(Kitco News) Aquitaine Metals has secured five-year extensions and area expansions of key exploration permits at its Limousin gold project in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France, reinforcing its regulatory position as drilling advances and a public listing is planned for later this year.
Decrees published in the Journal Officiel de la République Française on Feb. 20, 2026, confirm that Aquitaine’s wholly owned subsidiary, Compagnie des Mines Arédiennes, received five-year extensions at the Douillac and Pierrepinet permits under orders dated Feb. 16, 2026, issued by the French Ministry of the Economy, Finance, and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty. The Douillac permit was expanded and now covers approximately 298 sq km across portions of the Dordogne and Haute-Vienne departments.
The renewed permits carry minimum exploration commitments totaling €5.0 million over five years, including €3.0 million at Douillac and €2.0 million at Pierrepinet. The Fayat permit remains in good standing and is under review for a similar five-year extension.
The permitting milestone comes as Aquitaine completes an initial 10,000 m drill program at Limousin, with another 10,000 m planned for 2026.
Chief Executive Officer Chris Taylor, who previously led Great Bear Resources through its almost $2 billion sale to Kinross, said he reviewed more than 100 projects before selecting Limousin. “This project just stood head and shoulders above everything else I looked at,” Taylor said.
The 330 sq km land package hosts more than 1,000 historical mining sites. Modern production between the late 1980s and 2002 totaled about 1 Moz at roughly half an ounce per ton. Taylor said the broader mineralized system suggests substantial remaining upside, adding, “It’s certainly many millions of ounces is what we see here for total potential.”
Recent drilling returned 1.5 m grading about 350 g/t gold within a broader envelope of roughly 34 g/t over 15.5 m, intersected approximately 70 m above historical workings. Taylor said the results validate the geological model and reinforce confidence in the district-scale system.
“They’re proving up our geological understanding of the project,” he said.
Aquitaine is advancing exploration using an extensive historical database acquired from Orano, which Taylor estimates would cost about $400 million to replicate. The company is also applying artificial intelligence modeling to refine structural targeting across the project area.
“The same sort of process is science first,” Taylor said.
Limousin also contains antimony and polymetallic sulfide mineralization, including copper, lead, and zinc. Taylor said the project aligns with the European Union’s objective of increasing the domestic production of critical raw materials, which he said currently stands at about 3%, with a 10% target by 2030.
Aquitaine holds about $15 million in cash in Canadian dollars, funding two drill rigs through 2026. The company plans to go public with the gold asset later this year.
“We do plan to go public with the gold asset later in this year,” Taylor said.
As drilling continues under an expanded permitting framework, Aquitaine is advancing exploration alongside consultation with local stakeholders in a region with a long mining history, positioning Limousin as a potential contributor to Europe’s evolving mineral supply strategy.
Watch the full interview with Chris Taylor on the Kitco Mining YouTube channel.
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