Announcement • Apr 14
Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. Announces Drilling Plans for Kliyul and RDP Copper-Gold Projects
Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. announced drilling plans for its 100% owned Kliyul copper-gold project and RDP copper-gold project. Kliyul is located in the prolific Quesnel terrane; RDP is located 40 km west of Kliyul at the southern end of the Toodoggone Mining District, one of Canada's hottest exploration districts. The Kliyul Main Zone ("KMZ"), just one target area at Kliyul, hosts 2.42 billion pounds copper equivalent ("CuEq") or 5.7 million ounces gold equivalent ("AuEq") in the Inferred Mineral Resource category. 2025 drilling at KMZ intersected 289.0 m of 0.77% CuEq (0.26% copper, 0.75 g/t gold, and 1.54 g/t silver). Pacific Ridge will focus on resource expansion at KMZ and testing other high-priority porphyry targets at Kliyul this year. 2025 drilling at the Day target, one of several target areas at RDP, returned one of B.C.'s best porphyry copper-gold intervals that year. Drill hole RDP-25-011 intersected 112.2m of 1.35% CuEq (0.76% copper, 0.86 g/t gold, and 3.16 g/t silver). The Company plans to target the interpreted porphyry centre at Day and further define the western magnetic lobe discovery this year. Kliyul is over 90 km2 in size and is located in the prolific Quesnel terrane close to existing infrastructure, approximately eight km to the Omineca resource road and a 230-kilovolt high-voltage power line. KMZ hosts 334.1 million tonnes ("Mt") grading 0.33% CuEq (0.15% copper, 0.26 g/t gold, and 0.95 g/t silver) or 386 Mt grading 0.459 g/t AuEq (0.236 g/t gold, 0.142% copper, and 0.911 g/t silver) in the Inferred Mineral Resource category and remains open for expansion. Pacific Ridge will focus on resource expansion at KMZ and testing other high-priority porphyry targets at Kliyul this year. Resource expansion targets include drilling within the tilt derivative ("TDR") aeromagnetic footprint to the northeast of KMZ Mineral Resource Estimate ("MRE") footprint as well as a strong resistivity gradient within a magmatic corridor of favourable alteration and early dioritic intrusive rocks at the southeastern extent of the MRE footprint. Copper-gold mineralization at KMZ is associated with the TDR aeromagnetic footprint, as well as resistivity gradients. A six-kilometre-long porphyry copper-gold trend, comprising favourable geology, geochemistry, alteration and geophysics, exists at Kliyul. High-priority drill targets outside of the KMZ include Klip, KCC and M39. The Klip target is a blind porphyry target centered on a large near surface magnetic anomaly. Klip is in the vicinity of a historical BC MINFILE occurrence (094D 185) that records a NE-striking shear zone within QSP-altered volcaniclastic rocks. A one metre chip sample taken across the shear zone in 1985 yielded 3.8 g/t gold and 5.3 g/t silver. The magnetic anomaly at Klip is similar to KMZ's magnetic signature, which leads Pacific Ridge to believe that the drilling to date has only tested one part of the porphyry system and that most of the system remains hidden and untested to the north. The KCC target is a geochemical, geological, and geophysical target at the north end of the fertile Kliyul Creek Intrusive Complex ("KCC"). Chalcopyrite-pyrite-quartz veins are found at surface, and the target also has a coincident IP-chargeability, resistivity, and magnetic anomaly. The M39 target area is associated with a one-km long copper and gold soil anomaly. The target hosts monzonite dykes, magnetite skarn, sodic alteration, and chalcopyrite mineralized quartz veins as well as two circular magnetic anomalies. The Klip, KCC and M39 targets are also associated with copper-gold skarn occurrences, which commonly occur as distal expressions of copper-gold porphyry mineralization and are considered vectors to underlying porphyry centers. RDP is over 100 km2 in size and is located in the Golden Horseshoe at the southern end of the Toodoggone district, one of Canada's hottest exploration districts. The 2025 drill program at the Day target confirmed that the porphyry copper-gold-silver mineralization intersected in the eastern magnetic lobe is in an east-northeast-striking, steeply northward-dipping tabular body, and that the western magnetic lobe is also mineralized. 2026 exploration plans at RDP include a high-resolution magnetic survey and magnetic vector inversion modelling as well as additional induced polarization surveys to further refine drill targeting at Day. Drilling will focus on testing the interpreted porphyry center between the western and eastern lobes and more fully defining the 2025 western lobe discovery. Pacific Ridge has provided notification to Aurico Metals Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Centerra Gold Inc., that it has terminated the agreement to acquire up to a 75% interest in the Chuchi porphyry copper-gold project. With a significant resource that remains open for expansion at Kliyul and a high-grade porphyry copper-gold discovery opportunity at RDP, Pacific Ridge believes that it is in the best interests of shareholders to focus on Kliyul and RDP.
