Mr. Simon Dyakowski reports

AZTEC REPORTS FINAL GOLD AND MULTI-ELEMENT RESULTS FROM 2023 RC DRILLING FROM THE CERVANTES PROJECT, SONORA, MEXICO; MULTIPLE, SHALLOW AND BROAD, OXIDIZED GOLD INTERCEPTS CONTINUE THE EXPANSION OF THE CALIFORNIA TARGET MINERALIZED ZONE

Aztec Minerals Corp. has released the final results of gold and multielement analysis for its 2023 RC (reverse circulation) drill program at the Cervantes project in Sonora, Mexico. The RC drill program comprised 1,646 metres in 13 RC drill holes testing the California porphyry gold target located in the district of Soyopa, Sonora, Mexico. Total drilling by Aztec Minerals on the Cervantes project since 2016 now totals 67 drill holes and 12,134 metres.

The California target of near-surface, oxide gold porphyry mineralization was successfully expanded, and the presence of anomalous copper, molybdenum and silver, in addition to significant gold mineralization, corresponds well in relation to the top of large, strong IP (induced polarization) chargeability anomaly astride an aeromagnetic-low anomaly.

RC drill results at the California target returned significant gold mineralization from the 2023 RC drill program on the Cervantes property located in Sonora, Mexico. The multielement ICP results show good, positive relationships between gold, copper, bismuth, silver, arsenic, tungsten and potassium (potassic alteration) and negative relationships with molybdenum, antimony and calcium. The multielement grades support the potential for a gold-copper porphyry deposit at depth.

2023 California target drill highlights:

• All drill holes intersected oxidized gold mineralization.
• The California target continues to be open.
• The California target now has an area of 1,000 m by 300 m drill demonstrated.
• The California target was found to continue on strike to the east at least another 400 m.

The primary focus of the phase 3A RC drill program at Cervantes was to expand the previously drilled California zone. This was done successfully. To date, every hole drilled at California has intersected near-surface, oxidized gold mineralization with minor copper oxides.

Reported lengths are apparent widths, not true widths, and the observed gold mineralization is hosted in the California porphyry intrusive complex and is widely distributed in disseminations, fractures and veinlets within its quartz-feldspar porphyry, feldspar porphyry stocks, quartzites and related hydrothermal breccias.

Holes CAL23-32 to CAL23-44 intersected significant gold mineralization (see attached table), extending the known mineralized zone at depth and also to the north, east and south of the California zone. The RC phase 3A drilling program has been completed. It covers an area now measuring approximately 1,000 metres long by 300 metres wide, with demonstrated, continuous anomalous mineralization up to 265 metres depth vertically. The porphyry gold-copper mineralization is still open in all directions.

The multielement ICP results show good, positive relationships between Au, Cu, Bi, Ag, As, W and K (potassic alteration) and negative relationships with Mo, Sb and Ca. This will assist in vectoring exploration targets for expanding potentially economic mineralization in a porphyry deposit model. The multielement ICP values support the exploration model of the California zone being at the highest portion of a porphyry system, where an overlying high-sulphidation zone has been eroded away.

Every drill hole from 2021 to 2023 (except one of the 44 drill holes successfully completed at the California and the adjoining California Norte targets) has intersected near-surface, oxidized gold mineralization with minor copper values. The 2023 RC drilling exploration program has continued the expansion of the footprint and the depth of the California target Au mineralization and alteration associated with the California porphyry intrusive complex with continued intercepts of broad gold mineralization.

The drill holes were mainly placed in stepout rows subparallel to the 2017/2018 drilling, oriented with azimuths 230 to 260, generally inclined at minus 65 degrees from horizontal. The rows were spaced approximately 50 m to 100 m apart, and, along the rows, the collar spacings were 70 m to 150 m. There were four near-vertical drill holes and three drill holes with azimuth perpendicular to the pattern that were made to test that there is no drill pattern bias in the results. One metallurgical drill hole (CAL22-027) was made by twinning (at 25 m distance) a prior RC drill hole.

Drilling has also expanded the footprint of the known extents of the mineralized and phyllically altered California porphyry intrusive complex, demonstrating alteration zoning from east to west of argillic to phyllic alteration, multiple stockwork veining, and hydrothermal brecciation types and stages, and confirmed the prior IP survey chargeability anomaly was related to disseminated sulphides. The 2022 core drilling program has shown that Au mineralization is limited by the enveloping argillic alteration and seems to prefer to be close to the argillic/phyllic alteration boundaries.

The gold mineralization is strongly positively associated with Cu, As, Ag, Bi, W and K, while Mo, Sb and Ca anomalies are as halos distal to the gold, mercury is usually undetectable, lead and zinc are mainly distal, and barium has a wide distribution.

The controls on mineralization/zoning are still to be identified. However, the dioritic quartz-feldspar porphyry (QFP) and hydrothermal breccia (HBX) lithologic units are seemingly the preferred hosts. The QFP, HBX and gold mineralization may be dipping to the north into the California Norte target. The gold mineralization appears to be widely distributed in disseminations, fractures and veinlets at high levels within its quartz-feldspar porphyry, feldspar porphyry stocks, quartzites and related hydrothermal breccias.

The planned testing of the California zone of the Cervantes phase 3A RC drilling program is complete. The primary objectives of the exploration program from 2021 to 2024 are to better define the open-pit, heap leach gold potential of the porphyry oxide cap at California, evaluate the potential for deeper gold-copper porphyry sulphide mineralization underlying the oxide cap, and test for north and west extensions of the California mineralization. In 2024, subject to available funds, it is planned for further technical studies, reconnaissance work on other targets, metallurgical testing and the Cervantes phase 3B RC drilling program of approximately 20 drill holes comprising 2,850 m, including the California North and Jasper targets.

The attached table shows a summary tabulation of all RC and core drill hole results from 2021 to 2023.

Drill sample RC cuttings mainly are collected every 1.5 m from all core drill holes. The samples are analyzed by Bureau Veritas for gold with a 30-gram sample size using the method FA430 followed by MA300. Overlimits, when present, are analyzed by AR404 or FA550. All holes contain certified blanks, standards and duplicates as part of the quality control program. The QA/QC has delivered excellent results to date with good data integrity. The samples are shipped to and received by Bureau Veritas Minerals laboratory for the gold and multielement geochemical analysis.

Cervantes project overview

Cervantes is a highly prospective porphyry gold-copper project located in southeastern Sonora state, Mexico. The project lies 160 kilometres east of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, within the prolific Laramide porphyry copper belt approximately 265 km southeast of the Cananea porphyry copper-molybdenum mine (Grupo Mexico). Cervantes also lies along an east-west-trending gold belt 60 kilometres west of the Mulatos epithermal gold mine (Alamos Gold), 35 km northeast of Osisko's San Antonio gold mine, 45 km west of the La India mine (Agnico Eagle) and 40 km northwest of Santana gold deposit (Minera Alamos).

Cervantes project highlights:

• Large well-located property (3,649 hectares) with good infrastructure, road access, local town, all-private land, water wells on property and grid power nearby;
• Seven prospective mineralized zones related to high-level porphyries and breccias along a 7.0 km east-northeast corridor with multiple intersecting northwest structures;
• Distinct geophysical anomalies, California target marked by high-magnetic and low-resistivity anomalies, and high-radiometric and high-chargeability anomalies responding to pervasive alteration;
• Extensive gold mineralization at California target; 118 soil samples average 0.44 gram per tonne gold over 900 m by 600 m area; trench rock-channel samples up to 0.47 g/t gold over 222 m;
• Already drilled the first discovery holes at the California target; intersected gold oxide cap to a classic gold-copper porphyry system; drill results up to 1.49 g/t gold over 137 m and 1.00 g/t gold over 165 m;
• Excellent gold recoveries from preliminary metallurgical tests on drill core from California target; oxide gold recoveries in bottle-roll tests range from 75 per cent to 87 per cent;
• California IP geophysical anomaly wide open laterally and at depth, IP chargeability strengthens and broadens to greater than 500 m depth over an area 1,100 m by 1,200 m and has been confirmed by exploration drilling;
• Three-dimensional IP survey conducted in 2019 extends strong chargeability anomalies to the southwest covering Estrella, Purisima East and Purisima West, coinciding well with alteration and gold-copper-molybdenum soil geochemical anomalies;
• Cervantes project aeromagnetic survey completed in 2019 found a magnetic low associated with the California gold porphyry.

California target

In 2017 to 2018, Aztec completed a phase 1, 17-diamond-core-hole drill program totalling 2,675 m (see news release dated June 26, 2018). Phase 1 drilling tested the California target 900 m by 600 m gold-in-soil anomaly that averaged 0.44 g/t covering hydrothermal breccias within the quartz feldspar porphyry stock intruding Paleozoic siliciclastic sediments.

In 2019, a series of technical studies were conducted, including airborne geophysics (gravity, magnetics, radiometrics and VLF (very low frequency)), surface IP, soil and outcrop geochemistry, geologic mapping, and completing initial metallurgical studies with positive results.

Then, in late 2021 and into 2022, Aztec completed a phase 2, 26-hole RC drill program totalling 5,267 m focused on expanding the California target with two drill hole fences parallel to and on either side of the 2017/2018 phase 1 drill hole fence. The phase 2 RC drilling program was followed by the phase 2 oriented core drilling program of 2,588 m in 11 drill holes combined and successfully expanded the primary California target to an area measuring approximately 1,000 m long by 300 m to 500 m wide, with demonstrated, continuous anomalous mineralization to over 265 m depth vertically.

The porphyry gold-copper mineralization is still open in all directions. Aztec's drilling to date has consistently intersected an oxidized gold cap to a porphyry-type gold-copper-silver system at California, including multiple 100-plus-metre widths of exceeding 0.40 g/t gold.

Highlights of the 2017/2018 phase 1 diamond core and 2021/2022 phase 2 RC and core (see news releases dated June 14, 2022, and Dec. 27, 2022) drill programs are as follows:

• 137 m of 1.49 g/t Au, including 51.7 m of 3.42 g/t Au and 119 m of 0.091 per cent Cu, in CAL22-005;
• 165 m of 1.00 g/t Au, including 24.4 m of 4.25 g/t Au and 160 m of 0.065 per cent Cu, in CAL22-004;
• 152 m of 0.87 g/t Au, including 33.5 m of 2.05 g/t Au and 123 m of 0.095 per cent Cu, in CAL22-012;
• 94 m of 1.04 g/t Au, including 15.2 m of 3.96 g/t Au and 55 m of 0.36 per cent Cu, in CAL22-001;
• 100 m of 0.75 g/t Au, including 9.14 m of 3.087 g/t Au and 138 m of 0.10 per cent Cu, in CAL22-006;
• 160 m of 0.77 g/t Au, including 80 m of 1.04 g/t Au and 0.11 per cent Cu, in 18CER010;
• 139 m of 0.71 g/t Au, including 20 m of 2.10 g/t Au and 0.16 per cent Cu, in 17CER005;
• 118 m of 0.63 g/t Au, including 43 m of 1.18 g/t Au and 0.16 per cent Cu, in 17CER003;
• 122 m of 0.60 g/t Au, including 62 m of 0.88 g/t Au and 0.06 per cent Cu, in 18CER007;
• 170 m of 0.42 g/t Au, including 32 m of 0.87 g/t Au and 0.06 per cent Cu, in 18CER006.

Preliminary metallurgical tests on California drill cores were conducted in 2019 (see news release dated March 12, 2019). Drill core samples were grouped into four separate types of mineralization: oxide 1, oxide 2, mixed oxide/sulphide and sulphide. The preliminary results of bottle-roll tests showed excellent potential for heap leach gold recovery, as follows:

• 85.1-per-cent recovery on 2.0-millimetre material and 94.3-per-cent recovery on 75-micron material in sample oxide 1;
• 87.7-per-cent recovery on 2.0 mm material and 94.2-per-cent recovery on 75-micron material in sample oxide 2;
• 77.9-per-cent recovery on 2.0 mm material and 89.0-per-cent recovery on 75-micron material in sample mixed oxide/sulphide;
• 51.2-per-cent recovery on 2.0 mm material and 78.7-per-cent recovery on 75-micron material in sample sulphide.

Additional exploration targets

• Purisima East -- outcropping gossans, altered and mineralized diatreme breccias and porphyry intrusions marked by a 700 m by 600 m geochemical soil anomaly in 193 samples that average 0.25 g/t Au, a small historic glory hole mine where rock-chip sampling returned high-grade mineralization up to 44.6 g/t Au;
• Estrella -- outcrops of gossan and sulphides in silicified Paleozoic sediments near quartz-porphyry dikes with rock-chip samples up to 3.9 g/t Au and 2,010 parts per million copper;
• Purisima West -- a mirror image of Purisima East in size and type of gossans, altered and mineralized breccias and intrusions in association with gold and copper soil anomalies;
• Jasper -- 2017 trenching returned skarn/replacement-type mineralization up to 0.52 per cent copper and 0.62 g/t Au over a 92.4 m length; in 2022, RC drilling found a broad zone of copper-gold mineralization in JAS22-001;
• California North -- coincident IP chargeability and gold-copper-molybdenum soil geochemical anomalies with demonstrated gold-copper mineralization by RC drilling; it may be a north extension of the California target;
• Other zones -- porphyry alteration and geochemical soil anomalies mark the Jacobo and Brasil prospects but more work is required to expand and define these targets.

Allen David Heyl, BSc, CPG, vice-president, exploration, of Aztec, is the qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, supervised the Cervantes exploration program. Mr. Heyl has reviewed and approved the technical disclosures in this news release.

About Aztec Minerals Corp.

Aztec is a mineral exploration company focused on two emerging discoveries in North America. The Cervantes project is an emerging porphyry gold-copper discovery in Sonora, Mexico. The Tombstone project is an emerging gold-silver discovery with high-grade CRD (carbonate replacement deposit) silver-lead-zinc potential in southern Arizona. Aztec's shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange (under the symbol AZT) and on the OTCQB (under the symbol AZZTF).

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