Drilling At The Mercator Zone In Caniapiscau Mining District

QUEBEC CITY - Stelmine Canada reported on diamond drilling from 13 holes collared in the Meridian Zone of the Mercator property, located in Caniapiscau mining district, in Quebec. This first phase of exploration drilling confirms an important gold mineralized system extending at least 1.7km X 500 m to a depth of 200 m. The best core intercepts were 17.8 m @ 2.62 g/t Au m, incl. 5.6m @ 4.87 g/t Au (Hole MCT22-08) and 9.75 m @ 1.13 g/t Au, incl. 1.70 m @ 3.21 g/t Au (Hole MCT22-03). Hole MCT22-08 providing the best gold intersection was the only hole drilled under a 500 m x 200 m area characterized by high chargeability values where most of the surface high gold assays were obtained in grab and channel samples. Stelmine intends to focus its upcoming drilling campaign on this particular sector.

5 of the 13 drillholes yielded significant intersections with gold values > 1.0 g/t ranging from 1.45 to 17.80 m in apparent thickness and depths varying from 9 to 194 m. The grade and extent of the mineralization confirm the significant surface gold data obtained since 2018 from grab and channel samples yielding 15% of gold values > 1.0 g/t and 41% over 200 ppb. At the core of the property (Meridian Zone), 22 channel sites provided gold values ranging from 3.0 m @ 0.88 g/t to 27.5 m @ 2.07 g/t Au.

Isabelle Proulx, President and CEO, said, “We are impressed by the results of our maiden drilling program at Mercator confirming an extensive mineralized system within the Meridian Zone exposed at the surface and continuing at depth over 100 m. In light of the surface and drillcore results, Stelmine believes the mining potential of the Mercator property resides in a high tonnage moderately rich gold mineralization. We only have started our exploration at Mercator and are already planning our second drilling campaign for the summer of 2023. We acknowledged only 6 % of the Mercator property has undergone systematic exploration and sampling; leaving additional high potential targets to investigate. For instance, several high chargeability/low resistivity anomalies northwest of the Meridian zone still need to be drilled.”

There is a strong correlation in drillcore gold intercepts and low resistivity/high chargeability zones. Several of these IP-derived anomalies are yet to be drilled, especially in the southwestern Meridian Zone. Furthermore, access to the most promising drilling sites on the southwestern area of the Meridian Zone was hampered par the steep denivelation and several targets were not drilled during the current program but will be investigated in the upcoming 2023 drill campaign. A new IP/Resistivity survey with 100 m line spacing is also planned to better define our drill targets.