Aztec Provides Update on 2024 Gold-Silver Exploration Program at Tombstone Project, Arizona

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 10, 2024 / Aztec Minerals Corp. (TSXV:AZT)(OTCQB:AZZTF) ("Aztec" or the "Company") provides an update on the gold-silver exploration program at Tombstone Project ("Tombstone"), in southeastern Arizona. The Company has reviewed the previous drilling and surface exploration results, and now is developing, with multi-disciplinary methods and studies, the definitions for new drilling targets to continue the expansion of the project's gold-silver oxide mineralization footprint near to the historic Contention Pit. From that, the goal of the 2024 exploration program is to continue with drilling to expand the large, shallow, gold silver oxide mineralized system and make it amenable for future resource delineation.

Aztec CEO Simon Dyakowski commented "Our initial 2024 surface exploration program on the Tombstone project has the potential to create significant value for shareholders, by expanding the target area for shallow oxide gold-silver mineralization adjacent and below the Contention open pit. The broad intersections of high-grade oxide gold and silver from recent drilling support the concept of defining a potentially large mineralized system. The first phase of exploration in 2024 is expected to generate high-priority expansion drill targets to grow the mineralized zone with a goal of defining a larger geological model for future resource estimation.

Aztec's previous drilling and studies has resulted in the discovery of shallow, broad intersections of oxidized gold and silver mineralization in areas adjacent to those previously explored or developed historically, the historical data providing for the initial 3D modelling of what is potentially indicative of new mineralized zones easily accessible with shallow drilling in the immediate vicinity of the Contention Pit. The following are highlights of recent drilling intersections supporting the conceptual exploration model for mineralized footprint growth.

• TR21-22: 2.44 gpt Au and 66.56 gpt Ag (3.39 gpt AuEq) over 65.5m (including 16.80 gpt Au and 374.36 gpt Ag over 7.6m)
  • please see news release dated September 28, 2021
• TR21-03 - 5.71 gpt Au and 40.54 gpt Ag (6.28 gpt AuEq) over 32.0m
  • please see news release dated July 7, 2021
• TC 23-01: 3,477 gpt Ag over 1.52m from a zone of 733.9 gpt Ag over 7.6 m within 125 m of 1.63 gpt AuEq
  • please see news release dated April 26, 2023
• TR21-10: 1.39 gpt Au and 56.40 gpt Ag (2.20 gpt AuEq) over 96.0m
  • please see news release dated July 27, 2021
• TC23-05 - 2.82 gpt gold and 176.64 gpt silver (5.02 gpt AuEq) over 36.0m, including 6.45 gpt gold and 408.47 gpt silver (11.55 gpt AuEq) over 15.5m
  • please see news release dated June 5, 2023

The wide, shallow gold-silver mineralization defined by Aztec's drilling (Figure 1), together with all surface data collected since 2018 supports a preliminary concept of expanding the mineralized footprint to the west of the existing historical open pit. The exploration data collected to-date indicates that previous historical open pit heap leaching operations did not advance their plans to develop attractive, wide, shallow gold-silver mineralization hosted in major structural zones in the Bisbee Group sediments west of the Contention Pit.