Pacific Empire Receives Three-Year Drilling Permit for Trident Property

• Mines Act Permit MX-100000345 valid until September 2028 authorizes camp construction and drilling from 20 sites
• First drilling programme in over 50 years at Trident property targeting copper-gold porphyry system
• Copper soil anomalies reach 5,213 ppm across 2km by 4km zone with gold values up to 591 ppb
• Property located 50km from Mt. Milligan Mine and Kwanika deposit with established road access
• Drilling scheduled to begin September 2025 following completion of access infrastructure

Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. (TSXV: PEMC) is a Vancouver-based copper exploration company with 22,541 hectares across multiple properties in north-central British Columbia. The company focuses on early-stage copper-gold projects within established mineral districts that offer existing infrastructure and proximity to operating mines.

Pacific Empire's primary assets include the 6,618-hectare Trident property, which hosts a copper-gold-silver prospect, and the adjacent Pinnacle property. The company acquired 100% interest in Trident in 2022 in exchange for granting vendors a 2% net smelter return royalty, with option to purchase half the royalty for $500,000.

Multi-Year Exploration Permit Approval

The Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals issued Permit MX-100000345 authorizing construction of camp and staging facilities, surface diamond drilling from 20 permitted sites, exploration access road construction, and fuel storage. The permit includes environmental requirements for watercourse protection, caribou interaction mitigation above 1,100m elevation, progressive reclamation, and invasive species control.

Brad Peters, President and CEO, stated that

"securing this multi-year exploration permit clears the way for our inaugural diamond drilling program at Trident this September."

The permit represents the first authorization for drilling at the property in over 50 years, despite historical exploration work conducted since copper mineralization was first discovered in 1969.

Previous exploration includes work by Falconbridge (1970-1972), Kookaburra Gold (1988-1991), Solomon Resources (2006-2008), and Oz Minerals (2014). Historical programmes included soil geochemistry, geophysics, and limited diamond drilling that confirmed copper-gold mineralization but did not test the main target area due to access challenges.

Copper-Gold Target Areas and Geological Data

Soil sampling has identified copper anomalies up to 5,213 ppm defining a 2km north-south by 4km northwest-southeast zone, with gold anomalies reaching 591 ppb across a 2km by 1.5km overlapping area. A zinc anomaly has been identified outside the copper-gold zone. Historical drilling south of the main target intercepted mineralised hornblende-feldspar monzonite porphyry dikes dipping north.

Geophysical surveys have identified coincident anomalies including airborne resistivity highs, ground-induced polarisation chargeability responses, and mobile magnetotelluric apparent resistivity anomalies. Previous drilling was oriented north-to-south away from the interpreted porphyry zone, while future drilling will target south-to-north from permitted sites located north of historical hole collars.

Two breccia targets have been identified: an eastern target where float samples yielded up to 3.3% Cu, 3.6 g/t Au, and 56.6 g/t Ag, with barite vein samples returning 6.0% Cu, 6.0% Zn, 1.5 g/t Au, and 5.0 g/t Ag; and a western target characterized by copper soil anomalies coincident with conductivity highs.

Project Location and Infrastructure Advantages

The Trident property lies within the Quesnel Terrane, south of the Hogem Plutonic Suite contact with Chuchi Lake Succession volcanic rocks. The property is located 50km southeast of NorthWest Copper's Kwanika deposit and 50km northwest of Centerra Gold's Mt. Milligan Mine. The geological setting hosts several producing and past-producing copper-gold porphyry deposits in British Columbia.

Logging roads provide vehicle access to the property, with recent road construction enabling access to target areas. The company has acquired high-resolution LIDAR data for drill collar placement accuracy. The Klawli River separating Trident and Pinnacle properties contains placer gold ranging from fine flour gold to flakes measuring 1mm thick and 2-3mm in diameter.

The Pinnacle property, located west of Trident, contains two target areas: Aplite Creek North, where historical drilling returned 6.0m grading 6.4 g/t Au, and South Pinnacle, characterized by copper soil anomalies coincident with magnetic and resistivity anomalies from airborne and ground surveys.

Next Steps

Pacific Empire will commence its inaugural diamond drilling programme at Trident in September 2025. The programme will be the first modern drill campaign to directly test high-priority targets, utilizing recent re-assay results from historical drill core and new LIDAR data. The drilling will focus on the main porphyry target area that remains untested from previous exploration activities.

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