Imperial Reports Red Chris Production and Exploration Update for 2021 First Quarter - Seite 2

Brian Kynoch, President of Imperial Metals, said, “The discovery of higher-grade mineralization in the East Ridge may be in a portion of the deposit that has been displaced by the South Boundary Fault and provides an exciting new target for continued drilling to expand the copper and gold resource at Red Chris.”

In the Main Zone, drilling, which followed up historic results south west of the Main Zone pit, intersected high grade mineralization with hole RC679 returning 456 metres grading 0.37 g/t gold and 0.42% copper starting at a depth of 418 metres, including 98 metres grading 0.71 g/t gold and 1.0% copper. This mineralization is located within NRC Mineral Resource estimate that was recently completed. The Main Zone will require additional drilling and has the potential to host a higher-grade zone of mineralization.

Approximately 50,000 metres of growth-related drilling is planned this calendar year with an increase to eight drill rigs next quarter. Further drilling of the East Ridge is planned to define the extent of the mineralization and is expected to be completed by June 2021. Further targets along the porphyry corridor and neighbouring GJ property have been identified with the potential to conduct drilling to test these targets in the future.

During the period, data compilation on the GJ Project and planning for the upcoming field season continued.

Red Chris - Significant results:

Hole ID	From (m)	To (m)	Width (m)	Gold (g/t)	Copper (%)
RC679	418	874	456	0.37	0.42
including	440	538	98	0.71	1.00
RC684	814	1052	238	0.45	0.52
including	962	1052	90	0.85	0.85
including	970	986	16	1.20	1.20
including	1016	1030	14	1.10	1.10

Jim Miller-Tait, P.Geo., Imperial Metals Vice President Exploration, is the designated Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 for the Red Chris exploration program and has reviewed this news release. Red Chris samples for the 2020 drilling reported were analysed at Bureau Veritas Mineral Laboratories in Vancouver. A full QA/QC program using blanks, standards and duplicates was completed for all diamond drilling samples submitted to the labs. Significant assay intervals reported represent apparent widths. Insufficient geological information is available to confirm the geological model and true width of significant assay intervals.