Updated 43-101 Resource At Empire Mine Project

VANCOUVER - ExGen Resources Inc. reported an update in respect of Phoenix Copper Ltd.’s exploration and development activities at the Empire Mine Project in Idaho. Further to previous ExGen news releases, ExGen owns 20% and Phoenix owns 80% of Konnex Resources, Inc., which holds the leases and claims to the Empire Mine Project. ExGen further has a 2.5% NSR royalty on the Empire Mine Project and owns 1,330,000 common shares of Phoenix.

Phoenix has provided the data from an updated NI 43-10 resource estimate for the Empire Mine Project, in Custer County, Idaho, prepared by Hard Rock Consulting, LLC (HRC).

Highlights: New NI 43-101 resource reported at the Empire Mine oxide open pit based on future recovery of copper, zinc, gold and silver increases Measured & Indicated resources increased by 19%: Measured and Indicated resource – 22.9 million tonnes (May 2020: 19.3 million tonnes) – an increase of 19%; Gold – 238,406 ounces (May 2020: 217,500 ounces) – an increase of 10%; Silver – 7.59 million ounces (May 2020: 6.82 million ounces) – an increase of 11%; Copper – 87,543 tonnes (May 2020: 81,948 tonnes) – an increase of 7%; Zinc – 43,871 tonnes (May 2020: 37,650 tonnes) – an increase of 17%; Updated resource established following a 32-hole drilling program, at a direct cost of less than $300,000, and representing 7% of a total of 445 holes drilled at site; and An updated Preliminary Economic Assessment is underway for the Empire Mine Open Pit project based on this current October 2020 resource update and recent environmentally friendly metallurgical test work.

Jason Riley, CEO of ExGen, said, “Our M+I tonnes are now at 22.9 million tonnes an increase of 19% from the prior resource update in May this year. We are very pleased with the progress on Empire so far, since declaring the maiden resource in 2017, Phoenix has increased our M&I tonnage by 220%.”

In May 2020, an NI 43-101 compliant resource for the Empire polymetallic open pit was generated for an agitation tank leach plant to recover gold and silver using ammonium thiosulfate (ATS) leach, followed by copper and zinc tank leach in the same circuit. The current gold and silver price performance, coupled with the more environmentally friendly sodium cyanide alternative ATS, has provided an opportunity to expand the Empire resource base to include all metals.

Using the same modeling parameters used in the May 2020 resource update and adding the assays from the recent 32-hole drilling program, HRC estimated this updated NI 43-101 compliant resource using the value of all gold, silver, copper and zinc in the deposit using a cut-off grade of 0.292% copper equivalent oxide, and 0.497% copper equivalent sulphide, compared with the May 2020 resource at a copper equivalent only cut-off of 0.36%.

Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Inferred mineral resources are that part of the mineral resource for which quantity and grade or quality are estimated on the basis of limited geologic evidence and sampling, which is sufficient to imply but not verify grade or quality continuity. Inferred mineral resources may not be converted to mineral reserves. It is reasonably expected, though not guaranteed, that the majority of Inferred mineral resources could be upgraded to Indicated mineral resources with continued exploration.

Mineral resources are reported at a 0.36% CuEq cutoff. The CuEq is calculated based on the following assumptions: a long-term copper price of US$3.30/lb; gold price of US$1,650/oz; silver price of US$19.25/oz; zinc price of $1.21/lb; assumed combined operating ore costs of US$19.25/t (process, general and administrative and mining taxes); refining costs of $0.10/lb of CuEq; metallurgical recoveries of 85% for copper, 85% for gold; 65% for silver and 60% for zinc and a 2.5% royalty.

These Mineral Resource are considered to be amenable to open-pit mining and are constrained by a conceptual Lersch Grossman pit shell generated on the same costs, metal prices and recoveries used in the above CuEq calculation and an average mining cost of $1.80/t and variable pit slope angles that ranged from 45–52o.

Rounding may result in apparent differences between when summing tons, grade and contained metal content. Tonnage and copper and zinc grade measurements are in Imperial units. Gold and silver grades are reported in metric g/tonne units to remain consistent with past reporting formats.