Positive Initial Metallurgical Results From Stardust Show Copper Recoveries to 98.6% and Gold Recoveries to 93.9%

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NorthWest Copper Corp. (TSX-V: NWST) (“NorthWest Copper”) is pleased to announce positive results for initial metallurgical test work on its 100% owned Stardust copper-gold project in BC. Combined gravity and flotation produced copper recoveries from 94.2% to 98.6% and gold recoveries from 93.0% to 93.9%. Those tests produced copper in concentrate grades from 21.8% to 26.2%. These strong results further enhance the high-grade Stardust deposit.

Peter Bell, President & CEO of NorthWest Copper states: “These exciting positive results support the advancement of our combined Stardust and Kwanika project. High grades, strong recoveries and a simple flowsheet provide a foundation for the combination. We are finalizing an initial Stardust resource in the next several weeks which will help underpin our unique high-grade copper-gold project.”

Three composites were tested: low, medium, and high grade. Tests were conducted with the high-grade composite including gravity, flotation optimization, rougher kinetics and grind size, then batch cleaner tests. Finally, the low and medium grade composites were tested using parameters from the previous tests. These tests used a primary grind size of 150 microns with a 40 to 50 micron regrind, gravity and flotation. Summary results are shown below.

Sample	Cu grade	%	Au grade g/t		Cu recovery		Au recovery		Cu grade in concentrate
High Grade	3.94	%	4.56 g/t		98.6	%	93	%	26.2	%
Medium Grade	2.13	%	2.36 g/t		94.2	%	93.7	%	21.8	%
Low Grade	1.11	%	1.30 g/t		94.4	%	93.9	%	22.2	%

Test work shows copper recovery had limited sensitivity to grind sizes between 75 and 150 microns. Gold showed much higher recoveries at 75 microns vs. 100 or 150 microns but the inclusion of a gravity circuit appears to remove the need for a finer primary grind. The inclusion of the gravity circuit allows for a relatively coarse primary grind size of 150 microns. Gravity recovered between 24% and 42% of the gold in the three tests.