Pacific Ridge launches drilling at Kliyul copper-gold project

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 17, 2026) - Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. (TSXV: PEX) (OTCQB: PEXZF) (FSE: PQW) ("Pacific Ridge" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that in addition to the ~3,000 m drill program underway at the Company's 100% owned RDP copper-gold project ("RDP")(see news release dated August 8, 2026), a ~2,500 m drill program has started at Pacific Ridge's 100% owned Kliyul copper-gold project ("Kliyul" or the Project"). Kliyul is located ~ 40km east of RDP in the prolific Quesnel terrane (see Figure 1).

The 2026 drill program at Kliyul will focus on the M39 target area ("M39" or "Target Area"). M39 is the highest priority target at Kliyul and has never been drilled before. The main focus of drilling to date at Kliyul has been the Kliyul Main Zone ("KMZ"), which hosts 2.42 billion pounds copper equivalent ("CuEq") (see Table 1) or 5.7 million ounces gold equivalent ("AuEq") (see Table 2) in the Inferred Mineral Resource category.

"M39 is the highest priority target at Kliyul and has never been drilled before," said Blaine Monaghan, President & CEO of Pacific Ridge. "Porphyry deposits frequently occur in clusters. They rarely exist in complete isolation. In addition to KMZ, it is our hopes that we can make another deposit discovery at Kliyul."

Figure 1

Location of Kliyul and RDP Copper-Gold Projects

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M39

A six-kilometre-long porphyry copper-gold trend, comprising favourable geology, geochemistry, alteration and geophysics, exists at Kliyul. High-priority drill targets outside of KMZ include M39, KCC and Klip (see Figures 2 and 3). The 2026 drill program will focus on M39, the highest priority target at Kliyul (see Figure 4).

M39 is associated with a one-km long copper and gold soil