Exploration Work Commences On Fortuna Project

VANCOUVER, BC – Lucky Minerals Inc. reported the deployment of exploration teams at the 100% owned Fortuna Project, located in southern Ecuador. The Fortuna Project has potential to host three significant types of gold mineralization – epithermal, orogenic, and placer gold – as well as, copper-gold porphyry systems coincident with twelve known volcanic centers on the property. This latter style of mineralization includes the El Buitre discovery made by the company in 2018. The El Buitre porphyry target on Fortuna 3 is known to host favorable copper-gold mineralization and is a likely target under the Company’s memorandum of understanding with First Quantum Minerals Ltd.

Lucky’s crew is focused on gold discovery on Fortuna and consists of two senior and two junior geologists. Primary objectives are follow-up work of anomalous areas and reconnaissance on the Fortuna 8, 9, and 10 concessions in the northwest, and the Fortuna 11 and 12 concessions in the southern region of the concession area, located in the provinces of Zamora Chinchipe and Azuay. This work is concurrent with work being completed by First Quantum Minerals.

Lucky CEO, Adrian Rothwell, said, "To date geological fieldwork has identified several possible volcanic hosted epithermal type gold targets in the northwestern section on the Fortuna 8, 9 and 10 concessions. Subject to the success of this program, we look forward to conducting ground IP/resistivity geophysical surveys and soil sampling in order to define potential drill targets this year. Other priority exploration work now underway is to confirm the occurrence of orogenic type gold mineralization along a metamorphosed Paleozoic belt known in Ecuador as the "Cordillera Real" (Fortuna 11 and 12 concessions)."

Teams have been deployed to assess known areas with the highest potential for the occurrence of gold mineralization and into areas that have never previously been explored by the Company. Work will include surface geological mapping and sampling. This work will focus on mapping areas of alteration and taking rock samples. The objective being, to locate the source of the recently observed gold mineralization in the Shincata River regions, to review known areas with anomalous gold and define new areas. This work will define areas for follow-up ground geophysics, trenching and ultimately drill targets.

The Property spans the contact between Paleozoic and Mesozoic basement rocks to the east, and Tertiary volcanics to the west of the Fortuna concessions. Northeast trending and structurally controlled (fault bound) geological belts are found within the concessions.

The westernmost belt is comprised of Tertiary volcanics and has potential for hosting epithermal gold mineralization (Fortuna 8, 9 and 10). The middle belt is mainly of Triassic age rocks and appears to have been pierced by Miocene age intrusions and volcanics. Within this belt (Fortuna 3), the El Buitre porphyry target is located.

The Fortuna 2, 6, 7, 11 and 12 concessions lie within a belt of mainly Paleozoic rocks. It has good potential to host orogenic type gold mineralization, as that found in similar type and age rocks in Peru. Below is photo of a siliceous hand specimen taken recently from outcrop by our exploration team in the Fortuna 9 concession. This siliceous rock fragment is typical of epithermal gold systems and has vuggy silica, breccia fragments and alteration minerals such as, jarosite, alunite and limonite clusters. The breccia matrix is composed of mainly silica.

Two major geological features stand out. The El Buitre Porphyry and Breccia Zone (Fortuna 3), which consists of a phyllic altered stockwork & breccia zone with anomalous copper, gold and moly. To the west and northwest lies an area of volcanic altered rocks (silica-clay-alunite-jarosite) with areas of quartz stockwork veinlets, including vuggy, colloform and banded quartz textures. This area is anomalous in gold, and hosts potential for outlining epithermal precious metal mineralization, of the type found at the El Mozo gold deposit just south of Fortuna 10. Also, historical gold placer mining to the south and west on the property are good indicators for locating the source of this gold mineralization.

It is within these potential gold-bearing zones that will be the focus of this initial phase of exploration for 2020 by the Company.

The El Buitre Porphyry target and the hydrothermal phyllic alteration and the geochemical signatures observed appear to be distinct from other type porphyries found in Chile and Peru, as the El Buitre porphyry intrusion is emplaced into an "S-Type" meta-granite of Triassic age and into Paleozoic meta-sediments.

The presence of volcanic domes is significant as gold mineralization (as observed in the El Mozo gold deposit) can be spatially and temporally related. Hydrothermal cells responsible for gold mineralization appear to be controlled by high-angle faults. These same faults can influence the emplacement of volcanic domes, an essential step in the development of gold mineralization.