Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. announced that drilling is underway at the Company's 100% owned Kliyul copper-gold project, located in the prolific Quesnel Trough in north-central British Columbia. Pacific Ridge plans to complete 7,000 m of diamond drilling at Kliyul this year. 2023 Kliyul Drill Program Update: The first diamond drill rig is now producing drill core from KLI-23-051, the first 2023 drill hole, and the second diamond drill rig has just arrived.

The second drill rig is expected to start producing drill core from KLI-23-052 shortly. The objectives of this year's drill program at Kliyul are to expand the size of the KMZ mineralized body and to test several other high-priority drill targets. Three of the first four drill holes will focus on expanding the Kliyul Main Zone ("KMZ") to the southeast and into adjacent fault blocks to the north and west.

It is thought that the fault blocks surrounding the central KMZ block are downthrown relative to KMZ, based on alteration mineralogy, geochemical and geophysical signatures, and have good preservation potential for offset segments of high-grade Kliyul porphyry mineralization. 2023 Proposed Drill Holes at Kliyul: Seven drill holes (KLI-23-051, KLI-23-052, KLI-23-054, KLI-23-055, KLI-23-056, KLI-23-058, and KLI-23-060) have been designed to expand 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 campaigns combined with modelled geophysical signatures, primarily a 3D Magnetic Vector Inversion (MVI) aeromagnetic high signature with coincident resistivity and chargeability high anomalies.

Four drill holes (KLI-23-053, KLI-23-057, KLI-23-059, and KLI-23-061) have been designed to test several high priority targets that lie mainly within the Divide Lake Fault Trend, a highly prospective 6-km-long northwest-trending alteration and mineralization corridor, including Ginger (1.4 km northwest of KMZ), Parish Hill (1 km southeast of KMZ), M-39 (3.5 km southeast of KMZ); and Ginger South (1.2 km west of KMZ) which lies within the east-northeast Valley Fault Trend. These targets are interpreted porphyry centres derived from aeromagnetic data and 3D MVI modelling, Induced Polarization (IP) survey inversions, geological mapping (lithology, alteration, mineralization, structure), and surface geochemical sampling.