# Irving Resources Receives Assay Results from Its Shika Epithermal Au-Ag Prospect and Announces Its 2026 Exploration Plans for the Noto Peninsula, Honshu, Japan *2026-03-18T07:00:00-04:00* Irving Resources Receives Assay Results from Its Shika Epithermal Au-Ag Prospect and Announces Its 2026 Exploration Plans for the Noto Peninsula, Honshu, Japan **VANCOUVER, BC / [ACCESS Newswire](https://www.accessnewswire.com/)/ March 18, 2026 / **Irving Resources Inc. (CSE:IRV)(OTCQX:IRVRF)(FSE:1IR) ("**Irving**" or the "**Company**") is pleased to announce it has received assay results from its Shika epithermal gold-silver prospect located on the Noto Peninsula, Honshu, Japan (Figure 1). The Company's 99 Noto prospecting licenses (337.37 sq km) cover four discrete target areas displaying stream sediment gold, silver, arsenic, antimony, mercury and/or copper anomalism. Once granted, these would make Irving the largest holder of prospecting licenses in the Noto area (please refer to the Company's news release dated March 12, 2021 and December 11, 2025). The Noto Project is a joint venture between Newmont Overseas Exploration Limited ("**Newmont**"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Newmont Corporation, Sumitomo Corporation ("**Sumitomo**") and Irving. The initial and current interests of the parties in the joint venture are Newmont, 60%, Sumitomo, 12.5%, and Irving, 27.5%. The Noto Peninsula shares geologic similarities to nearby Sado Island, host to the historic gold mine, Sado Kinzan (Mitsubishi Material Corporation). The Sado mine operated continuously for 388 years starting in 1601 under the direct control of the Tokugawa Shogunate and recorded production of 2.51 million oz Au and 74 million oz Ag (The Mining and Materials Processing Institute of Japan, 1994, _Nihon Kinzanshi 4. Kanto and Chubu_). Irving's stream sediments surveys ("**BLEG**") in the northern Noto region identified gold anomalism, including at the Shika prospect. Anomalies were followed up in October of 2025 when Irving dispatched its in-house field team to Shika to conduct ridge and spur soil and rock chip sampling and geological mapping (please refer to the Company's news release dated December 11, 2025). Assay results from 81 rock chip samples and 150 soils have been received from ALS Perth and Brisbane and are discussed herein. **Geology, Mineralization and Assay Results from the Historical Unoya Mine, Shika Prospect** The historical Unoya Gold Mine is located near the central portion of several contiguous BLEG anomalies (Fig. 2). Limited historical documentation is available, and technical details - including past production - remain unknown. During Irving's field program, its geologic team successfully located the historical Unoya Gold Mine. Mineralized veins and associated hydrothermal alteration are broadly observed at the mine site and surrounding area. Veins are commonly hosted in andesite and pyroclastic rocks of the Early Miocene "Besshodake Andesite." Several quartz vein float samples collected both proximal and distal to the historical Unoya Mine returned values exceeding 1 g/t Au (Figure 2). Four high-grade gold samples among 81 rock samples are listed in Table 1. Table 1 High-grade vein float samples collected in the historical Unoya mine area. (Without further data, the Company cannot verify that these samples are representative of veins at Unoya at this time.) [](https://pr.report/jso0) Mineralized quartz vein float samples listed in Table 1 are distributed over an approximate strike length of 1.2 km and are aligned along the eastern part of the regional-scale Togigawa Fault that trends NNE-SSW (Fig. 2). Detailed observation of quartz vein float samples reveals very fine-grained quartz, locally chalcedonic, with minor pyrite and delicate crustiform banded textures (Fig. 3). Samples exhibit multiple stage formation as indicated by complex cross-cutting relationships. Limited amounts of sulfide minerals are associated with the veins. The historical Unoya Mine can therefore be interpreted as a typical low-sulfidation epithermal vein system, representing the most common style of gold deposit in Japan. Ridge-and-spur soil samples from the area are also anomalous with a maximum Au concentration of 126 ppb reported from a soil sample collected near the historical Unoya Mine (Fig. 2). Among the 150 soil samples analyzed, several trace elements also display notably elevated concentrations, including Ag (up to 0.21 ppm), Hg (up to 0.62 ppm), Sb (up to 3.43 ppm), As (up to 257 ppm), and Se (up to 3.08 ppm). The distribution of elevated Au and Ag in soil samples, together with associated pathfinder elements, indicates that highest values are concentrated around the historical Unoya Mine and gradually decrease outward. Like the float samples discussed ab