Island Passage Exploration Confirms Porphyry Copper-Gold System at Bara-Tangka Target

ARAWA, Papua New Guinea, Oct. 09, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- Island Passage Exploration Limited and its customary landowner partner Isina Resource Holdings Ltd have announced the results of their first exploration trenching campaign on the EL02 project in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. The campaign, which covered approximately 1,600 metres of exploration trenches across numerous prospects in the Bara-Tangka area, has confirmed the presence of a porphyry copper-gold mineral system at the Bara-Tangka target, located approximately 13km southeast from the historic Panguna Mine.

The trenching campaign, which included the results from approximately 1,325 metres of trenching, plus some channel samples, has revealed substantial widths of copper-gold mineralization. The Company’s technical team, based on copper, gold, and molybdenum anomalies in soil and rock geochemistry, identified the trenches. The mineralization at the Idi and AK prospects is hosted in hydrothermally-altered and weathered quartz-diorite and monzodiorite porphyries. At the Pivi prospect, the mineralization is an extension of previously reported strong channel samples and generally occurs in altered fine-grained intrusive rocks (most likely quartz-diorite) and hornfels-altered sedimentary rocks.

A new prospect called Siroo was discovered, hosting very strong copper, gold, silver, and molybdenum in skarn-type mineralization. The following are highlights of the new systematic sampling:

- Trench sample results from Idi and AK Prospects: - IDTR03: 241.0m at 0.168% Cu and 0.048 g/t Au, including 33m at 0.329% Cu and 0.065 g/t Au, which includes 10m at 0.388% Cu and 0.065 g/t Au. - IDTR02: 155m at 0.129% Cu and 0.048 g/t Au, including 6m at 0.158% Cu and 0.111 g/t Au. - IDTR01EXT: 48m at 0.153% Cu and 0.047 g/t Au, including 12m at 0.354% Cu and 0.111 g/t Au. - IDTR01EXT: 54m at 0.120% Cu and 0.039 g/t Au, including 6m at 0.282% Cu and 0.075 g/t Au. - IDTR01: 83m at 0.102% Cu and 0.020 g/t Au. - AKTR01: 74m at 0.146% Cu and 0.020 g/t Au, including 27m at 0.233% Cu and 0.020 g/t Au.

- Trench sample results from Pivi Prospect: - BRTR04: 30m at 0.233% Cu and 0.154 g/t Au, including 6m at 0.405% Cu and 0.238 g/t Au, and 4m at 0.383% Cu and 0.261 g/t Au. - BRTR04: 25m at 0.216% Cu and 0.269 g/t Au, including 7m at 0.341% Cu and 0.665 g/t Au. - VTRAK02: 12m at 0.272% Cu and 1.11 g/t Au, including 3m at 0.508% Cu and 3.68 g/t Au. - VTRAK02: 20m at 0.104% Cu and 0.116 g/t Au. - VTRAK04: 13m at 0.221% Cu and 0.231 g/t Au, including 4m at 0.396% Cu and 0.508 g/t Au. - VTRAK05: 31m at 0.185% Cu and 0.123 g/t Au, including 10m at 0.375% Cu and 0.113 g/t Au.

- Channel sample results from Siroo Prospect: - BRCH43: 23m at 0.665% Cu and 0.794 g/t Au, including 7m at 1.238% Cu and 1.459 g/t Au, and 6m at 0.848% and 1.041 g/t Au.

The Company has applied a cutoff grade of 0.050% Cu in selecting the reported intervals. However, it should be noted that the entirety of these trenches is at least weakly anomalous in copper with varying degrees of anomalous gold, molybdenum, and silver. Zinc and lead are rarely elevated above 100 ppm.