Mr. Ron Little reports

WOLFDEN ANNOUNCES DENIAL OF PICKETT PROJECT REZONING APPLICATION

The Maine Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC) has denied the request by Wolfden Resources Corp. and Franklin County to delay final action on the company's Pickett project rezoning application until all nine of the LUPC commissioners could participate. Instead, five of the seven commissioners in attendance at the meeting voted to deny the application. The vote is contrary to the comprehensive assessment prepared by LUPC staff in support of the deliberative session held on Dec. 13, 2023. That document summarized the record evidence and, on every key issue, concluded that the evidence weighed in favour of a rezoning approval (see the appendix of that document).

"We are very disappointed in the outcome and that the final decision is at odds with the prior comprehensive staff assessment and the conclusions reached by independent experts hired by the commission to review the application," stated Ron Little, president and chief executive officer of Wolfden. "Instead, the staff was directed to draft a recommended decision document to deny the project -- a decision that is not substantiated by the evidence in the record."

The comments by the presiding officer and commission chair at the time of the October, 2023, hearing are informative and instructive. He stated that he feared the LUPC decision was being made on the basis of environmental impacts and standards that are meant to be applied by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in the mining permit application process, and not the standards that govern the LUPC rezoning process. He also stated that the LUPC has a high turnover of limited personnel who do not have the depth and knowledge to make decisions about environmental impacts, whereas the DEP has 350 employees who do this for a living. Until such time there is a clear differentiation of duties as to which of the two regulators are charged with making environmental decisions on a mining project, no mining company is likely to apply to rezone land in the unorganized territory of Maine for mining.

The commission is made up of nine volunteers, of which one is appointed by the governor and the other eight are put forward by the county commissioners of the eight counties that host the majority of the approximately 10 million acres that represent the unorganized territory. This large, relatively unpopulated area represents roughly half the state and comprises large, privately owned timber land tracts, cottages and camps, except for those few areas designated as state lands and parks or rezoned for other uses. Wolfden owns its 7,135-acre plot that is adjacent to a town (township) boundary that voted in support of the project.

A copy of the petition, along with related correspondence with LUPC and more information about the process, is available for download from the LUPC project-specific website and the company's website.

About Wolfden Resources Corp.

Wolfden is an exploration and development company focused on high-margin metallic mineral deposits, including base, precious and strategic metals. Its wholly owned Pickett Mountain project is one of the highest-grade polymetallic projects in North America (zinc, lead, copper, silver, gold), and its two nickel sulphide deposits in Manitoba represent significant development projects with the potential to be domestic sources of ethically produced base and critical metals for the expansion of renewable energy in North America.

We seek Safe Harbor.