This is a paid advertisement for Pacific Ridge Exploration (TSXV: PEX | OTCQB: PEXZF | FSE: PQW). ​ Traders On Trend has been compensated for its marketing services. This content is not investment advice. Investing involves risk, and readers should do their own research before making any investment decisions.

Pacific Ridge Exploration (TSXV: PEX | OTCQB: PEXZF) already has 2.4 billion pounds copper equivalent in the ground.1 Their 2026 drill season just launched. And the resource is still open for expansion.

When a mining company files what they call an independent NI 43-101 resource estimate, that number becomes the official floor. It represents what geologists have confirmed with drill holes, assays, and third-party verification.

It is the bare minimum.

For the sponsor of today's piece, Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. (TSXV: PEX | OTCQB: PEXZF), that floor is 2.4 billion pounds copper equivalent at its Kliyul copper-gold project in British Columbia — or 5.7 million ounces gold equivalent, depending on how you want to count it.1

That sounds like a lot because it is. An astonishing amount actually.

Even more astonishing is the company's valuation. With a market cap of C$10.0M, each gold equivalent ounce in the ground is being valued at less than C$2.00.

The company just announced its 2026 drill program. Their goal is simple; Don't confirm what they already know exists. Instead they have a company mandate; find out exactly how much is there.

Now, before we go too deep into this article, we want to let you know something that we think is actually really important: Pacific Ridge isn't a one-man exploration team operating out of a rented office.

It's a Fiore Group company.

And if that does not ring a bell…..The Fiore Group was founded by Frank Giustra — one of Canada's most decorated mining financiers.

Giustra co-founded Silver Wheaton, now known as Wheaton Precious Metals, the company that invented the precious metals streaming model and today carries a market cap north of $30 billion.2

Giustra helped build Wheaton River Minerals into the company that eventually merged with Goldcorp — by 2014, the fourth-largest gold producer in the world.3

He was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame and holds both the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia.4

Giustra has also said publicly that the copper supply crisis is unlike anything the mining world has faced in a generation.

Pacific Ridge has access to Fiore Group's infrastructure and network.

That's not a footnote. That's the foundation. And yea, that is kind of a big deal.

So now that the scene is set and you know what kind of company you are reading about….

Here are 5 reasons investors are paying attention to Pacific Ridge Exploration
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> 01: RESOURCE_CONFIRMED

The Resource Is Already There — and It's Big

Most junior mining companies spend years and millions of dollars searching for a resource.

Pacific Ridge already has one.

The Kliyul Main Zone (KMZ), just one target area at the Kliyul copper-gold project, hosts an NI 43-101 Inferred Mineral Resource, completed by independent geologists and filed with Canadian securities regulators in September 2025.1

The numbers: 334.1 million tonnes grading 0.33% copper equivalent, containing 2.4 billion pounds copper equivalent or 5.7 million ounces gold equivalent. With the copper price above $5.50 per pound and the gold price above $4,700 an ounce on the COMEX, that translates to a resource with substantial in-ground value.5

Pacific Ridge's market capitalization is currently around C$10 million.6

The implied value per pound of copper equivalent in the ground, at the current share price, is a fraction of what comparable discovered porphyry resources have historically traded at. That gap is what explorers call a discount to net asset value. It is also what some investors call an opportunity.

The resource was estimated using conservative metal price assumptions: $4.60 per pound copper, $2,600 per ounce gold.1 The London Metal Exchange copper price has been running well above those figures in 2026.

> 02: EXPANSION_VECTOR

The Resource Is Open. The 2026 Program Is Designed to Grow It.

The NI 43-101 technical report contains a specific statement that matters to investors: the KMZ mineral resource remains open for expansion.1

That is not marketing language.

It is a technical conclusion. The drill holes conducted to date have not found the edges of the system. Mineralization continues beyond the current resource boundary in at least two directions.

The 2026 drill program at Kliyul will test both.

The first expansion target sits to the northeast of the current KMZ footprint, following the tilt derivative aeromagnetic signature that correlates with known copper-gold mineralization. The second sits to the southeast, along a strong resistivity gradient within a corridor of favorable alteration and early dioritic intrusive rocks. Both directions are identified in the company's April 2026 drilling announcement as priority targets for resource growth.

The company's most recent Kliyul drill results, reported November 18, 2025, illustrates the potential: hole KLI-25-070 intersected 289.0 metres of 0.77% copper equivalent; hole KLI-25-071 expanded the known mineralized body 110 metres further to the west7, meaningful extending the lateral extent of an already large system.

The 2026 program is designed to do that again — in multiple directions simultaneously.

> 03: UNDRILLED_TARGETS

Three Targets on the Same Trend Have Never Seen a Drill Bit

Here is the part of the story that gets overlooked.

The KMZ resource sits within a six-kilometre-long porphyry copper-gold trend at Kliyul. The resource covers one small part of that trend. Three other target areas — Klip, KCC, and M39 — sit along the same corridor and have never been drilled.

Each target has strong geological and geophysical support.

The Klip target is centered on a near-surface magnetic anomaly. Pacific Ridge's technical team says that the magnetic signature is similar to KMZ's — the same type of geophysical response that indicated a porphyry system at the project's flagship zone. In addition, a rock chip sample taken from a shear zone at Klip in 1985 returned 3.8 grams per tonne gold and 5.3 grams per tonne silver.8

The company's April 2026 release states that the company believes that drilling to date has tested only one part of the porphyry system and that most of the system remains hidden and untested to the north.8 That is a direct reference to Klip.

The KCC target has chalcopyrite-pyrite-quartz veins at surface, with a coincident IP-chargeability, resistivity, and magnetic anomaly — geophysical indicators converging on the same location.8

The M39 target hosts a one-kilometre-long copper and gold soil anomaly with monzonite dykes, magnetite skarn, copper-bearing quartz veins, as well as two circular magnetic anomalies.8

KCC, Klip, and M39 are also associated with copper-gold skarn occurrences. These occurrences often act as guides to nearby porphyry centres.

Porphyry deposits occur in clusters, what are the chances that KMZ is the only deposit at Kliyul?

> 04: DISCOVERY_VECTOR

The Second Project Just Returned One of B.C.'s Best Drill Intervals Last Year

Kliyul is the resource story. RDP is the discovery story.

The RDP copper-gold project is a separate 100%-owned asset, covering more than 100 square kilometres at the southern end of the Toodoggone Mining District in northern British Columbia — a district that has attracted both junior explorers and major mining companies in recent years, including AngloGold17, Centerra Gold17, Freeport-McMoRan18, and Teck Resources.9

In October 2025, Pacific Ridge reported results from drill hole RDP-25-011: 112.2 metres of 1.35% copper equivalent (including 0.76% copper, 0.86 grams per tonne gold, and 3.16 grams per tonne silver). The company described it as one of British Columbia's best porphyry copper-gold intervals for the 2025 exploration season.10

That result came from the eastern magnetic lobe at the Day target. The 2025 program also confirmed that a western magnetic lobe at the same target is mineralized — a discovery that adds a second avenue of exploration at RDP.

The 2026 program at RDP is designed to drill toward the interpreted porphyry center — the potential source of mineralization between the two lobes. In porphyry systems, the center typically hosts the highest grades and greatest tonnage.

If the company returned 112.2 metres of 1.35% copper equivalent at the eastern lobe, what if it hits the interpreted porphyry in this year's drill program?

> 05: ALIGNMENT_CONFIRMED

The Infrastructure, the Agreements, and the Timing Are All Aligned

Junior mining companies often have good geology but face years of permitting delays, infrastructure challenges, and community opposition before a drill bit turns. Pacific Ridge has moved to address each of those factors ahead of the 2026 field season.

On infrastructure: Kliyul sits approximately eight kilometres from the Omineca resource road and adjacent to a 230-kilovolt high-voltage power line. That is a meaningful advantage for a project of this scale. Most large porphyry discoveries in remote British Columbia require hundreds of millions in infrastructure spending before they can move toward development. Kliyul starts from a better position.

On community relationships: In December 2025, Pacific Ridge signed exploration agreements with the Takla Nation for both Kliyul and RDP.11 First Nations consultation and consent is a critical step in British Columbia's permitting process. Having formal exploration agreements in place before the 2026 field season begins removes a significant variable from the timeline.

On capital: The company raised over C$7.5M12,13 for 2025 exploration and has access to additional capital via Fiore Group's network.

On the macro: J.P. Morgan projects a global refined copper deficit of approximately 330,000 tonnes in 2026.14

Goldman Sachs projects copper demand from grid and power infrastructure will add the equivalent of another United States worth of annual copper consumption by 2030.15

BloombergNEF has warned that copper demand for the energy transition could triple by 2045.16

The world needs more copper mines. British Columbia is one of the most favorable jurisdictions in the world to build them.

Pacific Ridge is not waiting for the cycle to come to them.

This information has really just touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this company.

Luckily, we have published a full special report on Pacific Ridge Exploration and the Kliyul copper-gold project. It covers the resource in detail, the 2026 drill targets, the RDP discovery, the macro copper setup, and the risks investors should understand before making any decision.

To be clear, the company believes this is such big news that they are actually paying us to help get the word out.

That alone should make every information-seeking investor want to see what this report is all about.

The report is available at no charge but only available for a short time, while this info is fresh and has the most potential impact on the news. Get your copy today.

Pacific Ridge Exploration Special Report

Download the Special Report

The full briefing on Pacific Ridge's 2.4 billion pound copper resource, the 2026 drill program, three undrilled targets, and the macro setup driving the copper market. Free and available for a limited time.

> ENTER_EMAIL_TO_ACCESS_REPORT:
Footnotes & Sources
  1. 1 NI 43-101 Technical Report: Mineral Resource Estimate for the Kliyul Project, Omineca Mining Division, British Columbia. Prepared by Susan Lomas, P.Geo., Lions Gate Consulting Inc.; Dr. Bruce Davis, PhD, FAusIMM; and Dr. Ron Voordouw, PhD, P.Geo. Effective date: July 31, 2025. Filed September 18, 2025. Source
  2. 2 Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE: WPM) — market capitalization data. As of March 2026, market cap ranged between $51.9B–$65.3B USD. Source
  3. 3 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame: Frank Giustra Inductee Profile. “Giustra was instrumental in the formation and growth of Wheaton River Minerals, orchestrating its merger with Goldcorp to create one of the largest mining companies in the world.” Goldcorp was the world's fourth-largest gold producer by 2014. Source
  4. 4 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame; Frank Giustra personal biography confirming Order of Canada and Order of British Columbia honors. Source
  5. 5 COMEX copper futures — continuous contract pricing, Q1 2026. Source
  6. 6 Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. (PEX.V) — market capitalization approximately C$12.84M as of March 13, 2026. Average daily volume 392,318 shares. Source
  7. 7 Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. Press Release: “Pacific Ridge Intersects 289 m of 0.77% Copper Equivalent or 1.15 g/t Gold Equivalent at Kliyul Copper-Gold Project; Expands Mineralization of 110 m to the West.” November 18, 2025. Source
  8. 8 Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. Press Release: “Pacific Ridge Announces Drilling Plans for the Kliyul and RDP Copper-Gold Projects.” April 13, 2026. Source
  9. 9 Metal Energy Corp. Press Release: “Metal Energy Planning 2026 Drilling on Its NIV Project, Toodoggone District, North-Central British Columbia.” February 26, 2026. Source
  10. 10 Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. Press Release: “Pacific Ridge Intersects 112.2 M of 1.35% Copper Equivalent or 2.02 g/t Gold Equivalent at the RDP Copper-Gold Project.” October 23, 2025. Source
  11. 11 Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. Press Release: “Pacific Ridge Signs Exploration Agreements with Takla Nation for Kliyul and RDP.” December 16, 2025. Source
  12. 12 Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. Press Release: “Pacific Ridge Closes Final Tranche of Brokered Financing; Raised Aggregate Gross Proceeds of C$4.65 Million.” September 26, 2025. Source
  13. 13 Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. Press Release: “Pacific Ridge Closes Oversubscribed Financing; Raises Over $3.0M for Follow Up Drill Program at the RDP Copper-Gold Project.” June 4, 2025. Source
  14. 14 J.P. Morgan Global Research: “Copper Market Outlook.” Projects a global refined copper deficit of approximately 330,000 metric tons in 2026. Source
  15. 15 Goldman Sachs Research: “Copper Prices Are Forecast to Decline Somewhat from Record Highs in 2026.” December 11, 2025. Source
  16. 16 BloombergNEF: Transition Metals Outlook 2025, December 2025. Source
  17. 17 Thesis Gold & Silver Inc. (TSXV: TAU) Press Release: “Thesis Gold Announces Strategic Investment by AngloGold Ashanti and Participation by Centerra Gold for C$44M.” February 19, 2026. Source
  18. 18 Amarc Resources Ltd. (TSXV: AHR) Press Release: “Amarc Announces Freeport has Elected to Proceed to CAD $75 Million Stage 2 Earn-In at JOY.” September 4, 2025. Source
  19. 19 Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. Press Release: “Pacific Ridge Partners with Fiore Group; New Strategic Advisors; Stock Option Grant.” June 27, 2025. Source