Mr. Brad Peters reports

PACIFIC EMPIRE ANNOUNCES FIRST TRANCHE CLOSING OF NON-BROKERED PRIVATE PLACEMENT AND ENGAGEMENT OF EQUITY EXPLORATION CONSULTANTS LTD.

Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. has closed the first tranche of its previously announced non-brokered private placement financing for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $4.5-million.

Pursuant to the first tranche, the company raised an aggregate of $3,438,999.95 in gross proceeds and issued:

• 48,809,230 flow-through (FT) common shares at a price of 6.5 cents per FT share for gross proceeds of $3,172,599.95;
• 4.44 million non-flow-through common shares at a price of six cents per common share for gross proceeds of $266,400.

All securities issued pursuant to the first tranche are subject to a statutory hold period expiring four months and one day from the date of issuance, in accordance with applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange.

In connection with the first tranche, the company paid aggregate finders' fees totalling $61,825.00 in cash and issued an aggregate of two million common shares and 3,015,384 finders' warrants to certain eligible finders, including Castlewood Capital Corp., Canaccord Genuity Corp., Ventum Financial Corp. and PB Markets Inc. Each finder's warrant entitles the holder to acquire one common share of the company at a price of six cents per share for a period of two years from the closing date.

The proceeds from the offering will be used to advance the company's flagship Trident and Pinnacle copper-gold porphyry projects, located in north-central British Columbia, including diamond drilling, induced polarization (IP) geophysics, geological modelling, geochemistry and general working capital purposes.

The company is also pleased to announce that it has formally engaged Equity Exploration Consultants Ltd. to provide technical leadership and project management services for the 2026 exploration season. Equity is a highly regarded geological and exploration consulting group based in British Columbia with extensive experience advancing porphyry copper-gold systems throughout Western Canada.

Pacific Empire's president and chief executive officer, Brad Peters, commented:

"Closing this first tranche represents an important milestone for Pacific Empire as we position the company for what we believe will be a transformative 2026 exploration season. We are particularly excited to formally bring Equity Exploration Consultants into a leadership role on the technical and project management side of the business. Their technical expertise, organizational capability and systematic approach to exploration significantly strengthens our ability to advance both Trident and Pinnacle at a much higher level.

"Following the success of our 2025 maiden drill program at Trident, including hole DD25-TRI-001, we believe the company is now in its strongest technical position in years and is well positioned to aggressively advance these district-scale copper-gold porphyry systems."

A director of the corporation has subscribed for an aggregate of seven million FT shares as part of the first tranche, which participation constitutes a related party transaction within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101, Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions, and Policy 5.9 of the TSX Venture Exchange. The corporation is relying on the exemption for a formal valuation under Section 5.5(b) of MI 61-101 (trading on the TSX-V) and on the exemption for minority shareholder approval under Section 5.7(1)(b) of MI 61-101 (fair market value of less than $2.5-million). The first tranche and the offering remain subject to final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

About Pacific Empire Minerals Corp.

Pacific Empire is a copper exploration company based in Vancouver, B.C., and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol PEMC. The company has a district-scale land position in north-central British Columbia totalling 22,541 hectares.

British Columbia is a "green" copper jurisdiction with abundant hydroelectric power, access and infrastructure in close proximity to the end market.

We seek Safe Harbor.