gold mineralization in a Pliocene volcanic region, Kyushu, Japan. In Society of Economic Geologists (Ed.), Guidebook Series (Vol. 34, pp. 53-60). Society of Economic Geologists; Murakami, H., and Freebey, C., (2001) Geology and Geophysical Expression of the Yamagano low sulfidation epithermal Au-Ag deposit, southwest Kyushu In Society of Economic Geologists (Ed.), Guidebook Series.).

Historical mining activities within Mizobe focused on antimony-rich hydrothermal breccias at the Semari and Nakazon workings, prior to 1942. In 2000, as part of government supported regional geological surveys, the Metal Mining Agency of Japan ("MMAJ") drill hole 12MAHT-2 was drilled 1 km to the southeast of the historical antimony workings, targeting a geophysical anomaly below a mineralized outcrop grading 0.3 g/t gold. Drilling intersected a mineralized interval of 43.35 m @ 0.89 g/t gold, with an included interval of 20.3 m @ 1.16 g/t gold from 307.0 m down-hole.