Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. announced results from the final three diamond drill holes, KLI-23-067 to KLI-23-069, of the 2023 drilling program at the Kliyul copper-gold porphyry project ("Kliyul" or "Project") with drill hole KLI-23-068 intersecting 110.0 m of 0.97% copper equivalent ("CuEq") or 1.44 g/t gold equivalent ("AuEq") (0.27% copper, 1.03 g/t gold, and 1.55 g/t silver) within 455.8 m of 0.43% CuEq or 0.63 g/t AuEq (0.17% copper, 0.37 g/t gold, and 0.93 g/t silver). Owned 100% by the Company, Kliyul is located in the prolific Quesnel Terrane in northcentral British Columbia close to existing infrastructure. Drill holes KLI-23-067 to KLI-23-069 tested for western, northern, and southeastern extensions of KMZ, stepping out farther into adjacent fault blocks in those directions.

Newly encountered mineralization has increased the known extents of KMZ mineralization to ~760 m east-west, ~600 m north-south, and ~650 m vertical depth. KMZ remains open in every direction. KLI-23-067 returned 57.4 m of 0.41% CuEq or 0.60 g/t AuEq (0.22% copper, 0.26 g/t gold, and 1.22 g/t silver) within 309.2 m of 0.32% CuEq or 0.48 g/t AuEq (0.18% copper, 0.20 g/t gold, and 1.00 g/t silver).

This steeply drilled hole tested a gap area in the KMZ central block on the north side of Valley Splay Fault and extends mineralization 70 m southeast of historical drill hole KL06-31. This was the second drill hole to extend mineralization into the 40-80 m wide gap area spanning the full 430 m length of the KMZ on the north side of Valley Splay Fault, the other was KLI-23-054. Targeted infill drilling of this gap zone to extend high-grade KMZ mineralization, such as with KLI-23-054, is planned for 2024.

KLI-23-068 returned the best mineralized interval of the 2023 drilling program and extended KMZ mineralization 130 m to the west of KLI-21-037 and farther into the KMZ West zone which remains open to the west and at depth. The 110 m wide highest-grade interval of 0.97% CuEq or 1.44 g/t AuEq (0.27% copper, 1.03 g/t gold, and 1.55 g/t silver) lies on the KMZ West side of Lui Fault within a zone of high magnetic susceptibility (> 10 x 10-3 SI) centered on a 24.5 m wide quartz diorite dike with faulted and fragmented contacts. KMZ West has yet to be tested to its full depth extent without drilling back towards Lui Fault and the central KMZ block.

Drill testing KMZ West to greater depth will be a priority in 2024. KLI-23-069 was the easternmost steep drill hole of a 190-m-long east-west 3-hole fence across KMZ North and further proved that KMZ mineralization extends into KMZ North, returning 570.0 m of 0.27% CuEq or 0.40 g/t AuEq (0.14% copper, 0.18 g/t gold, and 0.99 g/t silver) starting at 85.0 m depth. Additionally, drilling intersected the deepest level of mineralization at Kliyul to date with 45.0 m of 0.58 CuEq or 0.86 g/t AuEq (0.38% copper, 0.28 g/t gold, and 2.20 g/t silver) starting at 584.0 m depth.

This mineralized interval is about 110 m deeper than the previously intersected intervals of > 0.4% CuEq mineralization and may be indicative of approaching a cupola zone. The deep source pluton for the KM porphyry system remains undiscovered or is yet to be confirmed. KLI-23-069 intersected an alternating sequence of intrusive phases starting at 483.0 m depth including feldspar ± quartz porphyry, aplite and different phases of diorite.

Drilling was terminated at 655 m due to logistical constraints and ended in mineralized diorite (11.0 m at 0.14% Cu, 0.15 g/t Au, 1.10 g/t Ag from 644 m). If this is a porphyry system centre and cupola zone, then the entire sequence of fault blocks south of Valley Fault (KMZ We KMZ, and KMZ East) may only represent half of the Kliyul porphyry system. This underscores the importance of further drill testing of KMZ North in 2024, targeting the tilt derivative (TDR) and MVI aeromagnetic high footprint anomalies in the northeast and continuing with steeply drillefences at 100 m spacing across the underexplored northern blocks.

Targets include the large (200-250 m diameter) TDR anomaly in the north-northeastern part of KMZ North that has only been marginally tested with drilling, including by KLI-22-046 which returned 59.0 m of 0.84% CuEq or 1.24 g/t AuEq (0.24% copper, 0.87 g/t gold, and 2.29 g/t silver) within 169 m of 0.52% CuEq or 0.77 g/t AuEq (0.20% copper, 0.46 g/t Au, and 1.65 g/t Ag). Furthermore, downhole magnetic susceptibility modelling (as a proxy for the magnetite-quartz ± biotite-chlorite potassic alteration shell) suggests the KMZ porphyry system plunges steeply (70-80°) northeastward in the direction of the TDR and MVI footprint anomalies. Deeper drilling in this area will be a high priority in 2024.