Phoenix Copper Limited / Ticker: PXC / Sector: Mining

28 March 2022

Phoenix Copper Limited

("Phoenix" or the "Company")

Final audited results for the year ended 31 December 2021

Notice of AGM

Phoenix Copper Limited (AIM: PXC; OTCQX ADR: PXCLY), the AIM quoted USA focused base and precious metals emerging producer and exploration company, is pleased to announce its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2021. All references to $ are United States dollars.

Highlights

Corporate & Financial:

-       Gross proceeds of $26.0 million raised by way of subscription, placing and open offer

-       Investment in Empire Mine increased to $26.12 million (2020: $14.79 million)

-       Net assets increased to $37.78 million (2020: $13.83 million)

-       Group reports unchanged net loss of $0.97 million (2020: $0.97 million)

-       Year-end cash balance of $13.05 million (2020: $1.15 million); no debt

-       Company loan to operating subsidiary increased to $19.16 million (2020: $11.28 million)

-       Company's shares commenced trading on OTCQX as American Depositary Receipts with The Bank of New York Mellon sponsoring and managing the Program

-       Company acquisition of third party royalties payable by Empire Mine

-       Catherine Evans appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director and as Chairman of newly created ESG & Sustainability Committee, and

-       Harry Kenyon-Slaney appointed to the Company's Advisory Board

Operational:

-       Empire Mine open pit feasibility model completed: pre-production capital expenditure payback less than two years, gross revenue of $836 million over 10 years, $43 million post-tax cash flow in year 1 (at $3.60 / lb copper price)

-       Plan of Operations filed with the regulatory authorities to commence final permitting stage of Empire open pit mine

-       Empire land holdings increased by 2,317 acres to 8,034 acres (32.51 square kilometres), including an additional 1,157 acres at the Navarre Creek gold zone

-       Ground magnetics and hyperspectral mineral geophysical surveys completed at Red Star silver, Horseshoe silver and Navarre Creek gold; new mineralised areas of interest identified

-       Ongoing exploration and drilling programmes at Red Star, Navarre Creek and the historically mined high grade Empire underground sulphide copper deposit; 8.38% copper intercepted

-       ESG Program initiated and local Community Advisory Team appointed

-       Earn-In Agreement signed with Electra Battery Materials Corporation on Redcastle Idaho Cobalt Belt project

Annual General Meeting:

The Company also announces that the Annual General Meeting ("AGM") will be held at the Washington Mayfair Hotel, 5 Curzon Street, London W1J 5HE on 12 April 2022 at 11.00 BST.

The Notice of AGM and Forms of Proxy will be despatched to shareholders on 28 March 2022 and will be available on the Company's website at www.phoenixcopperlimited.com.

The Company's Annual Report and Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2021 will also be available on the website from 29 March 2022.

Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance

Phoenix is committed to meeting and exceeding the environmental standards required by law as a core value of the Company.  The baseline environmental data collected to date will be used for furthering the permitting process, but as importantly, will be used as the building blocks for the Company's ongoing Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) platform, overseen by the Company's ESG & Sustainability Committee.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

The Company deems the information contained within this announcement to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014, which has been incorporated into UK law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement via the Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

Contacts

For further information please visit https://phoenixcopperlimited.com or contact:

Notes

Phoenix Copper Limited is a USA focused, base and precious metals emerging producer and exploration company, initially targeting copper and zinc production from an open pit mine.

Phoenix's primary operations are focused near Mackay, Idaho in the Alder Creek mining district, at the 80% owned Empire Mine property, which historically produced copper at grades of up to 8%, as well as gold, silver, zinc and tungsten, from an underground mine. 

Since 2017, Phoenix has carried out extensive drill programmes which resulted in the publication of a NI 43-101 PEA in October 2020 for an open pit heap leach solvent extraction and electrowinning ("SX-EW") mine, which was updated in October 2020. The contained metal in all NI 43-101 compliant categories of resources, measured, indicated, and inferred, stand at 129,641 tonnes of copper, 355,523 ounces of gold, 10,133,772 ounces of silver and 58,440 tonnes of zinc. Phoenix updated its economic model in February 2021 to include the processing of all contained metals through a two phased approach.

In addition to Empire, the district includes the historic Horseshoe, White Knob and Blue Bird Mines, past producers of copper, gold, silver, zinc, lead and tungsten from underground mines. A new discovery at Red Star, 330 metres northwest of the Empire Mine proposed open pit, has revealed high grade silver / lead sulphide ore and from three shallow exploration drill holes. A maiden resource of 103,000 tonnes containing 173.4 g/tonne silver, 0.85 g/tonne gold and 3.85% lead (1.6 million ounces silver equivalent) was reported in an NI 43-101 technical report published in May 2019. Additionally, the district includes the Navarre Creek Project, a volcanic hosted, precious metals target in a 14.48 sq km area. The Company's total land package at Empire comprises 8,034 acres (32.51 sq kms).

At Empire, it is estimated that less than 1% of the potential ore system has been explored to date and, accordingly, there is significant opportunity to increase the resource through phased exploration. The stated aim of the Company is to fund this phased exploration through free cashflow generated by its initial mine. A Plan of Operations in respect of the initial open pit mine was filed with the relevant regulatory authorities in June 2021.

Phoenix also has two wholly owned cobalt properties on the Idaho Cobalt Belt to the north of Empire. An Earn-In Agreement has been signed with Electra Battery Materials Corporation (formerly First Cobalt Corporation), Toronto, in respect of one of those properties.

Phoenix is listed on London's AIM (PXC), and trades on New York's OTCQX Market (PXCLF and PXCLY (ADRs)). More details on the Company, its assets and its objectives can be found on PXC's website at https://phoenixcopperlimited.com.

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

Dear Shareholders

It is with great pleasure that we present our 2021 Report & Accounts for what has been an exciting and transformative year for our Company. In particular we are now in the permitting and development phase of the Empire open-pit mine, as well as making progress in revealing the potentially world-class porphyry system we believe to be the source of the mineral resources we have already identified. We are grateful to all of you who supported our over-subscribed $25 million fund raise last March.

As I write, the chaos and savagery in Eastern Europe threaten to drag us all back to the dark decades of the 1930s and 40s. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Ukrainians. We face a new world order in which we need to re-establish self-sufficiency in essential items, including metals. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the resultant bans on trade, has driven commodity prices to record levels. Russia's copper exports of some 750,000 tonnes per annum account for approximately 3.5% of global annual consumption of mined copper - a market where a supply swing of 200,000 tonnes has a major impact on pricing.

It remains to be seen if the conflict will precipitate a global slump and associated fall in metal prices. However, the recent spikes in metal prices were evidence of trends which have been weighing on supplies of copper, silver, cobalt and zinc for some time. It is likely that some of the more vociferous demands for instant and total electrification to stave off global warming may not be immediately satisfied while we reduce our dependence upon Russian hydrocarbons, and some of the more optimistic forecasts on renewables and electric vehicles may prove to be just that, but the move towards clean energy and the infrastructure required will continue to ensure shortages of the metals we are on the point of producing at Empire, and, in due course, on the Idaho Cobalt Belt. To put matters into further perspective, our Nominated Adviser, SP Angel, estimated that the US Administration's target for 30GW of offshore wind farms would potentially require an additional 240 million tonnes of copper, or around 10 years of global mined production.

In previous reports I have mentioned how fortunate we are to be operating in the State of Idaho, USA. Recent developments, in the Ukraine and elsewhere, underline how vital it is for us to be there. A majority of the top ten copper projects under development are funded by Asian companies, who will absorb most, if not all, of the incremental increase in production, whilst in Chile, the world's largest producer with approximately 28% of production, there are more strident calls for nationalising or imposing heavy tax increases on companies producing over 50,000 tonnes per annum. The potentially unsustainable dependency on China for a long list of metals crucial to Western defence requirements, including cobalt, tungsten (also in evidence at Empire), and rare earths also exposes the importance of jurisdictional location.

Fortunately, the current US Administration is reacting to this emergency. ESG issues have grown from being an area to which many miners paid lip service, to being the most important consideration for many investors, and NGOs and environmentalists have, quite rightly in many cases, castigated an industry notorious for accidents, environmental disasters, and lack of engagement with local communities. However, many Americans are waking up to the possibility that it might be a good idea to have their own sources of critical metals, as long as they are responsibly mined. Investors are also beginning to differentiate between "good" and "bad" mining, rather than banning the sector completely from portfolios. We hope to form a part of this process, differentiating ourselves from mining companies which use cyanide, source cobalt, tin and coltan mined by children in the Congo, which is then smelted in China, or use acid and steam to process tar sands, or generate a percentage of their profits from coal, or pump large quantities of desalinated water up to high altitudes where their operations then use diesel-generated electricity.

As we near the completion of the permitting process for the Empire open-pit mine, we will continue to emphasise our compliance with the best levels of industry practice. Already, the state of Idaho has the 3rd highest percentage of electricity generated from renewables in the United States, at 76%. This is behind Vermont and Maine, neither of which is noted for its mining industry. In addition, our proposed aerial tramway would generate more electricity than it uses, as the loaded ore buckets descending from the open-pit to the processing plant pull the empty ones back up the hill, dispensing with the need for haulage trucks, with the associated noise, dust and water consumption, diesel, and a 3.5-mile haul road. Our carbon emissions per tonne of copper produced will be among the industry's lowest. Moreover, our gold and silver can be extracted using ammonium thiosulphate, rather than cyanide, which will make the precious metals permitting process much simpler.

As part of the Empire mine permitting process we gave a presentation and held a well-attended Q & A session with the citizens of Mackay, in December last year, and have created a 13 strong consultative committee which will meet at least four times a year to keep us abreast of any issues worrying local interests and keep them appraised of developments and any potential impacts. I draw your attention to the report by the Chairman of our ESG & Sustainability Committee, Catherine Evans, and would like to thank her and Lenie Wilkie, our ESG Program Coordinator based in Mackay, for all their hard work in this area.

Regarding the timetable and funding, I am happy to report that several US, as well as other investors, have expressed interest in participating in a debt instrument to fund the entire capital expenditure needed to put the Empire open-pit mine into production. At $4/lb copper (the price has recently been as high as $5/lb), our current preliminary economic assessment model shows revenues in the first 12 months of production of over $100 million, significantly higher than our estimates for pre-production capital expenditure. This should enable us to keep our promise of getting into production without issuing further equity. Further announcements on this will be made in due course.

As ever, I thank you all for your continued support and for the expanded team's hard work in the face of Covid-induced adversity. I look forward to keeping you abreast of developments in what should be another transformational year for Phoenix Copper Ltd.

Marcus Edwards-Jones

Executive Chairman

25 March 2022

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER'S REPORT

Principal activities and review of the business

Firstly, I would like to echo our Chairman's sentiments regarding the current situation in Ukraine.  It is sometimes all too easy to forget how fortunate we are to live and operate in a stable geopolitical jurisdiction.  Let us not take that for granted.  

The Company started 2021 on a positive tone, with the February release of the Fraser Institute Mining Report's Policy Perception Index, which placed Idaho as the world's top mining jurisdiction as it relates to environmental regulations, the legal system and taxation regime, and socioeconomic and community development conditions, just to name a few of the factors used in the Index. The Company continued a string of positive achievements, with the completion of an over-subscribed $25 million financing, which allowed us to continue apace with the important tasks of the feasibility study and environmental permitting for the Empire open-pit copper mine, and the continued exploration of the Empire underground sulphides, the Red Star silver-lead deposit, the Navarre Creek gold project, and the Horseshoe-White Knob prospects. 

Although the environmental permitting of the Empire open-pit mine began in late 2017 with the initiation of environmental baseline studies, in June the Company completed an initial Plan of Operations that officially commenced the final permitting stage of the Empire mine.  A Bankable Feasibility Study on the open-pit resource was also initiated in 2021 and combines all the drilling, analytical, and engineering data collected on the project to date.  The Feasibility Study will convert the existing Empire resource into a reserve category, and perfect a final cash flow model with detailed capital and operating costs. The current preliminary economic assessment level cash flow model shows gross revenue of $836 million over ten years of mine life, and $43 million post-tax cash flow in year 1 at a $3.60/lb copper price. These project economics improve significantly at current metal prices.

The Company completed a core drilling program in the Empire underground sulphides during the year and encountered the first notable copper sulphide intercept of 8.3%. In addition to the elevated copper value, the intercept was important in that it was our first view of the sulphide material mined prior to World War II.  That intercept provided us with valuable information regarding the "roots" of the sulphide system and will anchor future drilling programs targeting the deeper sulphides. The Company also commissioned ground magnetics and hyperspectral mineral geophysical surveys at Red Star, Horseshoe, and Navarre Creek. The results of those surveys were positive and have provided critical targeting information for future drilling programs.

The Company's cobalt holdings at the Redcastle Idaho Cobalt Belt property in Lemhi County were signed to an earn-in agreement with Electra Battery Materials (formerly First Cobalt Corporation), the Toronto-based owner of the Iron Creek cobalt mine, which shares a common border with the Redcastle property.  The earn-in agreement included an initial payment of cash and Electra shares to Phoenix, followed by two work commitments of $1,500,000 each over a five-year period, thereby earning Electra a 75% interest in the property. I have been encouraged after reading Electra's latest drilling results from their Iron Creek property.  Our Redcastle property borders Iron Creek on the east and I particularly look forward to their drilling results from the eastern side of Iron Creek, nearest Redcastle.

2021 also saw the creation of the Company's ESG program, due in large part to the efforts of Director Catherine Evans and our ESG Program Coordinator Lenie Wilkie.  Cathy and Lenie spearheaded the development of the program, oversaw the Company's first local Town Hall public meeting in December, and have recently organized a Community Advisory Team comprised of local citizens and business owners.  The local Mackay community has been very supportive of our projects since we first began field work in 2017.  The outreach programs developed by our ESG team have further strengthened our relationships and provided a communication network between the Company and local stakeholders. In addition to the rollout of our ESG program, I am also pleased to announce the hiring of a US-based Public Relations Manager, Ms. Brittany Lock.  Brittany's previous experience in mining industry PR and her knowledge of media and media production will prove invaluable as we continue to develop stakeholder relationships.

It is also important to note that nearly all of the Company's engineers and geologists in Idaho have moved themselves and their families to the project site in Mackay, Idaho, rather than traveling to home bases elsewhere for days off.  The significance of this should not be understated.  It requires a great deal of confidence in the project to pack up and move spouses and children to a new home.  The Phoenix team has always had a great deal of confidence in our Idaho projects and the migration of our professional staff and their families to new home bases in Mackay exemplifies that confidence. 

I have said this many times before because it is so vitally important.  Phoenix has been provided a unique opportunity with the variety and grade of mineralisation located on our Idaho properties.  The mix of "green metals" like copper and cobalt, and the prospective gold and silver targets, all residing within the Company's current claim holdings, puts us in an enviable position for near term production and years of exploration potential. 

2021 was not without its challenges.  The supply issues resulting from the global pandemic, coupled with contractor staffing shortages, did cause some delays, but the Phoenix team managed to accomplish the goals outlined for 2021.  Such delays were not unique to Phoenix and were shared by the industry as a whole.  I fully expect that we will encounter many of the same supply chain and staff shortages in 2022, although we expect such disruptions to be minimalised due to the solid working relationships the Company has built with our contractors, consultants, and the local community.   

Empire Mine - Polymetallic Open-Pit Oxide Deposit

An updated NI 43-101 compliant resource was completed by Hardrock Consulting in October 2020 and reported for the polymetallic Empire Mine open-pit oxide deposit. The updated resource showed a 51% increase in the Measured and Indicated category from the previous year's resource. Including the Inferred resources, the Empire open-pit oxide deposit now contains 129,641 tonnes of copper, 58,440 tonnes of zinc, 10,133,772 ounces of silver and 355,523 ounces of gold.

Phoenix is continuing down the feasibility and permitting pathways with the polymetallic resource, having completed all the environmental studies directly applicable to the permitting and mine planning.  Discussions are underway with potential debt financiers to construct the project, to enable production to commence as soon as possible during 2023.

Empire Underground Sulphides

In July 2021, a core drilling program designed to target the historically mined high grade sulphide vein system below the open-pit copper oxide resource was initiated.  The first drill hole of the program that reached the design depth intercepted a 12.6-metre zone of strong to intense sulphide mineralization.  Some of the sulphide minerals identified by our geologists included bornite, chalcocite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, galena, and pyrrhotite. Further drilling continued to intercept high grade mineralisation across a suite of metals, including 8.38% copper, significant intercepts of gold, silver and zinc, as well as anomalous molybdenum and tungsten mineralization. A total of 967 metres of a 4,500-metre planned program has been drilled to date, and further drilling will continue during 2022.

Red Star - High-grade Silver and Lead

Red Star is a high-angle silver-lead vein system hosted in andradite-magnetite and located 330-metres north-northwest of the Empire oxide pit.  Red Star was identified from a 20-metre-wide surface outcrop across a skarn structure. Surface mineralisation is a mix of copper and iron oxides and sulphides, with strong chrysocolla and bornite showings, exposed in a heavily timbered canyon. In 2018, three reverse circulation ("RC") drill holes were drilled on the target and assay results reported the presence of high-grade lead and silver sulphides including intercepts of 20% lead and 1,111 g/t silver. In early May 2019, the Company announced a small maiden Inferred sulphide resource of 103,500 tonnes, containing 577,000 ounces of silver, 3,988 tonnes of lead, 957 tonnes of zinc, 338 tonnes of copper, and 2,800 ounces of gold.

Following the estimation of the Inferred resource, a second ten-hole diamond drilling program was completed in 2020.  The assay results from that program confirmed the presence of the high-grade silver and lead veins drilled in 2018, but also confirmed the need for greater understanding of the structural geology in order to direct further exploration.  As a result, in 2021 the Company commissioned a ground-based magnetics geophysical survey which identified four high-amplitude areas of interest, including the original discovery outcrop. The size and amplitude of the three new areas of interest appear to be significantly greater than that of the discovery outcrop, whilst further north-northeast magnetic anomalies trending from the outcrop were also identified. In a program designed to test and help delineate the boundaries of the magnetic zones, seven further exploratory RC holes were drilled, all of which encountered further mineralisation. A 3,000-metre diamond core drilling program is now planned for 2022. 

Navarre Creek - Volcanic-Hosted Gold Project

The Navarre Creek claim block is located approximately 8 kilometers west-northwest of the Empire open-pit mine, and was acquired in 2019 as a gold exploration project with geology similar to the volcanic-hosted gold fields on the Carlin Trend in Nevada, home to several multimillion-ounce gold deposits.

During the summer of 2020, the Phoenix exploration team mapped and sampled the Company's Navarre Creek property.  90 rock chip and grab samples were collected in the hydrothermally altered volcanic rocks that make up the Navarre Creek claims and sent to ALS Laboratories in Reno, Nevada for geochemical analysis.

Of the 90 samples, 53 were above the detection limit for gold with a high of 0.569 g/t, and 25 above the detection limit for silver.  There was also a strong correlation between elevated gold values and elevated antimony values, typical in Carlin-type epithermal gold systems.  With the exception of one sample, all samples with a gold value greater than 0.1 g/t occur within the same alteration type, that being predominantly a jasperoid-hosted quartz stockwork and micro-veining system. During 2021 a total of 169-line kilometres of ground-based field magnetics and airborne hyperspectral imaging were completed for the entirety of the Navarre Creek claim block. Two distinct intrusive bodies were identified, partially concealed below glacial till showing strong magnetic signatures which complement the existing jasperoid outcrops. A northeast trending corridor of hydrothermal alteration, approximately 2.3 miles long and 1 mile wide, was also identified, consistent with the gold and silver bearing Carlin-style epithermal deposits.

Markers for Carlin-style gold deposits are the presence of jasperoids, and the association of gold, antimony, silver and zinc. These markers are found at Navarre Creek. The results of these surveys, together with the results of previous exploration, highlight the prospectivity of the claim block. These positive results will drive further exploration and drill targeting during 2022. 

Empire Mine Expansion - Horseshoe, Whiteknob, and Windy Devil

We have made a point of focusing our efforts on our flagship Empire Mine projects. However, we have also increased our land position from time-to-time as our geologists recognise prospective and strategic opportunities.  At the time of the Company's IPO in mid-2017, our Empire Mine property consisted of 818 acres. Since then, including the Navarre Creek claim block, we have increased the core Empire claim group to 8,034 acres by expanding north to the former Horseshoe and Whiteknob Mines and onto Windy Devil. This expansion covers approximately 30 historic adits, shafts and prospects, which exhibit geology and mineralogy similar to Red Star, and which will be the subject of further exploration going forward.

Idaho Cobalt Belt - Redcastle and Bighorn Projects

The Company owns two strategically located properties on the Idaho Cobalt Belt in Lemhi County: Idaho, Redcastle and Bighorn.  In May 2021, the Redcastle holding was signed to an earn-in agreement with Electra Battery Materials Corporation (formerly First Cobalt Corporation), the Toronto-based owner of the Iron Creek Cobalt Mine, which shares a common border with the Redcastle property.  The earn-in agreement included an initial payment of cash and Electra shares to Phoenix, followed by two work commitments of $1,500,000 each over a five year period, enabling Electra to earn a 75% interest in the Redcastle property.  Redcastle is held by Borah Resources Inc, the Company's 100% owned, Idaho registered subsidiary.

The Bighorn property, located on the northern end of the Idaho Cobalt Belt, is held by Salmon Canyon Resources, another 100% owned, Idaho registered subsidiary.  Bighorn is situated east of the historic Salmon Canyon copper cobalt underground mine and shares a common border with New World Resources' Colson cobalt-copper project.

In addition to copper, cobalt is a critical metal for electric vehicles and global electrification projects.  Cobalt deposits are rare, particularly in first world jurisdictions. The Company's cobalt projects are located in the USA's only prospective cobalt region, the Idaho Cobalt Belt, approximately 100 miles north of the Empire Mine. In 2018 we announced the results of our 2017 reconnaissance programme of 46 surface grab samples which gave cobalt values ranging from 2 ppm to 0.31% cobalt.

Outlook

The metals markets continue to perform well, with copper recently climbing through an all-time high of $5.00/lb, zinc at a 15 year high of $1.71/lb, cobalt climbing back towards 2018 record prices, and gold and silver remaining robust above $1,900 and $24.50, respectively. I expect to see the metals markets, particularly copper and cobalt, continue to perform well as the electric vehicle and "green energy" initiatives continue to grow globally.  I also expect that the 10-year, $1.2 trillion US Infrastructure Bill will buoy prices, as it was announced that spending will begin in late 2023 and focus roughly $550 billion on roads, bridges, ports, power transmission, and large water projects over the following ten years.  These projects alone will require significant quantities of metal, whilst electric vehicle demands will also likely stress global copper and cobalt supplies.

One of the most important attributes at Empire is the polymetallic nature of the mineralised systems.  In other words, we have a variety of metal resources that provide us significant optionality as metal prices fluctuate on supply and demand.  In addition to our open-pit copper oxide resource, which is now officially moving through the permitting process, we also have the high-grade silver and lead system of Red Star, the historically mined high-grade deep sulphide system at Empire, the very prospective volcanic-hosted gold system at Navarre Creek, and two strategically located cobalt properties, one of which, Redcastle, is located adjacent to the existing Iron Creek cobalt mine and is being explored by the owner of Iron Creek, Electra Battery Materials Corporation.  The projects are all located in historically mined districts in Idaho, USA, a geopolitically stable, pro-mining jurisdiction.   

Although I anticipate further pandemic related delays in the coming year, Phoenix has a talented and dedicated team of hardworking professionals, a supportive shareholder base, and a strong relationship with the community in which we do business. My outlook for the Company remains positive and I am excited to see our accomplishments in 2022.

Key Performance Indicators ('KPIs')

To date the Group has focused on the delivery of the project evaluation work programs to assess the available mineral resources and the extraction methods to apply, each within the available financial budgets. This work will continue until the relevant feasibility studies are completed, and construction commences.

At that stage the Group will consider and implement appropriate operational performance measures and related KPIs as the objective of recommencing commercial production at the Empire Mine nears fruition.

Conclusion

We are pleased to see the continued global push for electric vehicles, large-scale electrification projects, and infrastructure projects requiring substantial quantities of metal, specifically copper.  We have sufficient staffing numbers to complete the Empire Mine Feasibility Study and to execute exploration programs at Navarre Creek, Red Star, and the Empire sulphides.

In conclusion I would like to thank all our professional staff, consultants and advisers, community liaisons, shareholders, and directors who continue to put forth considerable effort, and provide considerable support, to ensure the Company's success.   I look forward to reporting further positive news as we continue our exploration and development programs during 2022.

Ryan McDermott

Chief Executive Officer

25 March 2022