Dr. Charles Fipke reports

CANTEX RECEIVES ADDITIONAL ELEVATED GERMANIUM RESULTS AND PROVIDES RECENT ANALYSES OF DRILL CORE, ROCK AND SOIL-TALUS SAMPLES ON ITS 100% OWNED NORTH RACKLA PROJECT, YUKON

Cantex Mine Development Corp. has provided an update on its 100-per-cent-owned, 14,077-hectare North Rackla claim block in Yukon.

Germanium

China has announced that it will be restricting exports of germanium to the United States and Western markets starting Aug. 1, 2023. China supplies 83 per cent of the world's germanium and provides the U.S. with half of its supply.

Prior to this restriction germanium had already been identified by the Canadian and U.S. governments as being a critical metal. It is an important constituent of many modern technologies. These include fibre optic systems, infrared (night vision) optics, the highest-efficiency solar cells, polymerization catalysts, and high-brightness light-emitting diodes used in televisions and vehicle headlights. Germanium has a high value, currently selling for $1.32 (U.S.) per gram.

There are few Western sources of germanium, the most significant being ore from Teck's Red Dog mine in Alaska which is processed at the Trail smelter in British Columbia. It is apparent that Western nations will need to find additional sources of germanium.

Cantex is fortunate to have identified highly elevated germanium contents within the zinc mineralization found at its massive sulphide project in North Rackla. While the four deposits which comprise the Red Dog mine average between 104 and 249 grams per tonne germanium, zinc mineralization from Cantex's Main zone and adjacent GZ zone averages 640 grams per tonne and 690 grams per tonne, respectively.

At the Main zone 140 analyses from 36 intersections along 2,200 metres of strike length have now been completed. Twenty analyses from five intersections have been completed at the GZ zone.

Additional germanium analyses are awaited and will be reported when received.

Drilling confirms additional mineralization at discovery sector

Cantex is pleased to report the final results from 18 holes from the 2022 drill program at the North Rackla project.

The most significant results were from the discovery sector where the strike length was extended to 2,350 metres in 2022. Hole YKDD22-252 contained several mineralized zones, notably a three-metre intercept of 24.78 per cent combined lead-zinc and 59.4 grams per tonne silver which includes a 1.5-metre zone of 45.28 per cent lead-zinc and 105.6 g/t silver.

Regional targets

During 2022 the company collected 1,238 soil-talus samples and 40 rock samples from regional targets within the North Rackla claim block.

Fifty-eight soil-talus samples were considered high interest, where sympathetic suites of elements were strongly anomalous, suggesting that there is potential for mineralization of interest nearby. Samples contained up to 0.42 per cent copper, 23 g/t silver, 0.56 per cent zinc and over 1 per cent lead (upper limit of analytical method). The minimum values for these elements to be considered highly anomalous are 0.02 per cent copper, 5.25 g/t silver, 0.12 per cent zinc and 0.35 per cent lead.

Of the 40 rock samples collected 13 were considered to be of high interest. Results ranged up to 27.3 per cent copper, 470 g/t silver, 60.72 per cent lead and 45.77 per cent zinc.

Summary

Cantex's directors are pleased that the massive sulphide project contains very high germanium values along the 2,200 metres of strike length tested to date. The Main zone has been drill tested to a depth of 700 metres where a 4.62-metre high-grade zone contained 19.24 per cent lead-zinc and 67 g/t silver within a 23.67-metre mineralized intercept. With additional analyses forthcoming, the project shows potential to be a much-needed Western source of the critical metal germanium.

Sample preparation

The drill holes reported in this press release were drilled using HQ (63.5 millimetres) diamond drill bits. The core was logged, marked up for sampling and then divided into equal halves using a diamond saw on site. One-half of the core was left in the original core box. The other half was sampled and placed into sealed bags. Core samples averaged over three kilograms in weight.

Core samples, rock samples and soil-talus samples are placed into larger bags closed with security seals prior to being transported to the ISO 9001 certified CF Mineral Research Ltd. laboratory in Kelowna, B.C.

At CF Minerals the drill core, soil-talus and rock samples were dried prior to crushing to minus 10 mesh. The crushed material from a sample was then mixed prior to splitting off 800 grams. The 800-gram splits were pulverized to minus 200 mesh and a 250-gram split was sent for assay. Quality control procedures included running a barren sand sample through both the crusher and pulverizer between each sample to ensure no intersample contamination occurred. Silica blanks were inserted along with certified reference samples. These quality control samples were each inserted approximately every 20 samples.

ALS Chemex in Vancouver assayed the samples using a four-acid digestion with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry finish. The 48-element ME-MS61 technique was used to provide a geochemical signature. For core and rock samples where lead or zinc values exceeded 1 per cent the Pb-OG62 or Zn-OG62 techniques were used. These have upper limits of 20 per cent lead and 30 per cent zinc, respectively. Samples with lead and zinc values over these limits were then analyzed by titration methods Pb-VOL70 and Zn-VOL50. Where silver samples exceeded 100 g/t the Ag-OG62 technique was used which has an upper limit of 1,500 g/t.

For germanium analyses a piece of split core approximately 15 centimetres in length containing sphalerite was selected and submitted to CF Mineral Research. From the selected location a piece of a thin slice of core was mounted in epoxy, polished, carbon coated and mapped using a scanning electron microscope to select sphalerites for analysis. The samples were then sent to UBC Okanagan for germanium analysis using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (LA-ICPMS). A 100-micron spot size was used and NIST610 and 612 reference materials were used as standards.

The technical information and results reported here have been reviewed by Chad Ulansky, PGeol, a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, who is responsible for the technical content of this release.

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