Vault Strategic Completes a 73.6 Line-Kilometre Magnetic Survey at War Bond

Vault Strategic Mining has completed a practical step toward choosing drill targets at War Bond: the drone magnetic survey is finished, and the processed maps are now in hand. In its October 19, 2026 release, the company said Pioneer Exploration Consultants completed the survey of its western Nevada tungsten project on August 3.

The company calls the result "an important step in advancing War Bond", in the words of chief executive Quinn Field-Dyte, and lays out what it intends to do with it: combine the magnetic data with its geological mapping and surface sampling as well as the historical records. The combined picture is meant to sharpen drill targets and support drill permit applications, and it will feed the project's maiden NI 43-101 technical report.

For War Bond, Vault's primary exploration focus, the maps build on the surface work already completed. The company now has another layer of evidence to help decide where drilling should go.

Seventy-three kilometres of lines over three old mines

The survey covers roughly 73.6 line-kilometres, according to the release, flown on lines 25 metres apart with tie lines every 250 metres. Tie lines run across the main survey lines so the data can be levelled and checked for drift. Close line spacing is what makes a drone survey useful on a small property: it resolves features tens of metres across rather than hundreds.

Pioneer's deliverables are three map products, the release says. The first is total magnetic intensity, the raw strength of the field after processing. The second is the first vertical derivative, a filter that sharpens shallow features. The third is the analytic signal, a calculation that places a magnetic body more or less directly over its source.

In August the company had described the survey as about 70 line-kilometres, which is the figure Maple carried on October 16. The final count in the October 19 release is 73.6 line-kilometres. The final figure replaces the plan's estimate, and the line spacing is unchanged.

What a drone magnetometer sees

A magnetometer measures tiny variations in the Earth's magnetic field caused by the rocks underneath. Rocks rich in magnetic minerals such as magnetite read high. Rocks without them read low. At War Bond the tungsten Vault has sampled sits in tactite, a garnet-rich rock formed where hot fluids altered limestone, and that kind of rock can carry magnetic minerals in patches. A map of magnetic highs and lows is therefore a map of where altered rock may sit beneath soil and scree.

The surface work gives the map something to be checked against. Vault reported in July that rock chips from garnet-rich tactite in the War Bond pit returned up to 1,100 parts per million tungsten, analysed by ALS Geochemistry, from a first phase of 42 samples across six areas. Garnet-poor altered rock returned 3.6 to 16 ppm. That contrast between garnet-rich and garnet-poor rock is the relationship the magnetic data can now be tested against across the whole claim block.

The release is precise about the limit of the method, and it is the company's own sentence: "Magnetic responses alone do not establish the presence, grade or continuity of tungsten mineralization."

The geologists have the maps now

Pioneer's report covers how the data was acquired and processed, its quality control and the map products, and, as the release puts it, "does not include geological interpretation of the dataset." Interpretation is the next piece of work, and Vault has said what it consists of: overlaying the magnetics on the company's mapping and surface results along with the historical information.

That sequence matters for what comes after it. A drill target is a specific place and depth a company proposes to test, and drill permit applications in Nevada need those locations. The release ties all three next steps (target refinement and permit applications, plus the technical report) to the integrated dataset, and it gives no dates for any of them.

An NI 43-101 technical report documents scientific and technical information about a mineral project under Canadian securities rules. It must be prepared by or under the supervision of one or more qualified persons. Independence is required in specified circumstances, not for every report or disclosure. A maiden report describes a project's geology and history, with its sampling, for the first time under that standard. It is a property description, and the release does not describe it as a resource estimate. Vault engaged Amazona Enterprises and William Feyerabend, a certified professional geologist, to prepare it in July. Mr. Feyerabend, an independent consulting geologist, is also the qualified person who approved the technical content of the October 19 release.

The release sets out the conditions on drilling: any program "will remain subject to technical evaluation, receipt of applicable permits, funding and access requirements."

Twenty claims held under option

War Bond is 20 unpatented lode mining claims, about 400 acres, in the Delaware Mining District of western Nevada, covering the historical War Bond, Tactite and Thursday tungsten workings. An unpatented claim gives the holder the right to explore and mine federal land while it maintains the claim, without owning the surface.

The audited financial statements for the year ended May 31, 2026, filed on SEDAR+ in late September, set out the terms in their subsequent-events note. Vault holds an option to acquire 100 per cent of the project for staged payments: US$10,000 on regulatory approval, which has been paid, then three further payments totalling US$125,000 over the following year: US$25,000 sixty days after closing, then US$50,000 at each of the six- and twelve-month anniversaries. On exercise the vendor keeps a 1.5 per cent net smelter royalty, which Vault can buy back in half-point steps.

The project's history is where its tungsten pedigree comes from. The release cites a selected sample from Tactite Claim No. 1, reported among its 1942 and 1943 historical results, grading 14.40 per cent tungsten trioxide and a 250-ton test lot that averaged 0.3 per cent from the Old Discovery East Pit. Tungsten trioxide is the form in which tungsten grades are usually quoted. The company states that this information predates the current national disclosure standard, has not been verified and should not be relied on as current technical disclosure.

Tungsten itself carries policy weight in the United States. The US Geological Survey's final 2025 list of critical minerals, published in the Federal Register on November 7, 2025, includes it.

C$1.5 million arrived after the year-end

The money for the next stage came in after the books closed. On September 28, 2026, Vault closed a non-brokered private placement of units at C$0.125 for gross proceeds of C$1.5 million, according to its material change report. Each unit is one share and one warrant to buy another share at C$0.20 for twelve months. Insiders bought part of the issue. At closing, finders received C$80,400 in cash and 643,200 warrants. The company says the net proceeds will fund exploration and general corporate purposes.

The year-end balance sheet shows why the timing matters. At May 31, 2026, Vault had cash of C$589,226 and total liabilities of C$1,582,145, all current, and current liabilities exceeded current assets by C$864,917, according to the audited statements. The auditor's report draws attention to a "material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt on the Company's ability to continue as a going concern", a condition the statements link to the accumulated deficit and the working-capital shortfall at that date. The placement and the warrant exercises shown in the table below both came after that balance sheet was drawn.

The warrant exercises brought in C$144,523.

The placement has added capital for exploration and general corporate purposes, giving Vault more to work with as it advances War Bond. On the share count above, the placement shares represent about 43 per cent of the company, reducing the percentage ownership of holders who did not participate. If the placement and finder warrants are exercised at C$0.20, they could bring in further capital and add up to 12,643,200 shares; those proceeds are not assured.

Vault's next financial statements are for the six months to November 30, 2026. The release says the company has moved to semi-annual reporting under a coordinated blanket order of the Canadian securities regulators, so no interim report will be filed for the quarter ended August 31.

Who is doing the work

The release names Quinn Field-Dyte as chief executive, and the October 5 material change report lists him as chief executive officer and a director. The audited statements were approved by directors Robert Horsley and Andreas Schleich. Fieldwork has been contracted out to specialists: Pioneer for the geophysics, ALS Geochemistry for the assays and Amazona Enterprises with Mr. Feyerabend for the technical report.

The release also discloses that Vault has engaged Market Equities Limited for corporate communications for US$12,500, paid in advance and subject to TSX Venture Exchange acceptance.

At midday on October 19 the shares were trading at C$0.125 on the TSX Venture Exchange, unchanged on the day, per delayed QuoteMedia data. On the 28,062,764 shares in the table, that is a market value of about C$3.5 million.

Dates already set

Some of the calendar is fixed. The notice of meeting filed on October 16 through Endeavor Trust Corporation sets the annual general meeting for December 17, 2026, with a record date of November 12. The hold period on the placement shares ends on January 29, 2027.

Interpretation of the magnetic data comes first. Refined targets and permit applications follow, with the maiden technical report alongside.

Vault has moved War Bond forward through surface sampling, a completed magnetic survey and fresh financing. The next step is to bring those results together into drill targets, permit applications and the maiden NI 43-101 report. That gives the project a clearer path toward testing its tungsten potential, with drilling still subject to the technical evaluation, permits, funding and access conditions set out above. The annual meeting on December 17 is the next fixed date.