Star Metro - Tectonic Metals Launches Largest Drill Program to Date with Three Drill Rigs at Flat Gold Project, Alaska

Tony Reda, Co-Founder, President & CEO of Tectonic Metals, commented: "We are entering the most transformative phase yet at Flat. With two rigs on site and a third en route, our 2025 Phase One drill campaign is laser-focused on delivering maximum value per metre drilled - through discovery, strategic de-risking and setting the stage for an economic mining opportunity at Flat.

Our primary focus is Alpha Bowl - a high-grade, near-surface oxide discovery that is not only open in all directions but directly linked to over 650,000 ounces of historic placer gold production. ¹ This is our strongest indication yet that we are drilling into the heart of a fertile gold system. From there, we advance to Golden Apex, our highest-priority untested intrusion target. If we unlock additional metres, we have our sights set on other district-scale intrusion targets that may see their first-ever drill holes.

What sets Flat apart isn't just its scale or geology, but its early, credible demonstration of multiple mineral processing pathways - including heap leaching and the rare, highly coveted potential for run-of-mine processing. With that endgame in mind, we are reverse engineering what a future mine at Flat could look like, which is why we are collecting two-inch crush material for additional heap leach column testing while at the same time targeting higher-grade corridors that could underpin high-margin starter pits.

I would like to emphasize that Phase One is just the beginning. As Flat continues to reveal its tier-one scale potential, we anticipate ongoing drilling in the months and years ahead. The project is rich with untapped targets, and we have a clear roadmap for continuous growth."

Peter Kleespies, Vice President of Exploration, commented: "Last season's Alpha Bowl discovery not only confirmed near-surface, high-grade oxide gold mineralization but also validated our RIRGS exploration model - specifically the association between low magnetic susceptibility zones, productive intrusion phases and hornfelsing, and proximity to gold-rich placer drainages as key indicators of blind, intrusion-related gold systems. The 2025 Phase One program is designed to build on that success. At Alpha Bowl, our drilling will focus on expanding mineralization along strike and at depth, targeting structurally controlled feeder zones and refining our geological model using oriented core and alteration mapping. Concurrently, we will apply the same integrated approach - relational geochemistry, 3D magnetic inversion, and structural reinterpretation - to test Golden Apex, our highest-priority undrilled intrusion target. Our 2025 program will directly test for this intrusion with the objective of advancing Golden Apex from a compelling target to a new discovery."

2025 Phase One Primary Drill Target: Alpha Bowl - Discovery of the Bedrock Source Beneath One of Alaska's Richest Placer Creeks

Alpha Bowl has rapidly evolved from a conceptual target into a confirmed high-grade, near-surface oxide gold discovery. Interpreted to represent the higher-grade core of the Chicken Mountain intrusive system and the bedrock source of over 650,000 ounces of historic placer gold from Flat Creek.

The 2024 drill campaign marked the first-ever drilling at Alpha Bowl, a 1.5 km x 1.0 km shallow basin located at the northern margin or "nose" of the Chicken Mountain intrusion. Despite a geologically blind setting - overprinted by decades of regolith and placer mining and offering minimal surficial geological context - Tectonic's methodical approach led to a breakthrough discovery, drill hole CMR24-026 returned ( PR March 3, 2025 ):

• 65.53 metres at 1.22 g/t Au, mineralized from surface to end-of-hole

  • Including 18.29m at 2.22 g/t Au

  • With subintervals of 6.10m at 6.01 g/t Au and 1.52m at 21.72 g/t Au

A reverse circulation ("RC") split sample from the same hole, subjected to Photon Assay to better account for coarse gold, returned even stronger grades:

• 65.53m at 2.13 g/t Au

  • Including 18.29m at 5.93 g/t Au

  • With 6.10m at 17.41 g/t Au and 1.52m at 67.18 g/t Au

This discovery confirms a high-tenor gold system with early signs of bonanza-grade potential and extends the drilled mineralized strike of the Chicken Mountain intrusion to over 3 km, with mineralization open in all directions and at depth.

2025 Alpha Bowl Drill Program Objectives

The 2025 campaign will focus on building upon the Alpha Bowl discovery with a series of diamond drill holes up to 300 metres in length supplemented with Reverse Circulation ("RC") drilling to cover the expansive area with key objectives of:

• Establishing scale, grade and continuity of the Alpha Bowl target

• Testing for deeper, structurally controlled feeder zones - potentially the conduits of focused mineralizing fluid pathways responsible for higher-grade mineralization and the exceptional placer endowment in the area.

• Collecting oriented core data to refine structural interpretations and support vectoring toward high-grade shoots

• Characterizing alteration assemblages and veining density to delineate zones of higher gold tenor

• Defining geological and structural controls within the broader Chicken Mountain system, especially at its northern extension

Figure 1.0: First diamond drill hole of the Phase One drill program at Alpha Bowl.

Additional Value Drivers of the Phase One Drill Program

Chicken Mountain - Advancing a Large-Scale, Open-Pit Heap Leachable Reduced Intrusion Related Gold System ("RIRGS")

Chicken Mountain is a 6.5 km x 6.0 km monzonite intrusion with over 3 km of drilled strike and mineralization confirmed to 325 metres vertical depth - representing a very small fraction of the entire intrusion. Notably, every creek draining from Chicken Mountain, including Alpha Bowl's Flat Creek, has yielded historical placer gold - evidence of a large, gold-fertile system.

Metallurgy De-Risks Development: 96% Gold Recovery Confirms Heap Leach Viability

Tectonic's metallurgical program - beginning with its inaugural testing results ( PR February 16, 2023 ) and followed by heap leach column tests ( PR May 16, 2024 ) - has confirmed that gold mineralization at Chicken Mountain is both free-milling and amenable to heap leaching. Initial heap leach column tests using coarse ¾-inch material from both oxidized and non-oxidized mineralized rock delivered exceptional results, yielding 96% and 91% gold recoveries after roughly 70 days, with over 80% recovery achieved within 29 - 36 days.

2025 Phase One Drill Program Objectives at Chicken Mountain

The 2025 drill campaign is strategically designed to generate critical technical data ahead of a maiden mineral resource estimate and future Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). Key initiatives include:

• Drilling PQ core to collect 2-inch material for additional coarser crush heap leach column testing - further validating the potential for ROM heap leaching and minimizing future crushing and grinding requirements, which typically account for ~50% of a mine's AISC (see slide 30 of Tectonic Corporate Presentation - showing 1 g/t cut off long section)

• Targeting high-grade corridors and near surface mineralization to delineate potential high-margin mining starter pits (see slide 25 of Tectonic Corporate Presentation - showing 1 g/t cut off long section).

• Collecting oriented core data to refine the structural model and enhance drill targeting for high-grade mineralization.

Golden Apex - Flat's Most Compelling Underexplored Intrusive Gold Target with Strong Geological and Placer Gold Linkages

Golden Apex is emerging as one of Flat's most prospective and underexplored Reduced Intrusion-Related Gold System (RIRGS) targets. Encompassing a 2.5 km x 2.0 km footprint, it exhibits all the hallmarks of a fertile intrusion-related gold system, including hornfelsing, a >1 km gold-in-soil anomaly and proximity to key structural corridors such as the Golden Apex and Black Creek faults.

Positioned immediately upstream of placer drainages with over 682,000 ounces (see slides 4, 6, 8 and 9 of Tectonic Corporate Presentation ) of recorded placer gold production. Golden Apex offers a direct vector to a likely bedrock source. ¹ Limited historical drilling in 2003 (hole GA03-02) was poorly oriented and collared into a fault zone, and yet still intercepted multiple gold-bearing intervals ( PR September 5, 2024 ):

• 12.34m @ 1.08 g/t Au, including 1.67m @ 7.13 g/t Au

• 22.86m @ 1.00 g/t Au, including 6.70m @ 3.09 g/t Au

• 9.60m @ 0.93 g/t Au

In 2024, Tectonic re-logged the historical core, resampled key intervals, and conducted 3D magnetic inversion modeling, which revealed the potential for a previously unrecognized, shallow blind intrusion hosted within a low magnetic susceptibility domain - a geophysical signature that directly led to the Alpha Bowl 2024 drill discovery and proven to be a powerful vectoring tool for blind, high-potential RIRGS targets.

In 2025, Tectonic will initiate targeted step-out diamond drilling from GA03-02 to follow up on these historical results and directly test for the newly interpreted causative intrusion at this highly prospective target.

Armed with historic and new drill assay data, new geophysical modelling and a proven exploration vector, Golden Apex now ranks as the highest-priority untested intrusion center at the Flat Gold Project and a compelling target for discovery in 2025.

• For a closer look at our 2025 priority targets, including maps and figures, view the full PDF presentation +here

Stock Option Grant

The Company also announces that it has granted a total of 3,860,000 incentive stock options to directors, officers, advisors, consultants, and employees of the Company to purchase up to 3,860,000 common shares ("Option Shares") in the capital of Tectonic. The stock options have an exercise price of C$0.75 per Option Share, vest over an eighteen-month period in three equal installments every six months from the grant date and expire five years from the grant date.

• Learn More About Tectonic Metals

• Subscribe To Our Email List

• View our 2025 Fact Sheet or Corporate Presentation

• Tectonic invites you to take a virtual tour of our Flat Gold Project with both the CEO of Tectonic and one of Alaska's largest for-profit Native Regional Corporations, Doyon Ltd.

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Footnotes and References:

1. Placer production figures from "Mineral Occurrence and Development Potential Report, Locatable and Salable Minerals, Bering Sea-Western Interior Resource Management Plan, BLM Alaska Technical Report 60", prepared by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, November 2010. 

Qualified Person 

Tectonic Metals' disclosure of technical or scientific information in this press release has been reviewed, verified and approved by Peter Kleespies, M.Sc., P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration, who is a Qualified Person in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101.

On behalf of Tectonic Metals Inc.,

Tony Reda

President and Chief Executive Officer

For further information about Tectonic Metals Inc. or this news release, please visit our website at www.tectonicmetals.com or contact Jesse Manna, Investor Relations, toll-free at 1.888.685.8558 or by email at [email protected]

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking information and statements under applicable securities law. Any statements that are contained in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "may", "should", "anticipate", "expect", "intend" and similar expressions and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Offering, including the expected closing date and participation by certain strategic funds for the amounts described herein; the intended use of the net proceeds of the Offering, including the Company securing sufficient funds for the 2025 drill program at Alpha Bowl by the expected launch date; the potential for mineralization and planned exploration and drilling activities at Tectonic's projects, any future exploration activities and the size; the terms and closing date of the Share Consolidation, including the expected benefits for shareholders; the receipt of any regulatory approvals, including the final approval of the TSXV for the Offering and the Share Consolidation.

Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and is based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management at the date the statements are made including, among others, assumptions about the Company securing sufficient financing for its planned exploration and drilling initiatives on acceptable terms or at all, current estimates and assumptions regarding the benefits of the Share Consolidation, future prices of gold and other metal prices, currency exchange rates and interest rates, favourable operating conditions, political stability, obtaining governmental and other approvals and financing on time, obtaining required licenses and permits, labour stability, stability in market conditions, availability of equipment, accuracy of any mineral resources, successful resolution of disputes and anticipated costs and expenditures. Many assumptions are based on factors and events that are not within the control of Tectonic, and there is no assurance they will prove to be correct.

Although Tectonic considers these beliefs and assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking statements in this release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks, including, without limitation: the Company's

ability to consummate the Offering and the Share Consolidation on the terms described herein or at all; the Company's ability to implement its business strategies; risks associated with mineral exploration and production; risks associated with general economic conditions; adverse industry events; marketing and transportation costs; loss of markets; volatility of commodity prices; inability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favourable terms; industry and government regulation; changes in legislation, income tax and regulatory matters; competition; currency and interest rate fluctuations; and other risks.

Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions, or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Although Tectonic has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Tectonic does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

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

SOURCE: Tectonic Metals Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

P.Beaulieu--SMC