Trailbreaker Resources Ltd. has announced results from its 2025 exploration program at the Atsutla Gold project in northwestern British Columbia, revealing significant expansion of high-grade gold mineralization and discovery of new copper-gold-silver showings. Detailed prospecting and mapping in the Highlands zone area has expanded the known footprint of high-grade gold showings and led to discovery of new high-grade copper-gold-silver showings on recently acquired claims.
The 2025 program focused on exploring the continuity of a shallowly-dipping shear structure discovered in previous exploration that hosts high-grade gold-bearing quartz veins, with assays previously returning up to 630 g/t Au. The structure's continuity was explored on recently acquired claims, expanding the Highlands zone structural feature to a 1.0 km x 1.2 km area. A zone of high-grade copper and silver, termed the Highlands North zone, was discovered 1.1 km north of the high-grade gold showings.
Mineralization at the Highlands zone is interpreted to be part of a much larger system called Atsutla West, which includes the Christmas Creek and Snook zones. Combined, this area covers 5.0 km x 4.3 km. Trailbreaker's team interprets the gold mineralization to be orogenic in nature, with multiple gold ± silver ± copper-bearing shear zones related to larger faults occurring in the area. The company's 100%-owned Atsutla Gold project is located 70 km south of the Yukon-British Columbia border and covers over 40,000 hectares with very limited historic exploration.
The 2025 exploration program consisted of collection of 147 soil samples and 77 prospecting grab samples during late August and early September. Final assays were not received until late December due to multiple re-analyses of high-grade gold, copper, and silver as well as additional QA/QC completed by Bureau Veritas Labs. The purpose of the program was to further delineate the Highlands zone shear structure by additional prospecting in areas of previously discovered mineralization and on newly acquired claims to the west and north of the known gold zones.
Gold at the Highlands zone is found within quartz veins ranging from 10 cm to 60 cm thick occurring within a continuous, shallow-dipping shear structure. During 2025, this structure was traced along the side of a ridge for 1.0 km in a NE-SW direction. Rock samples taken from the northeast corner returned assays up to 221.6 g/t Au, and rocks taken from the southwest corner returned assays up to 9.32 g/t Au. The highest gold value returned, 401.8 g/t Au with 493 ppm Ag, was obtained from a rock taken 140 m from previously discovered high-grade showings. The structure was traced for an additional 1.2 km to the west, onto newly acquired claims, where assays returned values up to 4.83 g/t Au.
The newly discovered Highlands North zone yielded up to 1.65% Cu, 5.92 g/t Au, and 551 ppm Ag from separate rocks in an area 1.1 km north of the high-grade gold showing at the Highlands zone. The high-grade copper values were returned from more steeply dipping quartz veins from 20 cm to 80 cm thick, hosting chalcopyrite, bornite, malachite, azurite, and pyrite. Five rock samples in this area returned assay values greater than 1% Cu, and eight samples returned values greater than 100 ppm Ag.
Reconnaissance soil sampling to the west of the Highlands North zone returned values up to 66 ppb Au, suggesting potential for additional mineralization in this direction. Statistical analysis of rock and soil sample assays in the Highlands zone show that gold correlates with mercury, selenium, lead, silver, antimony, copper, and arsenic. High bismuth values also occur, but are generally related to high-grade copper.
Trailbreaker's team has interpreted the shear structure delineated at the Highlands zone to be continuous, with similar structures found at the Christmas Creek zone 1.5 km to the east, and the Snook zone 4.5 km to the north. The total surficial footprint of this area is 5.0 km x 4.3 km. Rock sampling indicates potential for further shear-hosted mineralized quartz veins at lower elevations along the slope, however much of this area is masked by a thick talus apron.
The Highlands zone and greater Atsutla West area are fully permitted for drilling. During the 2025 program, the Trailbreaker team ground-truthed potential drill pads to test the shear structure. The Swan target, situated 26 km to the southeast, is also fully permitted for drilling. The two areas represent different deposit models: Atsutla West is an orogenic Au target while Swan is a porphyry Cu-Au-Ag target. More information about the company's projects can be found at TrailbreakerResources.com.
Since discovery in 2020, Trailbreaker has outlined five significant zones of gold mineralization on the property across a span of 26 kilometers. These include the Highlands Zone with veins containing coarse visible gold assaying up to 630 g/t Au and 1,894 g/t Ag; Christmas Creek Zone with rock samples assaying up to 102 g/t Au and 524 g/t Ag; Snook Zone with high-grade veins assaying up to 53.3 g/t Au; Willie Jack Zone with a 1.25 km long gold-in-soil anomaly; and Swan Zone, a Cu-Au-Ag porphyry target defined by a 1.5 km x 1.5 km multi-element soil geochemical anomaly.
Quality assurance and quality control procedures were rigorously followed throughout the sampling and analysis process. Rock and soil samples were prepared using industry-standard methods at Bureau Veritas' prep lab in Whitehorse, YT, then sent to Bureau Veritas' lab in Vancouver, BC for analysis. Bureau Veritas performs its own QA/QC procedure and is ISO 17025 certified, with blanks, duplicates, and standard reference materials sequentially inserted into the sample stream to test for contamination, uniformity of element distribution, and analytical accuracy.
