Begins 1,200-meter program, aiming for two holes that will further outline extent of Catch copper.

Cascadia Minerals Ltd. May 16 announced that drills are turning at its Catch copper project in central Yukon, marking an earlier start to the season as the company is eager to follow up on last year's success.

"We're pleased to have an early start to our exploration in 2024, with diamond drilling already underway at the Catch property," said Cascadia Minerals President and CEO Graham Downs. "Last year's late-season drill program was incredibly successful, and we are confident we have yet to hit the best part of the system."

Despite going through the motions of selling much of its previous gold properties to Hecla Mining Company, Cascadia Minerals (formerly ATAC Resources) was able to squeeze in a late-season drill program at Catch last year.

The inaugural drill program at Catch included two holes that confirmed a significant new copper-gold porphyry discovery at the Spark zone. Highlights from these holes include:

• 116.6 meters averaging 0.31% copper and 0.3 grams per metric ton gold from a depth of 356 meters in hole CA-23-002.

• 45.83 meters averaging 0.3% copper and 0.15 g/t gold from surface in CA-23-001.

Cascadia Minerals Ltd.

Map of IP chargeability anomalies at Catch, with 2023 drill holes and targets for this year's drilling.

Cascadia is following up on the 2023 discovery with one hole to target the stronger portion of an induced polarized chargeability anomaly about 315 meters southeast of 2023's drilling; and a step out about 150 meters north of hole 23-002, targeting a magnetic low coincident with high chargeability and resistivity.

"Our first hole this year will step out over 300 meters, targeting an even stronger section of the IP anomaly, with coincident high-grade copper at surface," said Downs. "We know potassic alteration carries significantly higher grades, and this year's work will vector towards that core of the system."

In addition to the drilling, a comprehensive prospecting, mapping, and soil sampling program is also underway that will focus on underexplored portions of Catch. So far, ten additional targets have been prioritized for follow-up rock sampling based on results from previous soil sampling and an airborne Z-axis tipper electromagnetic (ZTEM) survey.

A 1,600-by-600-meter copper-in-soil anomaly with an associated 500-by-500-meter magnetic low (analogous to the Spark zone) located 10 kilometers (six miles) southeast of CA-23-002 has been identified as a high priority.

Multiple zones of anomalous copper-in-soil response located in the central and eastern portions of the property that have yet to see follow-up prospecting will also be assessed in this field program.

Crews are also working to improve Cascadia's understanding of the Volt zone, where abundant high-grade copper-gold surface float is present, but limited diamond drilling has yet to intersect similar mineralization in bedrock.

The Volt zone occurs within a localized landslide, which has shifted surface mineralization from source by several hundred meters. Crews will work upslope from the slide area to locate the original bedrock source of mineralization.

"With an early start to the season, we expect to have core samples to the lab before they get backed up," finished Downs.