Vancouver, British Columbia and Melbourne, Australia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 10, 2026) - Southern Cross Gold Consolidated Ltd (TSX: SXGC) (ASX: SX2) (OTCQX: SXGCF) (FSE: MV3) ("SXGC", "SX2" or the "Company") announces that two underground diamond drill rigs have been mobilised for drilling at the 100%-owned Sunday Creek Gold-Antimony Project in Victoria.

Key Points:

• Underground drilling has started.

• Moving drilling underground minimises the Company's footprint at surface while increasing drilling rates. It also allows 24-hour drilling with reduced surface impacts.

• Two underground diamond drill rigs have been mobilised into the exploration decline, adding to the 12 surface rigs for 14 rigs operating at Sunday Creek. Two more rigs follow later in November with the program ramping up to 24 rigs in total during February 2027.

• The Company is aiming for its first mineral resource estimate and economic studies during the first half of 2027.

Michael Hudson, President & CEO, states: "Within 5 months of firing our exploration decline portal we now have drill rigs underground, an incredible effort from our mining and drill teams and contractors. This was the main aim of the exploration decline. Two underground rigs are now operating, and with 12 rigs on surface we now have 14 rigs operating at Sunday Creek.

"Two more rigs follow this month and eight more in February, meaning we are on track to ramp up to 24 rigs over the coming months. Drilling from underground speeds up the program and minimizes our footprint at surface.

"Every one of those rigs is pointed at growing mineralization beyond current drilling limits and aiming to produce our first mineral resource estimate and economic studies during the first half of 2027."

Underground Drilling Update

Two underground diamond drill rigs have been mobilised for drilling from the exploration decline at Sunday Creek. They join the 12 surface rigs currently operating, bringing the total to 14 rigs on the project.

Bringing in underground drill rigs to speed up drilling was the main aim of the decline. Drilling from underground increases the rate of drilling while minimising the Company's footprint at surface. Underground rigs also allow drilling 24 hours a day with reduced surface impacts, and shorter holes to targets at depth reduce the metres, and cost, of drilling required to test each target.

The planned ramp-up of underground drilling is:

• November 2026: two further underground rigs.

• February 2027: eight further rigs, taking the project to 24 rigs in total.

Figure 1: The first two diamond drill rigs mobilising underground at the Private Jenkin Exploration Decline at Sunday Creek

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/11541/323247_2f6ea4f604fe1bf3_001full.jpg

About Sunday Creek

The Sunday Creek epizonal-style gold project is located 60 km north of Melbourne within 16,900 hectares ("Ha") of granted exploration tenements. SXGC is also the freehold landholder of 2,296 Ha that forms the key portion in and around the main drilled area at the Sunday Creek Project.

Gold and antimony form in a relay of vein sets that cut across a steeply dipping zone of intensely altered rocks (the "host"). These vein sets are like a "Golden Ladder" structure where the main host extends between the side rails deep into the earth, with multiple cross-cutting vein sets that host the gold forming the rungs. At Apollo, Golden Dyke and Rising Sun these individual 'rungs' have been defined over a 600 m depth extent from surface to over 1,200 m below surface, are 2.5 m to 3.5 m wide (median widths), locally up to 10 m, and 20 m to 100 m in strike.

Cumulatively, 288 drill holes for 140,848.84 m have been reported from Sunday Creek since late 2020. This amount includes six holes for 1,029 m that have been drilled for geotechnical purposes and 23 holes for 3,104.12 m that were abandoned due to deviation or hole conditions. Fourteen drill holes for 2,382.74 m have been reported regionally outside of the main Sunday Creek drill area. A total of 64 historic drill holes for 5,599 m were completed from the late 1960s to 2008. The project now contains a total of one-hundred-and-six (106) composite intersections exceeding 100 g/t Au and eighty-five (85) composite intersections between 50 g/t and 100 g/t Au, and one-hundred-and-fifteen (115) composite intersections exceeding 10% Sb by applying a 1 m (down hole length) @ 5 g/t AuEq lower cut.

Southern Cross Gold's systematic drill program is strategically targeting these significant vein formations, which are currently drill defined over 1,550 m strike of the host dyke/sediment ("rails of the ladder") from Christina to Apollo prospects, of which approximately 650 m has been more intensively drill tested (Golden Dyke to Apollo). At least 126 'rungs' have been defined to date, defined by high-grade intercepts (20 g/t Au to >7,330 g/t Au) along with lower grade edges. Ongoing step-out drilling is aiming to uncover the potential extent of this mineralized system.

Geologically, the project is located within the Melbourne Structural Zone in the Lachlan Fold Belt. The regional host to the Sunday Creek mineralization is an interbedded turbidite sequence of siltstones and minor sandstones metamorphosed to sub-greenschist facies and folded into a set of open north-west trending folds.

Further Information

Further discussion and analysis of the Sunday Creek project is available through the interactive Vrify 3D animations, presentations and videos all available on the SXGC website. These data, along with an interview on this update with President & CEO/Managing Director Michael Hudson can be viewed at www.southerncrossgold.com.

Critical Metal Epizonal Gold-Antimony Deposits

Sunday Creek is an epizonal gold-antimony deposit formed in the late Devonian (like Fosterville, Costerfield and Redcastle), 60 million years later than mesozonal gold systems formed in Victoria (for example Ballarat and Bendigo). Epizonal deposits are a form of orogenic gold deposit classified according to their depth of formation: epizonal (<6 km), mesozonal (6 km to 12 km) and hypozonal (>12 km).

Epizonal deposits in Victoria often have associated high levels of the critical metal, antimony, and Sunday Creek is no exception. China claims a 56 per cent share of global mined supplies of antimony, according to a 2023 European Union study. Antimony features highly on the critical minerals lists of many countries including Australia, the United States of America, Canada, Japan and the European Union. Australia ranks seventh for antimony production despite all production coming from a single mine at Costerfield in Victoria, located nearby to all SXGC projects. Antimony alloys with lead and tin which results in improved properties for solders, munitions, bearings and batteries. Antimony is a prominent additive for halogen-containing flame retardants. Adequate supplies of antimony are critical to the world's energy transition, and to the high-tech industry, especially the semiconductor and defence sectors where it is a critical additive to primers in munitions.

Antimony represents approximately 15% to 17% in situ recoverable value of Sunday Creek at an AuEq of 2.39 ratio.

About Southern Cross Gold Consolidated Limited (TSX: SXGC) (ASX: SX2) (OTCQX: SXGCF) (FSE: MV3)

Southern Cross Gold Consolidated Ltd. (TSX: SXGC) (ASX: SX2) (OTCQX: SXGCF) is defining a leading gold-antimony project at the Sunday Creek Gold-Antimony Project, located 60 km north of Melbourne. Sunday Creek is a significant gold and antimony drill discovery in a Tier 1 location, with high-grade drill results including 106 composite intersections exceeding 100 g/t Au from 146.4 km of drilling (including historic drilling). The mineralization follows a "Golden Ladder" structure over 12 km of interpreted strike length, with structures drill tested from surface to 1,200 m depth.

Sunday Creek's strategic value is enhanced by its dual-metal profile. The Company has a critical mineral that the Western world needs. This has gained increased significance following China's export restrictions on antimony, a critical metal for defence and semiconductor applications. Southern Cross' inclusion in the US Defense Industrial Base Consortium (DIBC) and Australia's AUKUS-related legislative changes position it as a potential key Western antimony supplier.

Technical fundamentals further strengthen the investment case, with preliminary metallurgical work showing non-refractory mineralization suitable for conventional processing and gold recoveries of 93% to 98% through gravity and flotation.

With a strong cash position, 2,296 Ha of strategic freehold land ownership, and a large 200 km drill program planned through Q1 2027, SXGC is well-positioned to advance this globally significant gold-antimony discovery in a tier-one jurisdiction, delivering milestone by milestone.

- Ends -

For ASX Compliance: This announcement has been approved for release by the Board of Southern Cross Gold Consolidated Ltd.

Kenneth Bush, Head of Exploration for SXGC, a Member of Australian Institute of Geoscientists and a Registered Professional Geologist in the fields of Mining and Exploration (#10315), is the Qualified Person as defined by the NI 43-101. They have prepared, reviewed, verified and approved the technical contents of this release.

SXGC considers that both gold and antimony that are included in the gold equivalent calculation ("AuEq") have reasonable potential to be recovered and sold at Sunday Creek, given current geochemical understanding, historic production statistics and geologically analogous mining operations. Historically, ore from Sunday Creek was treated onsite or shipped to the Costerfield mine, located 54 km to the northwest of the project, for processing during WW1. The Costerfield mine corridor, now owned by Alkane Resources (previously Mandalay Resources) contains two million ounces of equivalent gold (Mandalay Resources Q3 2021 Results), and in 2020 was the sixth highest-grade global underground mine and a top 5 global producer of antimony.

SXGC considers that it is appropriate to adopt the same gold equivalent variables as Mandalay Resources Ltd in its 2024 End of Year Mineral Reserves and Resources Press Release, dated February 20, 2025. The gold equivalence formula used by Mandalay Resources was calculated using Costerfield's 2024 production costs, using a gold price of US$2,500 per ounce, an antimony price of US$19,000 per tonne and 2024 total year metal recoveries of 91% for gold and 92% for antimony, and is as follows:

AuEq = Au (g/t) + 2.39 x Sb (%)

Based on the latest Costerfield calculation and given the similar geological styles and historic toll treatment of Sunday Creek mineralization at Costerfield, SXGC considers that a AuEq = Au (g/t) + 2.39 x Sb (%) is appropriate to use for the initial exploration targeting of gold-antimony mineralization at Sunday Creek.

JORC Competent Person Statement

Certain information in this announcement that relates to prior exploration results is extracted from the Independent Geologist's Report dated 11 December 2024 which was issued with the consent of the Competent Person, Mr Steven Tambanis. The report is included in the Company's prospectus dated 11 December 2024 and is available at www.asx.com.au under code "SX2". The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information related to exploration results included in the original market announcement. The Company confirms that the form and context of the Competent Person's findings in relation to the report have not been materially modified from the original market announcement.

Certain information in this announcement also relates to prior news releases, which are available to view on www.southerncrossgold.com:

The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in the original document/announcement and the Company confirms that the form and context in which the Competent Person's findings are presented have not been materially modified from the original market announcement.

Forward-Looking Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions and accordingly, actual results and future events could differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. You are hence cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include words or expressions such as "proposed", "will", "subject to", "near future", "in the event", "would", "expect", "prepared to" and other similar words or expressions. Factors that could cause future results or events to differ materially from current expectations expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements include general business, economic, competitive, political, social uncertainties; the state of capital markets, unforeseen events, developments, or factors causing any of the expectations, assumptions, and other factors ultimately being inaccurate or irrelevant; and other risks described in the Company's documents filed with Canadian or Australian (under code SX2) securities regulatory authorities. You can find further information with respect to these and other risks in filings made by the Company with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada or Australia (under code SX2), as applicable, and available for the Company in Canada at www.sedarplus.ca or in Australia at www.asx.com.au (under code SX2). Documents are also available at www.southerncrossgold.com The Company disclaims any obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law.

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