Published: January 23, 2026 |

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Copper Quest Exploration has entered into an arms-length option purchase agreement to acquire the Alpine Gold Property located in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia.

“With Gold prices at all-time highs, The Alpine Gold property creates a tremendous opportunity to create near term value. I look forward to closing the transaction and welcoming Allan Matovich, Ted Muraro, and John Mirko to the team,” said Brian Thurston, president and CEO of Copper Quest.

The 4,611.49-hectare property is approximately 20 kilometers northeast of the City of Nelson and hosts the former operating underground mine with a recorded production of approximately 16,810 tonnes of mineralized vein material. This material contained gold, silver, lead, and zinc. The other four significant vein systems on the property will also be explored including the Black Prince and Cold Blow quartz veins approximately 3km to the northeast of the Alpine mine, the Gold Crown vein system 600m southeast, and the past-producing King Solomon vein workings 1.8km to the south.

Closing is subject to a 45-day due diligence period, exchange approval and other customary closing conditions.

APPOINTMENT OF ALLAN MATOVICH AS DIRECTOR

Upon closing of the acquisition, Allan Matovich will join the company’s board of directors. Matovich is the principal owner of the Alpine Gold Property.

Matovich has 60+ years of mining and exploration experience in Canada and the United States. He first started with Cominco in Trail BC working in the smelter operation. Matovich then started Matovich Mining Industries where they supplied considerable tonnages of siliceous flux materials, lead and zinc concentrates to Cominco for more than 20 years. Matovich then opened up a mining operation in 1997 in Northern British Columbia to supply barite for drilling fluids in the oil and gas industry. This mining operation is still in production today. Matovich also opened up a barite operation in Washington State that is going into production. He also worked with Halliburton, Baker Hughes, and Newmont and was very successful. In 2000, Matovich purchased the Alpine Gold Mine and since then has spent a considerable amount of time proving up the project.

“I am very pleased to bring the Alpine Gold Property to Copper Quest and join as a director. The company has a fantastic portfolio of critical mineral projects advancing and the Alpine Gold Project gives a potential near term cash flow opportunity along with upside to grow the current resource with drilling. I look forward to working with the Copper Quest team to help create value for all stakeholders involved,” said Allan Matovich.

APPOINTMENT OF TED MURARO AS TECHNICAL ADVISOR TO THE BOARD

Ted Muraro will be appointed as technical advisor to the board on closing of the transaction. Muraro has accumulated more than six decades of experience in mineral exploration, including 35 years with Cominco where he advanced through exploration to serve as the companies chief geologist and internal consulting geologist. Early in his career, Muraro gained underground experience at Keno Hill, HB Mine, Sullivan, and Western Mines. His tenure at Cominco was marked by direct involvement in the discovery and subsequent successful development of the Westmin Mine at Buttle Lake, the Polaris Mine on Little Cornwallis Island in the high Arctic, and Snip Mine on the Iskut River. Following his service at Cominco, Muraro assumed the role of vice president, Exploration at Romanex and International Barytex Resources, contributing his expertise to international gold projects.

Muraro, who was awarded the Spud Huestis award in 2021 for his outstanding contributions to the industry and excellence in exploration, worked as an independent consultant (T.W. Muraro Consulting 1993-2016) on base metal and gold exploration projects around the world until his retirement in 2016. In these later years, he served on several boards as director and/or advisor, most recently with Imperial Metals. Muraro’s working relationship with Al Matovich started in the Rossland Mining Camp and shifted to the Alpine Property in the late 80’s.

APPOINTMENT OF JOHN MIRKO AS TECHNICAL ADVISOR TO THE BOARD

John Mirko will be appointed as technical advisor to the board on closing of the transaction. Mirko has more than 40 years’ experience in the mining industry, past president and founder of Canam Alpine Ventures (recently sold to Vizsla Resources), currently president and founder of Canam Mining and Rokmaster Resources Corporation.

From 1986 to 2010 Mirko the founder, president-CEO and director of 4 public mining-exploration companies and a founder and director of three others. He has been self-employed in the sector since 1972 as a prospector, contractor and consultant involved in exploration, development and mine construction of various projects in 12 counties, and commercial production of mineral concentrates and metal products from 5 of the projects.

In 2008, Mirko was a recipient of the “E. A. Scholtz Medal for Excellence in Mine Development” from the Association for Mineral Exploration of British Columbia, and in 2009, the Mining Association of British Columbia’s “Mining and Sustainability Award” for the MAX Mine.

Mirko is currently a member in good standing of the Society of Economic Geologists, Inc., the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada and AME BC.

Copper Quest is focused on building shareholder value through strategic acquisitions and the exploration and development of its North American critical mineral portfolio of assets. The company’s land package currently comprises five critical mineral projects that span over 40,000+ hectares in great mining jurisdictions. Copper Quest has a 100 percent interest in the Stars Property, a porphyry copper-molybdenum discovery in central British Columbia’s Bulkley Porphyry Belt. Copper Quest has a 100 percent interest in the Nekash Copper-Gold Project, a porphyry exploration opportunity located in Lemhi County, Idaho, along the prolific Idaho-Montana porphyry copper belt that hosts world-class systems such as Butte and CUMO. Copper Quest has a 100 percent interest in the Thane Project located in the Quesnel Terrane of Northern BC.

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