Drill Targets Expanded With New Soil Geochemistry Along With Drill Permits Received At South Bullfrog

VANCOUVER - Zacapa Resources reported on exploration activities and permitting related to its upcoming drill campaign at South Bullfrog gold project in the Beatty District of Nevada. Drill permits have been received for the Shingleback target and are expected for the Longtail target in February. Results received from 893 soil samples demonstrate encouraging correlation between remote sensing anomalies, geophysical anomalies, and geologic interpretation. Longtail target area has been extended at least 300 meters northeast based on anomalous mercury in soils - correlation between anomalous soil results and magnetic low suggest that an area of concealed hydrothermal alteration may extend for > 1 kilometer. Soil sampling has generated a new target at Bottoms-Up where a coherent zone of elevated arsenic coincides with remote sensing anomalies along previously mapped faults.

Analytical results from a Q3 2022 soil sampling campaign at South Bullfrog have been received and analyzed. Zacapa has also received approval from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for a recently submitted Notice of Intent for proposed drilling activities in the Shingleback target.

"The geochemical results we received are extremely encouraging. We've extended the zone of elevated mercury a minimum of 300 meters northeast of the Longtail outcrop and demonstrated a new correlation between the geochemistry and the pronounced magnetic low at the Longtail target," comments Adam Melnik, CEO and Director. "The results add further evidence to support our team's interpretation that this more than one kilometer long magnetic low may represent an area of magnetite destructive alteration associated with a significant gold-bearing hydrothermal system concealed beneath shallow cover at Longtail."

Permitting is underway at Longtail with the requested cultural and biological surveys on track to be completed this week. A response to the Longtail Notice of Intent is expected by mid-February.

In Q3 2022, 893 soil samples were collected primarily from the Longtail and Bottoms-Up target areas with additional reconnaissance in the Sourdough target area. Sampling at Longtail sought to refine the distribution of strongly altered rocks and related structures where they project under post-mineral cover. The results define an elevated mercury geochemical response northeast of the favorably altered Longtail outcrop (silicified, alunite-bearing, brecciated subcrop surrounded by alluvial cover) and coincident with an interpreted fault bound magnetic low . The presence of a robust mercury anomaly at Longtail is significant because mercury is an important pathfinder for gold in the Beatty District where it is associated with the upper levels of gold bearing epithermal systems. The anomaly is also associated with a magnetic low, which is significant because magnetic lows can be the geophysical expression of magnetite destructive hydrothermal alteration. These results add confidence that Zacapa's soil sampling methods have been successful in detecting mercury through cover and that the observed magnetic low is likely to be related to hydrothermally altered rocks beneath the cover sequence. There are a total of 15 samples that are considered anomalous in mercury (concentrations greater than two standard deviations above the mean. All of these samples occur along strike of the Longtail outcrop (within ~300 meters) within an attractive magnetic low domain.

Soil sampling at the Bottoms-Up target was conducted to infill and expand the footprint of anomalous arsenic and mercury pathfinder elements detected in initial reconnaissance soil survey lines (see News Release October 25, 2022) positioned downslope from several small areas of outcropping silicified breccia. The results include a robust multi-line, multi-station arsenic anomaly that overlaps with alunite-kaolinite spectral anomalies and coincides with one of the silicified zones in outcrop. The zone of elevated arsenic (300m x 400m) also occurs adjacent to a fault that was previously mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey. Mapping and sampling are planned to follow up on this encouraging new target area.

The most pronounced resistivity and chargeability features in the previously completed 21 line-kilometer IP-resistivity geophysical survey occur on the south side of the Shingleback target in an area where several faults have been interpreted. Zacapa's newly permitted drill proposal will test these zones of elevated resistivity from the southeast (SB-002) and northwest (SB-001) to maximize the number of fault intersections while drilling the core of the strong IP-resistivity high. While this is the primary focus, Zacapa is also testing the potential for gold mineralization at the Twin Shafts fault (SB-006) and the Basalt fault (SB-011). The permitted Shingleback drill program consists of four pad locations, with approximately 1,200 meters of drilling planned in phase one.

Concurrent with the Q3 2022 soil sampling program, Zacapa also collected 293 rock samples, primarily from the Shingleback and Sledge target areas. Results show a notable trend of increasing antimony concentrations from east to west in the Shingleback target area and in proximity to known faults. Notably elevated values of silver were also observed around the basalt fault and other areas in the eastern regions of the Shingleback target. The coherent pattern of pathfinder elements that are known to be associated with gold mineralization in the district is a good indication that there was an active hydrothermal system in the area, which may contain gold at depth.