ArcWest Exploration Inc. provided an update for partner funded exploration of its wholly owned Oxide Peak copper-gold ("Cu-Au") project, situated in British Columbia's Toodoggone District, northern B.C. The project is being advanced by partner TDG Gold. The Toodoggone district ("the District") hosts extensive Early Jurassic porphyry Cu-Au and epithermal gold-silver (Au-Ag) mineralization including several past producing Au-Ag mines (Baker, Lawyers, Shasta) and the Kemess Au-Cu porphyry deposits (Centerra Gold). The southern half of the Oxide Peak project adjoins Benchmark Metal's Lawyers project, which recently received an investment by Yamana Gold.

Historical production in the District exceeds 3.2 million ounces of gold and 360,000 tonnes of copper. TDG is operator for exploration at Oxide Peak and is responsible for the design and implementation of exploration programs on the property. In 2020, an extensive program of geological and alteration mapping, rock and soil sampling, and geophysics (airborne magnetic and induced polarization [IP] surveys) outlined a porphyry copper-gold target in the northwestern part of the Oxide Peak project (McBride, 2021).

At the Oxide Peak porphyry Cu-Au target, a multiphase intrusion cores an extensive zone of quartz-sericite-pyrite (QSP) and advanced argillic alteration surrounded by sericite-chlorite and propylitic alteration. The 2020 IP survey outlined a 1.5 by 0.6 kilometer chargeability high which overlaps the QSP alteration at its north end. Geochemical surveys at Oxide Peak, including 380 soils and 65 rock samples, delineated a significant multi-element soil anomaly: up to 728 ppb gold (range <0.5-728), 1212 ppm copper (1.5-1212), 81 ppm molybdenum (0.4-81), 1828 ppm lead (4.5-1828), 2806 ppm zinc (27-2806), 7.6 ppm silver (<0.1-7.6), 217 ppm arsenic (0.5-217), 15 ppm bismuth (<0.1-15) and 20.8 ppm tellurium (<0.2-20.8).

Gold-arsenic- tellurium is anomalous at higher elevations, with copper-molybdenum generally lower, reflecting a vertical transition from epithermal to porphyry environments. At lower elevations along the northern periphery of the soil anomaly, copper values over 0.1% occur in multiple grab samples (outcrops) over 200 meters in Oxide Creek. Chalcopyrite mineralization is associated with multistage quartz-sulfide veining and relict K-feldspar-biotite-magnetite alteration hosted in variably brecciated, porphyritic monzodioritic intrusions.

These outcrops are just over 200 meters elevation below the strongest QSP and advanced argillic alteration. Strong quartz-sericite-pyrite to sericite-chlorite-pyrite alteration overprints potassic alteration in this zone. This, combined with the presence of high pyrite to chalcopyrite ratios, suggests potential for increased copper-gold grades with depth and laterally as the system transitions to potassic dominant alteration.

The Oxide Peak porphyry copper-gold target has yet to undergo drill testing. A first phase drill test of the Oxide Peak porphyry Cu-Au target by partner TDG Gold is planned for 2022. Other early stage targets on the Oxide Peak project include the Falcon porphyry copper-gold target as well as several grassroots high grade gold-copper targets with gold values in grab samples up to 46.1 grams per tonne.

In December of 2021, TDG Gold drilled two holes for a total of 1,029 m in the Drybrough target, which is situated approximately 3.5 kilometers north of a fully winterized camp at TDG's past producing Baker gold mine, and approximately 7 km southeast of Benchmark Metals' Lawyers project. ArcWest has yet to review drill core and data from the Drybrough drill program. The following results are summarized from TDG's April 13, 2022 press release.

The Drybrough drill program targeted a magnetic high about 1.0 kilometer across, which is flanked by highly gossanous volcanic rocks originally mapped by Dupont Canada in the 1980s. Drilling encountered predominantly quartz-chlorite altered volcanic rocks with local zones of hematite and potassic alteration. Anomalous silver (Ag) was encountered in both holes.