VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Xali Gold Corp. (TSXV:XGC) ("Xali Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Ing. Wilder Frank Garcia Haro as Exploration Manager, effective immediately. Ing. Garcia is a bilingual geological engineer with more than 30 years of international exploration and mine development experience, having held senior technical and management positions with several leading mining companies, including Rio Alto, Tahoe Resources, Newmont, Barrick Gold, Gold Fields, and Antamina.
"I had the pleasure of working with Wilder early in his career when he assisted Candente Resource Corp. in both gold and copper exploration," said Joanne Freeze, President and CEO of Xali Gold. "What makes Wilder especially valuable to Xali Gold now is the depth of experience he gained since then, in roles involving exploration to production and during operations at two deposits /mines in Peru, similar in style to Pico Machay. From 2012 to 2019, Wilder held senior leadership roles at both the La Arena and Shahuindo mines, where he was involved in exploration, resource expansion and mine geology. That experience will be invaluable as we advance the Project through an updated mineral resource estimate, updated Preliminary Economic Assessment and into development."
As the Company aligns its technical team to support the next phase of work, Ing. Enrique Bernuy will transition to the role of Consulting Geologist. Ing. Bernuy played a key role in advancing Pico Machay during Xali Gold's evaluation, negotiation and acquisition of the Project and he will continue to provide critical geological expertise as the Project progresses. Ing. Oswaldo Ramos, who also joined the Company during the evaluation and acquisition period of Pico Machay, will be second in command to Ing. Garcia as Project Geologist.
Ing. Garcia has managed exploration drilling, mineral resource replacement and reserve expansion strategies, coordinated multidisciplinary teams supporting mine development and operational continuity. His expertise includes precious metal deposits, particularly high- and low-sulphidation epithermal systems, vein-hosted deposits and disseminated gold mineralization, as well as strategic exploration planning, project evaluation and technical team leadership. Ing. Garcia's experience spans greenfield target generation, brownfield exploration, resource expansion, mine geology and strategic project evaluation across Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Nicaragua. During his tenure at Tahoe Resources' (formerly Rio Alto Mining) La Arena and Shahuindo operations, he successfully led exploration programs that consistently replaced mineral resources and extended mine life while supporting long-term mine planning and operational optimization across high-sulphidation gold systems transitioning into underlying porphyry copper-gold mineralization.