Mr. Blaine Monaghan reports

PACIFIC RIDGE MOBILIZES FIELD CREWS TO KLIYUL COPPER-GOLD PROJECT; THE FIRST OF THREE COPPER-GOLD PROJECTS TO BE DRILLED THIS YEAR

Field crews have been mobilized to Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd.'s 100-per-cent-owned Kliyul copper-gold project, located in the prolific Quesnel trough in north-central British Columbia. The company plans to complete 7,000 metres of diamond drilling at Kliyul this year. Additionally, Pacific Ridge is planning a 2,000 m diamond drill program at the Chuchi copper-gold project and a 1,800 m diamond drill program at the RDP copper-gold project, under option to Antofagasta Minerals SA.

"Two thousand twenty-three will be Pacific Ridge's busiest and most exciting exploration season ever," said Blaine Monaghan, president and chief executive officer of Pacific Ridge. "With close to 11,000 m of diamond drilling planned across three projects, I am very confident that the company will continue to deliver exceptional drill results. I am particularly excited about this year's exploration program at Kliyul where drilling will be focused on expanding the Kliyul Main zone and testing several nearby interpreted porphyry centres that have never been drilled before."

2023 Kliyul drill program

Two thousand twenty-two drilling at Kliyul materially increased the size of the Kliyul Main zone (KMZ) mineralized body from 350 m by 150 m by 500 m depth to 600 m by 350 m by 600 m depth, an increase of almost 400 per cent, and drill hole KLI-22-050 returned 89 m of 1.06 per cent copper equivalent (CuEq) (0.28 per cent copper, 1.05 grams per tonne gold and 1.20 g/t silver) within 328 m of 0.67 per cent CuEq (0.25 per cent copper, 0.57 g/t gold and 1.25 g/t silver).

In 2023, Pacific Ridge plans to complete 7,000 m of drilling at Kliyul with two main objectives:

1. Expanding the size of the KMZ mineralized body to the southeast and into adjacent fault blocks to the north, east and southwest. These targets are defined by known mineralization from previous drilling combined with modelled geophysical signatures, including a magnetic vector inversion (MVI) aeromagnetic-high anomaly with coincident resistivity- and chargeability-high anomalies;
2. Testing several high-priority targets that occur mainly along the Divide Lake fault trend, a highly prospective six-kilometre-long northwest-trending alteration and mineralization corridor, including Ginger (1.4 km northwest of KMZ), Parish Hill (one km southeast of KMZ), M-39 (3.5 km southeast of KMZ) and Ginger South (1.2 km west of KMZ), which occurs along the east-northeast Valley fault trend. These targets are interpreted porphyry centres derived from aeromagnetic data and MVI modelling, induced polarization (IP) survey inversions, geological mapping, and surface geochemical sampling.

2023 Chuchi drill program

Pacific Ridge plans to drill 2,000 m in its first ever drill program at Chuchi. Targeting will be based on a combination of historical drilling results, surface sampling (rocks and soils), IP survey, and 3-D inversion models of the 2022 ZTEM (Z-axis tipper electromagnetic) and aeromagnetic data. Prior to the start of drilling, the company is planning 20 line km of IP survey, geological mapping and gridded soil sampling to expand upon previous surveys and cover new target areas at Chuchi and Chuchi South. Drilling is expected to commence some time in August.

2023 RDP drill program

Drilling in 2022 produced the best ever drill result from RDP. Drill hole RDP-22-005 at the Day target returned 107.2 m of 1.45 per cent CuEq (0.63 per cent Cu, 1.10 g/t Au and 2.91 g/t Ag) within 497.2 m of 0.68 per cent CuEq (0.37 per cent Cu, 0.40 g/t Au and 1.6 g/t Ag). Two thousand twenty-three exploration plans include 1,800 m of diamond drilling, a 16 line km IP survey at the Day, Porcupine and Bird targets, rock sampling at the Porcupine target, and soil sampling at the Bird target.

The 2023 exploration program is being financed by Antofagasta Minerals, a wholly owned subsidiary of Antofagasta PLC. Antofagasta can earn a 75-per-cent interest in RDP by spending $10-million on exploration over eight years and delivering a preliminary economic assessment report (see news release dated Feb. 8, 2022). Pacific Ridge is the operator and will support the program from the Kliyul camp, located 40 km to the east. Drilling is expected to commence some time in August.

About Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd.

Pacific Ridge's is to become British Columbia's leading copper-gold exploration company. Pacific Ridge's flagship project is its 100-per-cent-owned Kliyul copper-gold project, located in the Quesnel trough close to existing infrastructure. In addition to Kliyul, the company's project portfolio includes the RDP copper-gold project (optioned to Antofagasta Minerals), the Chuchi copper-gold project, the Onjo copper-gold project and the Redton copper-gold project, all located in British Columbia. Pacific Ridge would like to acknowledge that its B.C. projects are located in the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Gitxsan Nation, McLeod Lake Indian Band, Nak'azdli Whut'en, Takla Nation and Tsay Keh Dene Nation.

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