Aztec Commences Core Drilling at the Tombstone Gold-Silver Project in Southeastern Arizona

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2023 / Aztec Minerals Corp. (TSXV:AZT)(OTCQB:AZZTF), announces that core drilling has commenced in the Contention open pit gold-silver target at the company's 75% owned Tombstone Project in Arizona. The 10 hole, 2,250m core drilling program is a continuation of the prior, very successful, 2020-21 Reverse Circulation ("RC") drill programs, and is focused on expanding the oxide gold-silver (Au-Ag) mineralization in width and to depth. Every one of the 44 drill holes in 2020-21 programs intersected shallow oxidized Au-Ag mineralization over substantial widths, several drill holes encountered visible gold, and all drill holes bottomed in mineralization, indicating the main mineralized zones are still open to depth as well as laterally. Aztec holds a 75% JV interest in the Tombstone property which includes many of the original patented mining claims in the district. View: Tombstone Property Location Map

The Tombstone core drilling program now underway is planned for 10 holes at approximately 225m depth as inclined step-outs along the 900m length of the Contention pit to both sides (East, West) and at depth, with a target of potentially expanding the volume of the known Au-Ag mineralization. The core drilling program is utilizing diameters of PQ, HQ and NQ to 225m, noting that multiple core diameters are required to complete through the historic underground mine workings.

View: Tombstone 2023 Core Drilling Plan
View: Tombstone Idealized 2023 Drill Plan Cross Section

Aztec Minerals CEO Simon Dyakowski commented, "We and our partners are excited to be commencing our first pass of core drilling in the high-grade heart of the famous Tombstone Silver Mining District in Southeast Arizona. The program underway is testing an expansion of mineralization at depth and laterally in the Contention open pit and following up on the impressive high grade, oxide, gold and silver intersections of our 2020-2021 shallow RC drilling campaigns."

The drilling program was designed with data obtained from surveys and modelling completed over 2022, following the conclusion of Aztec's previous RC drilling program in late 2021. Aztec has recently completed an ortho-topo drone survey to construct detailed maps, surveyed all drill hole collars from 2020-21, sampled for Terraspec alteration analysis half of the North Contention pit, completed Terraspec analysis on all the 2020-21 RC chips, and advanced the construction of a wire-frame 3-D Leapfrog model of the historic, extensive, underground mine workings, with drilling, mineralization, geology, alteration, geophysics, and multi-element geochemistry.