Trailbreaker Resources Ltd. has reported significant expansion of high-grade gold mineralization at its Atsutla Gold project in northwestern British Columbia following its 2025 exploration program. The company's detailed prospecting and mapping efforts have extended the known footprint of the Highlands zone shear structure to a 1.0 km by 1.2 km area while discovering new high-grade copper-gold-silver showings 1.1 kilometers to the north.
The importance of these findings lies in their demonstration of a potentially extensive mineral system in a region with limited historic exploration. The Highlands zone, which hosts high-grade gold-bearing quartz veins with assays up to 630 g/t gold, represents a new discovery where mineralization has been found at surface over multiple kilometers without previous drilling. CEO Daithi Mac Gearailt emphasized that the zone continues to exceed expectations, with its footprint expanding with each exploration campaign.
During the 2025 program, Trailbreaker collected 147 soil samples and 77 prospecting grab samples between late August and early September. Final assays were delayed until late December due to multiple re-analyses of high-grade gold, copper, and silver samples and additional quality assurance procedures conducted by Bureau Veritas Labs. The highest gold value returned was 401.8 g/t gold with 493 ppm silver from a rock sample taken 140 meters from previously discovered high-grade showings.
The newly discovered Highlands North zone, located 1.1 kilometers north of the main gold showings, yielded assays up to 1.65% copper, 5.92 g/t gold, and 551 ppm silver from separate rock samples. This zone features more steeply dipping quartz veins hosting chalcopyrite, bornite, malachite, azurite, and pyrite. Five rock samples in this area returned assay values greater than 1% copper, and eight samples returned values greater than 100 ppm silver.
Geological interpretation suggests the Highlands zone is part of a much larger system called Atsutla West, which includes the Christmas Creek and Snook zones covering a combined area of 5.0 km by 4.3 km. Trailbreaker's team interprets the gold mineralization as orogenic in nature, with multiple gold ± silver ± copper-bearing shear zones related to larger faults in the area. The company's 100%-owned Atsutla Gold project covers over 40,000 hectares with very limited historic exploration, positioned 70 kilometers south of the Yukon-British Columbia border and 120 kilometers northwest of Dease Lake.
Statistical analysis of rock and soil sample assays reveals that gold correlates with mercury, selenium, lead, silver, antimony, copper, and arsenic. High bismuth values also occur, generally related to high-grade copper mineralization. Reconnaissance soil sampling west of the Highlands North zone returned values up to 66 ppb gold, suggesting potential for additional mineralization in that direction.
The implications of these discoveries are substantial for the mining industry and regional economic development. The Atsutla West area is fully permitted for drilling, and during the 2025 program, Trailbreaker ground-truthed potential drill pads to test the shear structure. The project represents two different deposit models: Atsutla West as an orogenic gold target and the Swan target, situated 26 kilometers southeast, as a porphyry copper-gold-silver target. Both areas are fully permitted for drilling, indicating potential advancement toward resource definition.
For additional technical information about the company's projects, visit TrailbreakerResources.com. The technical information in this release was reviewed and approved by Carl Schulze, P. Geo., Consulting Geologist with Aurora Geosciences Ltd, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
