VANCOUVER, BC , June 18, 2026 /CNW/ - Vizsla Copper Corp. (TSXV: VCU) (OTCQB: VCUFF) (FRANKFURT: 97E0) ("Vizsla Copper" or the "Company") is pleased to report that diamond drilling has commenced at its Palmer VMS Project in Southeast Alaska.

The fully funded 2026 exploration program represents the first phase of a multi-year strategy designed to expand the Project's critical minerals resource base, evaluate new discovery opportunities, and advance the technical understanding of the broader Palmer district.

Two drill rigs are currently operating on site, with approximately 10,000 metres of drilling planned during the 2026 field season. Initial drilling is focused on the Palmer Deposit's South Wall Zone (see Figure 1), where previous drilling identified a high-grade copper-rich core within Zone 1, including some of the highest copper grades intersected on the property to date.

Craig Parry, Executive Chairman and CEO, commented:

"With drilling now underway, our team is focused on building upon the success of recent exploration at Palmer. The 2026 program is designed to expand high-grade mineralization at the South Wall Deposit while evaluating several priority targets across the district. As our geological understanding continues to improve, Palmer is increasingly demonstrating the scale, exploration upside, and critical minerals endowment that we believe distinguishes it as one of the premier exploration opportunities in Southeast Alaska."

Peter Mercer, Senior Vice President, Alaska, added:

" The 2026 program reflects a balanced approach between resource expansion and discovery while advancing the environmental and technical understanding of the Project. The drill rigs are currently focused on areas where previous drilling has returned some of the highest copper grades encountered on the property, while mountain crews prepare additional drill sites to evaluate the mineral potential between the Palmer and AG deposits. As the season progresses, our focus remains on safe operations, disciplined execution, and generating the technical information needed to better understand the full potential of the district."

2026 Program Now Underway

The 2026 program combines resource growth, new discovery opportunities, and technical studies designed to further advance the Company's understanding of the Palmer district.  Diamond drilling will initially focus on the Palmer Deposit, where initial holes are testing high-priority targets within the South Wall system. This first phase of drilling is designed to further define and expand the high-grade copper-rich core identified within Zone 1 and improve confidence within existing mineralized Zones 2 and 3 through targeted infill drilling.

Drilling later this season is planned at two priority exploration targets located between the existing deposits. The HG Prospect, located west of the Palmer Deposit, hosts significant copper-zinc-silver mineralization exposed over more than 600 metres of strike length and shares several geological characteristics with the South Wall mineralized system.

The Waterfall Prospect, situated between the Palmer and AG deposits, represents an important target where geological, geochemical, and alteration characteristics suggest potential to add additional mineralization between the known deposits.

Beyond these priority drill targets, the Company will continue evaluating several regional prospects across the broader Palmer district, including Mount Henry Clay, Christmas Creek, and other underexplored target areas. Follow-up field investigations will include geological and structural mapping, high-resolution photogrammetry, target refinement, and additional diamond drilling.

The exploration program is supported by an integrated technical initiative that includes advanced geological modelling, geophysical reinterpretation, critical minerals assessment, and continued environmental baseline studies. Together, these programs are intended to improve the Company's understanding of the Palmer district while supporting future technical, economic, and engineering studies.

Figure 1: Drilling target areas planned for the 2026 field season

Multi-Year Technical Strategy

The Palmer Project hosts copper, zinc, silver, gold, and barite mineralization, commodities recognized as strategically important to domestic supply chains, infrastructure development, energy systems, and national security applications. The 2026 field season represents the first stage of a broader multi-year technical program focused on resource growth, geological understanding, environmental baseline collection, and technical trade-off and optimization studies.

Over the coming field seasons, Vizsla Copper intends to continue advancing the technical knowledge base required to support future economic and engineering studies while maintaining a strong focus on exploration and discovery across the broader Palmer district.

As reported in the 2025 NI 43-101 Technical Report, the Palmer Project hosts an Indicated Mineral Resource of 4.77 million tonnes grading 1.69% copper and 5.17% zinc, containing approximately 178 million pounds of copper and 543 million pounds of zinc, and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 12.0 million tonnes grading 0.57% copper and 3.92% zinc, containing approximately 152 million pounds of copper and 1.04 billion pounds of zinc, in addition to significant silver, gold, and barite. The existing resource remains open for expansion and provides a strong foundation for continued exploration across more than 15 kilometres of prospective stratigraphy within the broader Palmer district.

Further updates will be provided as drilling progresses and assay results become available.

About Vizsla Copper

Vizsla Copper is a Cu-Au-Mo focused mineral exploration and development company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. The Company is primarily focused on its Palmer VMS project in Southeast Alaska, and its Poplar and Woodjam porphyry-related projects in Central and Southern British Columbia. All of the Company's projects are well situated amongst significant infrastructure. The Company's growth strategy is focused on the exploration and development of the properties within its portfolio in addition to value accretive acquisitions. Vizsla Copper's vision is to be a responsible copper explorer and developer in the stable mining jurisdictions of Alaska and British Columbia, and it is committed to socially responsible exploration and development, working safely, ethically and with integrity.

Vizsla Copper is backed by Inventa Capital Corp., a premier investment group founded in 2017 with the goal of discovering and funding opportunities in the mineral resource sector. Additional information about the Company is available on SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca) and the Company's website (www.vizslacopper.com).

Qualified Person and National Instrument 43-101 Disclosure

The Company's disclosure of technical or scientific information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Peter Mercer, P.Geo., Senior Vice President, Alaska for Vizsla Copper. Mr. Mercer is a Qualified Person as defined under the terms of National Instrument 43-101.

References

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FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. "Forward-looking information" includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, including, without limitation, planned exploration activities. Generally, but not always, forward-looking information and statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or the negative connotation thereof or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation thereof. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, among others, statements relating to the Company's exploration plans.

Such forward-looking information and statements are based on numerous assumptions, including among others, that the results of planned exploration activities are as anticipated, the anticipated cost of planned exploration activities, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms, that third party contractors, equipment and supplies and governmental and other approvals required to conduct the Company's planned exploration activities will be available on reasonable terms and in a timely manner. Although the assumptions made by the Company in providing forward-looking information or making forward-looking statements are considered reasonable by management at the time, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be accurate.

Forward-looking information and statements also involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual events or results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future events or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking information or statements, including, among others: negative operating cash flow and dependence on third party financing, uncertainty of additional financing, uncertainties associated with mineral resource estimates and the absence of mineral reserves, the limited operating history of the Company, the influence of a large shareholder, aboriginal title and consultation issues, reliance on key management and other personnel, actual results of exploration activities being different than anticipated, changes in exploration programs based upon results, availability of third party contractors, availability of equipment and supplies, failure of equipment to operate as anticipated; accidents, effects of weather and other natural phenomena and other risks associated with the mineral exploration industry, environmental risks, commodity price volatility including fluctuations in copper, gold and molybdenum prices, changes in laws and regulations, community relations and delays in obtaining governmental or other approvals.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information or implied by forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information.  The Company undertakes no obligation to update or reissue forward-looking information as a result of new information or events except as required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Vizsla Copper Corp.