Pacific Empire Provides 2025 Year-End Corporate Update and Outlines 2026 Strategy Focused on Mineral Systems-Scale Exploration at Trident and Pinnacle

Vancouver, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – January 5, 2026) – Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. (TSXV: PEMC) (“Pacific Empire”, “PEMC” or the “Company”), a copper-gold explorer based in British Columbia, is pleased to provide shareholders with a year-end corporate update summarizing key milestones achieved during 2025 and outlining its strategic priorities for 2026. During the year, the Company completed a six-hole diamond drilling program at its Trident Project, advanced its long-term exploration strategy, and continued to execute on a mineral systems-based approach that has guided the assembly of its extensive land position over more than a decade. Results from 2025 activities, including the completion of drilling and the presence of copper-bearing geological features encountered during the program, support the Company’s system-scale exploration thesis and provide a foundation for continued evaluation and planning in 2026.

“Pacific Empire’s history reflects both conviction and adaptability,” said Brad Peters, President and CEO of Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. “While the Company was founded in 2014 around what is now the Trident-Pinnacle land position, the path to full consolidation was neither linear nor guaranteed.”

“Following the establishment of our initial land position in 2014, Oz Minerals became a partner and completed extensive induced polarization surveys and diamond drilling across both Trident and Pinnacle between 2014 and 2015. Those programs generated encouraging indications at the time; however, after Oz elected to return the properties, Pacific Empire faced significant structural constraints, including underlying property obligations that ultimately forced us to step away from the Col property, now known as Trident.”

“Between 2016 and 2022, the Company deliberately pivoted to a prospect generator business model. During this period, Pacific Empire advanced a broader portfolio of projects, completed partner-funded drilling at Pinnacle in 2016 and 2017, went public in 2018, and invested in in-house drilling capabilities to efficiently evaluate opportunities across more than a dozen projects. This phase allowed the Company to survive, learn, and remain active during a difficult market environment.”

“The inflection point came in 2022, when Pacific Empire successfully acquired the Col property outright after years of effort and negotiation. That transaction allowed the Company to reunify and fully consolidate the original system-scale land position that first motivated the Company’s formation.”

“Today, Pacific Empire owns 100% of its Trident-Pinnacle land position with no underlying property obligations, and all claims are in good standing through December 31, 2029. With consolidation complete, the Company made a deliberate decision to refocus on this land position, recognizing that controlling the full system footprint is essential when pursuing rare, large-scale mineral systems.”

Looking ahead to 2026

Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. intends to advance exploration activities across both the Trident and Pinnacle projects through planned diamond drilling programs. The Company views these projects not as isolated targets, but as components of a single, district-scale mineral system defined by shared geological architecture and large-scale targeting criteria.

In parallel with advancing exploration planning, the Company is actively evaluating strategic investment opportunities intended to support sustained exploration activity through 2026 and into 2027. Pacific Empire believes that securing a long-term capital partner aligned with its mineral systems-based approach would provide the flexibility and continuity required to advance district-scale exploration programs in a disciplined and systematic manner.

Regional map showing the location of Pacific Empire Minerals Corp.’s Trident-Pinnacle land position relative to neighbouring exploration and mining projects. The curved black line is shown for illustrative purposes only and highlights a regional-scale change in orientation observed in landscape features, regional geology, and geophysical datasets. This figure is provided for contextual purposes and does not contain scientific or technical information as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/5412/279444_52f4a53b146e3afd_001full.jpg

At a regional scale, the Trident-Pinnacle land position lies within an area characterized by a pronounced change in structural orientation that is reflected across multiple independent observations, including regional geological mapping, airborne geophysical patterns, and the alignment of major landscape features such as lakes. The Company views these regional-scale architectural features as important contextual elements when considering large mineral systems, without implying any specific controls on mineralization at the project level.

The Company’s conviction entering 2026 is supported by multiple lines of regional evidence, including the documented presence of porphyry-style mineralization encountered during diamond drilling campaigns in 2007 and 2025, as well as the occurrence of significant placer gold within the Klawli River corridor that separates the two project areas. Collectively, these observations reinforce the Company’s view that the broader system has demonstrated the capacity to generate mineralizing events at the district scale.

In 2026, Pacific Empire plans to apply a coordinated, system-focused exploration strategy across Trident and Pinnacle, leveraging its fully consolidated land position to test priority areas while continuing to refine its long-term understanding of the system as a whole.

“With the land position now fully consolidated, 2026 represents a fundamentally different chapter for Pacific Empire,” commented Brad Peters, President and CEO. “For the first time, we are in a position to simultaneously advance both Trident and Pinnacle through diamond drilling, guided by the view that these projects represent expressions of a single, large-scale mineral system rather than standalone opportunities.”

“Our confidence is rooted in system-level evidence observed over time, including the presence of porphyry-style mineralization encountered during multiple drilling campaigns and the extensive placer gold endowment within the Klawli River corridor. These features indicate that the regional system has achieved the necessary conditions for mineralization, which is why we believe a coordinated, district-scale exploration approach is the right strategy moving forward.”

“As we enter 2026, our focus is on execution—advancing both projects in parallel, testing priority areas, and continuing to build a deeper understanding of the system we have spent more than a decade assembling.”

Other Matters

The latest President’s Newsletter, along with updated maps and Corporate Presentation, are now available at www.pemcorp.ca.

About Trident

The Trident property is an early-stage exploration property located in north-central British Columbia that has been the focus of multiple historical and recent exploration programs. The property is located approximately 50 km southeast of the Kwanika deposit owned by NorthWest Copper Corp. and 50 km to the northwest of Centerra Gold’s Mt. Milligan Mine. The property covers 6,618 hectares endowed with well-established logging roads providing efficient access to support ongoing exploration programs.

In 2022, Pacific Empire acquired a 100% interest in the property in exchange for granting the vendors a 2% net smelter return royalty (“NSR“). One-half (1%) of the 2% NSR which may be purchased for $500,000 by Pacific Empire.

About Pinnacle

The Pinnacle project is located 60 km west of Centerra Gold’s Mt. Milligan Copper-Gold Mine and 30 km southeast of NorthWest Copper’s Kwanika Copper-Gold Deposit within a region that has hosted significant historical and active mineral exploration. Access to the Pinnacle is by road including a new and expanding network of logging roads and trails throughout the main target areas. This improved access is a significant development and is anticipated to contribute to cost effective drill support and provides additional bedrock exposure.

About Pacific Empire

Pacific Empire is a copper exploration company based in Vancouver, British Columbia and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol PEMC. The Company has a district-scale land position in north-central British Columbia totaling 22,541 hectares.

British Columbia is a “Green” copper jurisdiction with abundant hydroelectric power, access and infrastructure in close proximity to the end market.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD,

“Brad Peters”
President, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as “anticipate”, “believe”, “plan”, “estimate”, “expect”, and “intend”, statements that an action or event “may”, “might”, “could”, “should”, or “will” be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mineral exploration; fluctuations in commodity prices; title matters; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers, directors or promoters with certain other projects; the absence of dividends; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume and the additional risks identified the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. Forward-looking statements are made based on management’s beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

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