01:40 PM EDT, 10/30/2025 (MT Newswires) -- South Pacific Metals ( SPMEF ) on Thursday said it launched its maiden drilling program at the Ontenu Northeast prospect within its Osena project area in Papua New Guinea.

The company said the project lies within a major NE-SW corridor known as the Kainantu Transfer Zone, which also hosts the large Kainantu Gold-Copper mine operated by K92 Mining ( KNTNF ) .

The company said the drilling will test whether the northwest trending mineralized structures that are "surface expressions of deeper epithermal Au-Cu veins, like those currently mined by K92 at their Kora and Judd deposits."

A statement further noted that targets include recently discovered mineralized structures where surface samples returned up to 3.95 g/t Au, 645 g/t Ag and 1.56 % Cu across a 6 m wide outcrop. Five other structures with rock chip samples up to 13.9 g/t Au and 388 g/t Ag will also be tested.

The company said it expects to drill four to six holes, for a total of about 1500m, to the end of 2025 field season.

"Ontenu Northeast has not been drilled before," said Chief Executive Officer, Timo Jauristo. "The whole team is excited to start drilling these holes, aimed at testing the deeper parts of these mineralised structures for high-grade epithermal Au-Cu veins. The first drill hole is planned to intersect several of these structures at depths between 100m to 250m. The remainder of the program will further test this structure as well as some of the other mineralised structures."

The company's shares were last seen down $0.03 to $0.62 on the TSX Venture Exchange.

Price: 0.62, Change: -0.03, Percent Change: -4.62