Alpha Announces Dr. Richard Sillitoe World-Renowned Economic Geologist Joins the Company as Advisor and Exploration Drilling Commences
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2026) - Alpha Exploration Ltd. (TSXV: ALEX) ("Alpha" or the "Company")is pleased to announce Dr. Richard Sillitoe, one of the world's foremost experts on copper and gold deposits, has joined the Alpha team as a technical and strategic advisor. Dr Sillitoe will provide valuable insights and strategy from hands-on geological field observations and global experience in the exploration of similar mineralised systems.
The Company also announces that an exploration drilling programme has commenced at its Kerkasha Project that will include approximately 6,000 metres at the Aburna Gold prospect and 4,000 metres at the Anagulu Copper-Gold prospect. This exploration phase, totalling some 10,000 metres, will include both reverse circulation ("RC") and core drilling. The main objectives of this work are to augment the known gold mineralization at Aburna, and test other new targets nearby in search of new discoveries. In addition, expand the Anagulu Copper-Gold porphyry prospect through further mineralised drill intercepts.
Both prospects are located within its 100% owned, 514km² Kerkasha Project located in Eritrea (see Figure 1).
The Aburna Goldprospect is a district-scale gold system covering an area at least a 7 km long and 2 km wide. Three prospects, Central, Hill 52, and Northeast have been the main focus for previous exploration and evaluation drilling. The large Aburna area of gold mineralization is also marked by extensive anomalous gold values in soil and shallow rotary air blast ("RAB") drill sampling, in places associated with artisanal workings.
The Anagulu Copper-Gold porphyry prospect was discovered by the Alpha team through surface sampling and mapping with follow-up drilling. The exploration target footprint has been expanded by recent shallow RAB drilling, following up on termite mound sampling, to some 4 by 2km. These prospects, located only some 7 km apart, are two of three significant discoveries made by the Alpha team on the Kerkasha licence.
John Wilton, CEO of Alpha, stated:"We are delighted that Dr. Sillitoe has agreed to join our team. He first completed a drill core review of Alpha's copper-gold project in 2021 and confirmed its porphyry style of mineralisation. In January of this year, he spent 10 days in the field with the Alpha exploration team visiting outcrops and reviewing drill core from both the Aburna Gold and Anagulu Copper-Gold prospects. This work provided several important insights from the detailed geological and mineralisation observations coupled with his global experience. We are incorporating these understandings into our exploration drill plans. Dr. Sillitoe's wide-ranging international technical expertise and premier reputation will be highly valuable to Alpha as we advance our gold and copper exploration projects in Eritrea and pursue our growth value strategy.
Dr. Sillitoe comments "that he is pleased to be working with the Alpha team and looks forward to assisting in the advancement and expansion of their diverse portfolio of gold ± base metal projects."
Wilton continued, in addition, our in-country team has commenced our next phase of exploration drilling planned for some 10,000 metres to be completed during Q2 into Q3, with first results expected at the end of Q2 or early Q3. The primary aim of this exploration campaign is to increase the area of the drilled gold mineralisation at the Aburna Gold prospect, and test other nearby targets in search of additional discoveries. Also, the drilling at the Anagulu Copper-Gold prospect will test the expanded exploration target footprint resulting from recent positive shallow RAB and termite mound analytical results."
DR RICHARD SILLITOE JOINS ALPHA TEAM AS TECHNICAL AND STRATEGIC ADVISOR
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Dr Richard Sillitoe has served as an independent economic geological consultant for numerous international mining companies in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Australasia, Southeast Asia and the western Pacific region for the past 50 years, during which time he has made major contributions to the discovery of a variety of copper, gold and other deposits. He is the author of 130 economic geology articles as well as three books documenting circum-Pacific discoveries.
Richard graduated from the University of London, England, where he went on to obtain a PhD degree in 1968. After working for the Instituto de Investigaciones Geológicas (Geological Survey of Chile) and then returning to the Royal School of Mines at the University of London as a Shell postdoctoral research fellow, he began his consulting career with mining companies, international agencies and foreign governments.
He has a breadth of experience, including work on precious, base and lithophile-metal deposits and prospects in 100 countries worldwide, but focuses primarily on the epithermal gold and porphyry copper environments. His specialty is deposit modelling using field observations and drill core. Published research has earned him awards in Europe, Australia and North and South America, including the R.A.F. Penrose Gold Medal of the Society of Economic Geologists, of which he was President in 1999-2000.
ABURNA GOLD AND ANAGULU COPPER-GOLD Q2/Q3 2026 DRILL PROGRAMME
Alpha has commenced its planned 10,000 metres Q2/Q3, 2026 exploration drilling programme that will include approximately 6,000 metres at the Aburna Gold prospect and 4,000 metres at the Anagulu Copper-Gold prospect. This campaign will utilise some 6,500 metres of RC and 3,500 metres of core drilling.
ABURNA GOLD PROSPECT
The planned 6,000 metres of drilling at the Aburna prospect ("Aburna") will target the expansion of the gold mineralisation discovered by the Alpha team to date. This will be combined with the 32,634 metres already completed by Alpha at the Hill 52, Central and NE areas, and to test other compelling geological targets nearby in search of new discoveries.
The gold mineralisation at Aburna is relatively shallow, with some 90 percent of the drilling delivering intercepts shallower than 120 metres. In addition, to date, only approximately 20 percent of the 'Aburna Corridor,' as defined by gold-in-soil anomalies, trenching, reconnaissance RAB drilling in areas of transported soil, permissive geology and structure, has been tested by significant drilling.
Selected mineralised intervals at Aburna include: (previously reported, see Figure 1 notes for references & details)
ABD012: 18m @ 15.33 g/t Au (276) GMfrom 114m, ABR037: 16m @ 14.07 g/t Au (225) GMfrom 14m
ABD008: 5m @ 32.10 g/t Au (160) GMfrom 129m, ABD001: 23m @ 6.74 g/t Au (155) GMfrom 89m
ABD013: 49m @ 2.75 g/t Au (135) GMfrom 18m, ABR018: 19m @ 5.19 g/t Au (99) GMfrom 50m
ABR092: 9m @ 10.00 g/t Au (90) GMfrom 55m
Note: GM: Gram metre = Drilled Interval * grade
ANAGULU COPPER-GOLD PROSPECT
Approximately 4,000 metres of drilling are planned at the Anagulu Copper-Gold porphyry prospect. The objectives of this current drilling programme at Anagulu are to test new shallow exploration targets recently identified from shallow RAB drilling, and to further examine the width, grade and depth potential of the system.
This mineralised porphyry system has already returned drilled intercepts over some 2.4 kilometres along trend. Importantly, the mineralisation is centred in a quartz-eye porphyry dyke that extends from surface outcrops to some 340 metres depth. Recently reported shallow reconnaissance RAB drilling and termite mound sampling has expanded the exploration target footprint to some 4 by 2 kilometres. One of the most compelling new targets is the Camel Target Zone ("Camel") that represents an area of at least 1 kilometre along its northeast to southwest trend and some 250 metres in width; it is separate and parallel to the previously discovered Copper-Gold mineralisation. Furthermore, this new target zone remains open to expansion to the south and west where there is a large area of geochemically anomalous copper recently returned by termite mound sampling (see Alpha news release dated February 24, 2026).
Selected mineralised intervals at Anagulu include: (previously reported, see Figure 1 notes for references & details)
AND001: 108m @ 1.25 g/t Au (134 GM) & 0.60 % Cufrom 59m
Including: 49m @ 2.33 g/t Au (144 GM) & 1.05 % Cufrom 80m
AND005: 109m @ 0.79 g/t Au (86 GM) & 0.35 % Cufrom 99m
ANR044: 70m @ 0.56 g/t Au (39 GM) & 0.37 % Cufrom 140m
ANRD049: 120m @ 0.47 g/t Au (56 GM) & 0.30% Cu from279m
Note: GM: Gram metre = Drilled Interval * grade
Figure 1: Alpha Exploration Kerkasha Project Showing Location of Main Prospects and Selected Previously Reported Drill Results(see Figure 1 notes for references to more detail of the drill intercepts)
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Figure 1 notes: Previously reported results in Alpha Exploration news releases; Alpha exploration announces 18m @ 15.33 g/t gold & 49m @ 2.75 g/t gold from Hill 52 Aburna, March 1, 2024, Aburna gold prospect delivers positive drill results in four areas including:16m @ 14.07 g/t gold, November 23, 2022, Alpha exploration announces new drill results from the Aburna gold district including 29 meters averaging 2.89 g/t gold at hill 52 prospect, and 8 meters averaging 3.77 g/t gold at the Northeast prospect, November 14, 2024, Alpha exploration announces new gold discovery at Aburna with drill intercepts 15 m of 5.85 g/t gold & 10m of 5.24 g/t gold, May 3, 2022. Alpha Exploration Announces New Gold Discovery at Aburna with Drill Intercepts 15m of 5.85 g/t Gold & 10m of 5.24 g/t Gold, May 3, 2022, Alpha Exploration Announces More Drilling Results from Aburna with Intercept of 22m of 4.50 g/t Gold, May 25, 2022, Alpha Exploration Announces Additional New Drill Results from the Aburna Gold District, Kerkasha Project Eritrea, January 9, 2025, Alpha Expands Anagulu Porphyry Mineralisation with Drill Intercept of 120 metres grading 0.30% Copper and 0.47 g/t Gold, February 24, 2026, Alpha Exploration announces final 2024 drilling results at Aburna Gold and Anagulu Gold Copper prospects and updates exploration plans for 2025, March 21st 2025., Alpha Exploration Reports 95m of 1.30 g/t AuEq from Anagulu Porphyry Gold-Copper Prospect, Kerkasha Project Eritrea, December 9, 2021, Alpha Exploration Announces Results from Maiden Drilling at Tolegimja Copper-Zinc-Gold VMS Discovery, June 6, 2022 and NI 43-101 Technical Report for the Kerkasha Project, Eritrea, RSC Mining & Mineral Exploration, 21 June 2021.
QUALIFIED PERSON
All scientific and technical information in this press release, including the results of the Aburna drill program and how these results relate to the ongoing exploration at the Kerkasha Project has been reviewed, verified, and approved by John Wilton CGeol, FGS, CEO & Director of Alpha and a "qualified person" for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.
ABOUT ALPHA
Alpha (TSXV: ALEX) is an exploration company that is rapidly advancing several important gold and base metal discoveries across its 100% owned, large (514km2) Kerkasha Project in Eritrea.
The Aburna Gold prospect is an exciting new gold discovery covering a very large 7.2km x 2km footprint where recent drilling has established a high-grade discovery with grades including 18m @ 15.33 g/t Au, 49m @ 2.75 g/t Au, 16 m @ 14.07 g/t Au, 9 m @ 10 g/t Au and 23 m @ 6.74 g/t Au.
The Anagulu Gold-Copper prospect with recent drilling intersections of 108 m @ 1.24 g/t Au and 0.60% Cu including 49 m @ 2.42 g/t Au and 1.10% Cu, and 109 m @ 0.79 g/t Au and 0.35 % Cu within a porphyry unit and with an exploration target footprint of some 4 by 2kms. The Company is also exploring the Tolegimja Copper-Zinc-Gold volcanogenic massive sulphide prospect and has identified over 17 other gold and base metal targets since listing in 2021.
Alpha is managed by a team of highly experienced and successful mining professionals with long track records of establishing, building and successfully exiting a number of world class gold and base metal discoveries in Eritrea, across the wider Arabian-Nubian Shield, and other regions of Africa.
Cautionary Notes
This press release is intended for distribution in Canada only and is not intended for distribution to United States newswire services or dissemination in the United States. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
Forward Looking Statements
Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements or information include but are not limited to statements or information with respect to future dataset interpretations, sampling, plans for its projects (including the Anagulu prospect), surveys related to Alpha's assets, and the Company's drilling program. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of words such as "estimate", "project", "belief", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may" or "should" and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, Alpha has made numerous assumptions including among other things, assumptions about general business and economic conditions and the price of gold and other minerals. The foregoing list of assumptions is not exhaustive.
Although management of Alpha believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements or information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements or information herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These factors include, but are not limited to: risks relating to Alpha's financing efforts; risks associated with the business of Alpha given its limited operating history; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; the supply and demand for labour and other project inputs; changes in commodity prices; changes in interest and currency exchange rates; risks relating to inaccurate geological and engineering assumptions (including with respect to the tonnage, grade and recoverability of reserves and resources); risks relating to unanticipated operational difficulties (including failure of equipment or processes to operate in accordance with specifications or expectations, cost escalation, unavailability of materials and equipment, government action or delays in the receipt of government approvals, industrial disturbances or other job action, and unanticipated events related to health, safety and environmental matters); risks relating to adverse weather conditions; political risk and social unrest; changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets; changes in laws (including regulations respecting mining concessions); risks related to the direct and indirect impact of COVID-19 including, but not limited to, its impact on general economic conditions, the ability to obtain financing as required, and causing potential delays to exploration activities; those factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Final Prospectus; and other risk factors as detailed from time to time. Alpha does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
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Source: Alpha Exploration Ltd.
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