Trans Canada Gold Enters into an Option Agreement with Bear Mountain Gold Mines to Acquire a 60% Interest in the Harrison Lake District Scale Gold Property, with $10.0 Million Dollars in Prior Exploration Expenditures

2026-02-04

TSXV - TSX Venture Exchange · Oil · Gold · Canada

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA / ACCESS Newswire / February 4, 2026 / Trans Canada Gold Corp. (TSX-V:TTG)(OTCQB:TTGXF) ("Trans Canada" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into an arm's length five-year Option Agreement on February 2nd, 2026, to acquire a 60% interest subject to a 2% net smelter returns royalty ("NSR") in a district scale gold project called the Harrison Lake Gold Property (5,068 ha) located near Harrison Lake, situated in south-western British Columbia, Canada (The "Property"), with Bear Mountain Gold Mines ("BMGM"). The terms include paying $250,000 CDN in cash to BMGM, incurring 5,000,000 in exploration and drilling expenditures, and issuing 10,000,000 shares of the Company's common stock to BMGM, over a 5-year period. The transaction is conditional on TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") approval and completion of a financing which is currently pending. The Company can earn its interest by making the following payments and incurring the following expenditures:

paying $50,000 and issuing 2,000,000 common shares to BMGM on the date that is 5 business days following TSXV approval of the Option Agreement (the "Option Date");

paying an additional $50,000 and issuing an additional 2,000,000 common shares to BMGM, and incurring $600,000 in exploration expenditures on the Property on or before the first anniversary of the Option Date;

incurring an additional $900,000 in exploration expenditures on the Property on or before September 23, 2027;

paying an additional $50,000 and issuing an additional 2,000,000 common shares to BMGM on or before the second anniversary of the Option Date;

paying an additional $50,000 and issuing an additional 2,000,000 common shares to BMGM, and incurring an additional $1,000,000 in exploration expenditures on the Property on or before the third anniversary of the Option Date;

paying an additional $50,000 and issuing an additional 2,000,000 common shares to BMGM, and incurring an additional $1,000,000 in exploration expenditures on the Property, on or before the fourth anniversary of the Option Date; and

incurring an additional $1,500,000 in exploration expenditures on the Property prior to the fifth anniversary of the Option Date.

The initial payment of $50,000 and issuance of 2,000,000 shares to BMGM are firm commitments and must be made regardless of whether the Company exercises the option in full.

BMGM will carry out all exploration operations on the Property in accordance with work programs prepared by BMGM and approved by an operations committee including two or more representatives of the Company and one representative of BMGM. BMGM will act as an independent contractor and will be entitled to charge an administrative fee equal to 10% of the expenditures incurred from time to time (which administrative fee will form part of the expenditures for the purposes of meeting the expenditure requirements under the Option Agreement).

BMGM holds the Property pursuant to an underlying option agreement with Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd. The Company holds its option as a "sub-option" subject to the terms of the underlying option agreement, pursuant to which the Property is subject to a 2% net smelter return royalty and up to $800,000 in annual $200,000 special royalty payments on the occurrence of certain events. The Option Agreement requires that at least 50% of expenditures incurred must be incurred in a specified area. The Option Agreement also contains an area of interest provision pursuant to which any interest acquired by a party within three kilometers of the outer boundaries of the Property (including mineral claims, licenses, water rights, surface rights, exploration permits or other interests) become part of the Property and subject to the terms of the Option Agreement.

Under the terms of the Option Agreement, upon exercise of the Option and earning of a 60% interest by the Company, further development of the Property will be carried out under 2 separate joint ventures (each covering a separate area of the Property) between the Company and BMGM.

Pursuant to the Option Agreement, BMGM has agreed to vote all the shares of the Company it holds in favour of resolutions recommended by management of the Company at meetings of the Company's shareholders.

The Harrison Lake Gold Project hosts a seven-kilometer-long ridge, in a District scale gold property that contains extensive intrusive related gold mineralization. Local prospectors discovered and partially mined a high-grade vein (called the RN Mine) in the northern part of the current Property in the late 1970's and Vancouver based Abo Oil Corp and Kerr Adisson Mines ("Kerr Adisson") optioned the claims in the early 1980's. Preliminary work identified "gold in soil" anomalies near the discovery and follow up drilling intersected wide intervals of stockwork type mineralization within small diorite intrusions (called the Jenner and Portal Zones) including DDH 84-52: 102 meters of 3.54 g/t. In 1986 Bema International Resources ("Bema") acquired Abo Oil and entered into a joint venture agreement with Kerr Addisson Mines that funded approximately $7 million in exploration drilling and underground development work.

The exploration work funded by Bema and Kerr Adisson was primarily focused on the Jenner and Portal Zones but also identified a corridor of similar diorite intrusions and "gold in soil" anomalies that extended for more than two kilometers to the south of the original discovery. Follow up drilling of some of these anomalies identified more diorite hosted stockwork type mineralization including the Hill Zone which reportedly returned 30 meters of 3.0 g/t gold. Approximately 20,000 meters of historic drilling and several hundred meters of underground development work were completed by Bema and Kerr Adisson, but the claims lapsed in 2000 and were re-staked by Eagle Plains Resources (and subsequently transferred to Omineca Mining and Metals as part of a corporate restructuring in 2006).

Based on the drilling completed above the 50 meter ASL level Norman, (1989), Summary Report of the Harrison Gold Project, New Westminster Mining Division, Harrison Lake, British Columbia, using a one gram cut-off grade for the Jenner Zone and a 2 gram cut-off grade for the Portal Zone estimated that the Jenner and Portal Zones contain 2,458,674 tons at an average grade of 2.79 g/t or 220,300 ounces. This historical estimate is relevant to the Harrison Gold Property as it suggests there may be mineralization present. However, this estimate does not use the resource categories as defined by CIM and the differences to the CIM categories are not known. The qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as a current mineral resource. The Company is not treating the historical estimates as a current mineral resource.

The estimate for the Jenner Zone was based on a total of 2,920 meters of inclined diamond drilling in 21 surface holes and 2,754 meters of vertical and inclined diamond drilling in 23 underground holes. The drilling was completed during the period 1983 to 1988. Drill holes are variously oriented east-west, north-south and at several off-sectional azimuths. According to Norman, drill hole information is relatively sparse in the north half of the stock (north of 9500 N) and little drilling was done below the 50 meter level (ASL).

The previously described gold zones established the basis from which Norman estimated a number of separate categories. His methods of mineral (resource) block delineation and other (resource) estimation procedures are outlined in point form below: Parameters of the tonnage/grade calculation were as follows, as summarized by Norman, (1989).

The sectional method of mineral reserve ("Mineral Resource") estimation was employed because of the predominantly low-angle structural characteristics of the mineralized vein systems and interpreted gold zones.

Gold histograms, which show natural assay "breaks' down a drill hole, were relied upon for determining the length over which an average assay would be calculated.

In general, for averaging purposes, the minimum drill intercept considered was 3 meters at a 1.0 g/t Au cut-off. In some cases, where immediately adjacent drill hole information indicated continuity, intercepts of less than 3 meters averaging marginally less than 1 g/t Au were used to delineate gold zone boundaries, (e.g. 0.94 g/t Au).

Zones of internal waste consisting of 5 or more consecutive one meter sample intervals, each assaying less than 1.0 g/t Au, were not included in reserve blocks.

All mineralized intercepts, including those encountered in north-south and off-sectional drilling (the latter included JNUG 84-29 to 84-30 and 88-118) were accounted for on east-west mineral reserve ("Mineral Resource") block sections. This was done by projecting the midpoint of the mineralized intercept to the appropriate section. In some cases, in order to preserve geological integrity intercept midpoints were projected to certain sections even though their location may have been up to as much as 5 meters beyond the "window of influence" for that section.

Reserve ("Mineral Resource") blocks containing more than one assay intercept, projected or otherwise, were assigned a grade equal to the weighted average of all included intercepts.

Probable resource blocks were established by projecting block boundaries a distance of 15 meters away from the mid- point of the drill intercept. Direction of projection was parallel to the inferred contacts of the interpreted mineralized zones.

Possible resource blocks were established by projecting block boundaries an additional 30 meters beyond the outer limit of probable block boundaries. The grade assigned was the same as that of the adjacent probable block.

Where adjacent sectional information indicated the likelihood that a given mineralized zone would extend to the margins of the stock, possible resource blocks, (with no assigned grade) were established beyond the limits of those defined under paragraph 3. Similarly, where adjacent sectional information demonstrated continuity of a gold zone into an area with no drill hole information, a possible resource block (again with no assigned grade) was established.

The bisectrix of the angle between adjacent drill holes on the same section formed resource block boundaries.

The length of sectional projection was one-half the distance between adjacent sections, except for the southern and northernmost sections (9450 N and 9575 N respectively), the distance of projection was limited by the margin of the stock.

Xenoliths were assigned as waste unless indicated otherwise by drilling.

Since there was no east-west sectional information to the north of 9500 N, it was necessary to construct projected mineral reserve ("Mineral Resource") block sections based on north-south and off sectional drill hole information. The method of projection of assay intercept midpoints was as in that described in point 5.

Jenner Zone

A summary of the estimate for the Jenner zone from Norman's 1989 study is shown as follows:

Table 6.3.1: Historical Tonnage and Grade Estimate for the Jenner Zone

Mineralized Zone

Resource

Category

Resource

Tonnes

Grade g/t Au

Grams

Ounces

Jenner zone

"Probable and Possible"

1,801,134

2.71

4,876,635

156,710

Portal zone

"Probable and Possible"

657,753

3.02

1,984,324

63,766

All the Norman resource estimates are uncut and undiluted, with a 1.0 g/t gold cut-off used for the Jenner Zone. A cut-off grade of 2.0 g/t gold was used for the Portal Zone. The conversion from grams to ounces is at 31.119 grams per ounce. Stated ounces are in-situ and would be diminished on production by a number of recovery factors which cannot be calculated at this time.

This historical estimate is relevant to the Harrison Gold Property as it suggests there may be mineralization present. However, this estimate does not use the resource categories as defined by CIM and the differences to the CIM categories are not known. The qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as a current mineral resource. The Company is not treating the historical estimates as a current mineral resource.

In 1987, N.C. Croome, P.Eng. of L.J. Manning and Associates completed an engineering study of the mining potential of the Jenner Zone at the Harrison Gold property, in consultation with G. Hawthorne, P.Eng., Mineral Processing Engineer.

During the early 2000's well known geologists including Jean Pautier, Charles Downie and, Barry Price recognized that the style of mineralization is similar to the gold deposits of the Tintina Gold Belt that straddles the Yukon - Alaska border and also recognized that the mineralized diorite intrusions are localized along a regionally extensive shear zone adjacent to a large diorite batholith. Snowline Gold's recent discovery of the Valley deposit, clearly demonstrates the potential of these types of occurrences.

In 2011 the current operator staked the ground to the south of the Omineca claims and optioned the former Bema Property to cover the entire 7-kilometer strike length of the Harrison Lake Shear Zone that is adjacent to the Hicks Batholith. Soil geochemical surveys completed between 2012 and 2018 confirmed the presence of significant, untested "gold in soil" anomalies within the Omineca claims and identified multiple additional "gold in soil" anomalies along the entire seven-kilometer strike length of the Harrison Lake Shear Zone. In addition to expanding the Property, the current operator has updated the project database to modern standards, rehabilitated the underground workings, identified multiple low impact development options and obtained permitting for underground sampling and drilling.

It is also important to note that the historic drilling also intersected significant, high grade gold mineralization within the Jenner and Portal Zones including DDH 88-76 which intersected 7.0 meters averaging 21.4 g/t and DDH 88-121 which intersected 9.0 meters averaging 13.5 g/t. (Note: the intercept in DDH 88-121 is more than 50 meters vertically below the historic resource estimate and requires additional drilling).

Additional targeted drilling is expected to verify the historic results and potentially identify multiple additional gold mineralized zones. The property has easy access to the Trans-Canada Highway, related Hydroelectric power and rail service and infrastructure, and has a close proximity to several communities, including Chilliwack, British Columbia. Exploration drilling and underground sampling activities for the Bear Mountain Project are fully permitted for 2026-27.

The mineralized diorite stocks that have been identified on the Harrison Gold property are assumed to be genetically related to the 25 km2 Hicks Lake Batholith (dated at 24.5 Ma). BC Government maps show that the western contact of the Hicks Lake Batholith is roughly parallel to the Hicks Lake Structural Zone (HLSZ) and approximately one kilometer to the east. The segment of the HLSZ that extends through Bear Mountain is 7 kilometers long and up to 2 km wide. It has been confirmed in multiple historic technical reports that follow up drilling of "gold in soil anomalies" resulted in the discovery of several mineralized zones. The apparent structural controls on the emplacement of diorite intrusions within Bear Mountain appear to have created an NNW-SSE trending corridor of prospective diorite and quartz diorite intrusions.

HARRISON LAKE GOLD DISTRICT SCALE GOLD PROJECT- GOLD AND EXPLORATION HIGHLIGHTS

The Harrison Lake Gold Project contains a 7-kilometre-long ridge with diorite/ quartz bearing extensive intrusive related gold mineralization, situated near Harrison Lake, British Columbia. Historical drilling results confirm the presence of significant high-grade gold mineralization.

The Harrison Lake Mineral claims (5,025 ha or 7475 acre) are fully road accessible from the TransCanada Highway and Highway 7 in southwestern British Columbia, with numerous secondary logging roads and related power and rail service.

The property covers a 7-kilometre strike length of the gold rich Harrison Lake Structural Zone, with stockwork type gold mineralization within diorite intrusions (Jenner and Portal Zones) including DDH-84-52: 102 meters of 3.54 g/t gold.

Jenner and Portal Zones include DDH 88-76 which intersected 7.0 meters averaging 21.4 g/t and DDH 88-121 which intersected 9.0 meters averaging 13.5 g/t. (Note: the intercept in DDH 88-121 is more than 50 meters vertically below the historic resource estimate and requires additional drilling).

A corridor of similar diorite intrusions and "gold in soil" anomalies that extends for more than two kilometers to the south of the original discovery. Follow up drilling of some of these anomalies identified more diorite hosted stockwork type mineralization including DDH 88-130 which tested the Hill Zone and reportedly returned 30 meters averaging 3.0 g/t.

The style of mineralization is similar to the gold deposits of the Tintina Gold Belt that straddles the Yukon - Alaska border and it has also been recognized that the mineralized diorite intrusions are localized along a regionally extensive shear zone adjacent to a large diorite batholith. Snowline Gold' recent discovery of the Valley deposit clearly demonstrates the potential of these types of occurrences

Over $10.0 Million dollars in previous exploration drilling expenditures.

Drilling Permits have been approved and granted by the Province of British Columbia for 2026-2027

Commented President & CEO Tim Coupland, "We are acquiring the Harrison Lake Gold project with over $10.0 million dollars in prior drilling and exploration expenditures, and a 220,000 oz. historic gold resource, that is fully permitted for diamond drilling, in a precious metals super-cycle where gold has now exceeded $5,000 oz. for the first time in history. We are utilizing the gold experience of our newly appointed Exploration Manager, Mr. Magrum P. Eng, a seasoned exploration professional proficient in targeted gold exploration drilling, with the expectation of drilling and delivering another gold producer added to his list of achievements to the Canadian mining markets. Mr. Magrum is joining our company at a time when we are entering a long -term precious metals Super-cycle especially when gold and silver prices are substantially above historical norms driven by powerful, structural economic forces."

Trans Canada Gold Enters into an Option Agreement with Bear Mountain Gold Mines to Acquire a 60% Interest in the Harrison Lake District Scale Gold Property, with $10.0 Million Dollars in Prior Exploration Expenditures

Earlier from Trans Canada Gold Corp