99th percentile copper for Minto Metals

Minto Metals Corp. April 12 announced the final results from 2022 exploration at its Minto Mine, which includes some of the highest copper grades in the history of its exploration at this Yukon operation.

"We are very pleased with the results from the last batch of drilling and assays returned," said Minto Metals Vice President of Exploration David Benson. "The high-grade mineralization reported for drill hole 22EXP053 are some of the highest grade copper assays returned in the history of exploration at the Minto Mine."

While a sizable mining operation is already underway at Minto, exploration continues to reveal resources that will keep this copper mine going.

According to a 2021 resource estimate, Minto hosts 11.09 million metric tons of measured and indicated resource averaging 1.46% (356 million lb) copper, 0.53 grams per metric ton (189,000 oz) gold, and 4.75 g/t (1.86 million oz) silver; plus 13.03 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.29% (370 million lb) copper, 0.49 g/t (207,000 oz) gold, and 4.55 g/t (2.09 million oz) silver.

With the latest results, those numbers can only swell.

In 2022, Minto completed 53 holes for a total of 28,438 meters. As with previous drilling, all drill holes reported intersected typical Minto-style, stacked, lensoidal mineralization of varying thickness and sulfide content.

Highlights from the final 2022 results include:

• 8.41 meters averaging 0.32 g/t gold, 4.74 g/t silver, and 1.07% copper from a depth of 395 meters in hole 22EXP053, and 7.31 meters averaging 0.24 g/t gold, 14.02 g/t silver, and 2.19% copper from 478 meters.

• 4.86 meters averaging 0.04 g/t gold, 1.47 g/t silver, and 0.47% copper from 151 meters in 22EXP055, and 1.24 meters averaging 1.31 g/t gold, 12.1 g/t silver, and 1.66% copper.

• 3.08 meters averaging 0.11 g/t gold, 1.05 g/t silver, and 0.34% copper from 88.6 meters in 22EXP057, and 3.12 meters averaging 0.35 g/t gold, 19.22 g/t silver, and 1.33% copper.

• 4.77 meters averaging 0.05 g/t gold, 0.7 g/t silver, and 0.31% copper from 5.84 meters in 22EXP058, and four meters averaging 0.51 g/t gold, 43.93 g/t silver, and 11.4% copper, including 2.09 meters averaging 0.91 g/t gold, 82.28 g/t silver, and 21.59% copper.

• 7.93 meters averaging 0.08 g/t gold, 0.45 g/t silver, and 0.3% copper, including 2.32 meters averaging 0.15 g/t gold, 5.13 g/t silver, and 1.29% copper.

"Drill holes 22EXP053 and 22EXP058 were drilled in an area of complex geology between the Minto North and Minto Main pit testing geophysical anomalies at depth below the "Inferno" prospect, a near-surface, undefined prospect," said Benson. "The 2022 exploration drilling campaign is now complete and we consider it a great success with the discovery and confirmation of two new mineralized zones (Minto North West and Minto East 150 Deep) and numerous other very significant mineralized intersections, as reported in 2022-2023."

Drill hole 22EXP058 was drilled, testing a chargeability anomaly between 100 meters and 300 meters below surface. The hole intersected semi-massive bornite with stringer and blebby chalcopyrite over four meters.

The core of the high-grade mineralization included continuous individual assays of 25.5% copper over a half-meter, 38.27% copper over 0.75 meters and 4.37% copper over 0.84 meters. Minto says the former first two assay results are among the 99th percentile of drill hole assays that exist in the extensive Minto diamond drill hole database.

This new zone occurs immediately to the east and less than 100 meters below the near-surface Inferno prospect, occurs along a prominent northwest-trending geophysical lineament and remains open to the south-southwest. Spatially, this mineralized interval occurs approximately 450 meters south of planned development at Minto North II and 300 meters north of the Minto Main open pit.

"Future drill campaigns will be designed to follow up on Minto West and Minto East," finished the VP Exploration.