Skull Ridge Stakes 17,225 Hectares Along Central Newfoundland Gold Corridor

Skull Ridge Gold Corp. (CSE: SKUL) has staked a district-scale position in central Newfoundland, acquiring 689 mineral claims covering roughly 17,225 hectares through reimbursement of staking costs from an arm's-length prospector.

The Crippleback-Stony Lake Project sits directly between Pirate Gold's Crippleback Project on the western boundary and Benton Resources' Stoney Caldera land position on the east and south. The ground covers the interpreted eastward continuation of the Crippleback structural and intrusive trend toward Stony Lake.

"Our 17,225-hectare property is strategically positioned between Pirate Gold's Crippleback Project and Benton Resources' Stoney Caldera land position and covers a substantial portion of the intervening structural corridor," said Karim Rayani, executive chairman and CEO.

The regional setting sits within the Valentine Lake Fault Zone, one of Newfoundland's principal mineralized structural corridors. The Crippleback and Valentine Lake intrusive suites share nearly identical geological ages of roughly 564–565 million years, representing two of the largest exposures of Precambrian basement along the fault zone. Pirate Gold has cited these shared characteristics as supporting a comparison between Crippleback and the setting of Equinox Gold Corp.'s Valentine Gold Mine, located along strike to the southwest.

Recent exploration on Pirate Gold's adjoining project has identified broad copper-gold mineralization within a large porphyry-epithermal alteration system, plus additional alteration and geophysical targets east of its initial discovery. Benton Resources has reported multiple gold and copper occurrences at Stoney Caldera, and historical drilling in the broader Stony Lake area identified broad zones of gold mineralization within deformed volcanic rocks.

The company's 17,225 hectares cover a comparatively underexplored portion of the Crippleback Trend. Several interpreted regional structures cross the claims, and management believes these may have acted as pathways for hydrothermal fluids and potential controls on mineralization. That interpretation has not yet been confirmed through exploration on Skull Ridge's own ground.

Skull Ridge intends to undertake a compilation and targeting program to evaluate the geological potential and identify priority areas for follow-up work. The project's scale gives the company the opportunity to evaluate a substantial portion of the regional corridor rather than betting on a single target.

Executive chairman Rayani described the broader view: "Recent exploration has identified a much larger geological system containing multiple alteration and geophysical targets. Our objective is to establish whether these prospective structures, intrusive units and alteration systems continue across Skull Ridge's property."

Skull Ridge's flagship asset remains the Skull Island Gold-Silver Project on the Burin Peninsula, covering roughly 145 square kilometers of contiguous claims within the Avalonian Epithermal Belt. The property hosts the Point May Epithermal System, a 4.5-kilometer by 5.2-kilometer mineralized system containing numerous gold-silver zones and prospects. The belt also hosts the past-producing Hope Brook Gold Mine.

The scientific and technical information in the release was reviewed by Mike Kilbourne, P.Geo., a qualified person under NI 43-101. Skull Ridge has not independently verified the third-party data from Pirate Gold and Benton Resources. Mineralization on adjoining properties is not necessarily indicative of what Skull Ridge will find on its own claims.