Dr. Charles Fipke reports

CANTEX'S NORTH RACKLA PROJECT CONTAINS HIGH CRITICAL METAL GERMANIUM VALUES IN YUKON, CANADA

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

Germanium in sphalerite results

Cantex's directors are pleased to provide a summary of the germanium results received from the company's massive sulphide project in Yukon, Canada. Since its discovery, the massive sulphide project contains silver, lead and zinc values amongst the highest found in North America. More recently, the presence of the key critical element germanium in elevated levels has been detected.

As first reported on Feb. 9, 2023, laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectroscopy (LA-ICPMS) studies of zinc sulphide grains (sphalerite) from the project identified significant enrichment of the critical element germanium. Additional LA-ICPMS analyses of sphalerite (reported on April 13, 2023, July 10, 2023, and Feb. 9, 2024) confirmed the high germanium contents over 2.35 kilometres (1.5 miles) of drill-tested strike length at the Main zone and also at the adjacent GZ zone.

At the Main zone, 595 sphalerite analyses from 97 intercepts were tested, and these intercepts averaged 654 grams per ton of germanium.

In addition, 77 analyses of sphalerite from 14 intercepts at the nearby GZ zone averaged 521 grams per ton of germanium.

Germanium in bulk core

As first announced on March 14, 2024, Cantex identified a suitable technique for bulk analysis of germanium in core. As expected, there is a strong correlation between germanium content and zinc grade, as it is the sphalerite (zinc sulphide) grains that contain germanium. Core with higher zinc content typically has higher germanium content. The presence of galena, or other non-ore minerals, in the core dilutes the sphalerite, and thus decreases the germanium content. However, in a sphalerite concentrate, the germanium grade will approach that found in the LA-ICPMS analyses: 654 g/t in the Main zone and 521 g/t in the GZ zone.

This bulk analytical method does have the advantage of being quicker and less costly and provides a better average of thousands of sphalerite grains in a single analysis. For the 2024 drill program, Cantex completed bulk germanium analyses on all mineralized intercepts (see releases of Oct. 1, 2024, and Feb. 12, 2025). This work has confirmed the presence of high-grade silver-lead-zinc-germanium values over a drill-confirmed strike length of 2.65 kilometres (1.65 miles).

Germanium market

In recent times, germanium has entered the global spotlight. This is due to the combination of its importance in the manufacture of several modern technologies, some of which have military applications, and the lack of a significant western germanium source. Seventy-six per cent of the world's germanium resources are located in Russia and China. Eighty-two per cent of refined germanium production is in China.

As a result of trade tensions, China announced export controls on germanium to the United States in August of 2023 and then a total ban on exports in December of 2024. It is unknown what additional measures China will put into place as a result of the significant increase in tensions with the United States.

This leaves the West in need of alternative sources to reliably supply this critical metal, which is used in computer chips, solar panels, fibre optics and military applications such as night vision optics. This is expected to become even more challenging when Teck's Red Dog mine in Alaska, currently the most significant western source of germanium, reaches its expected end of life in six years. The Red Dog mine averages between 104 and 249 grams per tonne germanium.

Germanium is currently trading for $2.11 (U.S.) per gram (April 12, 2025, Trading Economics).

Summary

Cantex is pleased to continue to see elevated germanium contents within the silver-lead-zinc mineralization at the high-grade massive sulphide project.

The germanium not only adds value to the mineralization, but importantly would provide a Western source desperately needed. The strategic importance of a Western source of germanium has never been greater.

Sample preparation

The drill holes reported in this press release were drilled using HQ (63.5-millimetre) 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, which were in turn placed into larger bags closed with security seals prior to being transported to the ISO 9001:2015 accredited CF Mineral Research Ltd. laboratory in Kelowna, B.C.

At CF Minerals, the drill core was dried prior to crushing to minus 10 mesh. The samples, which averaged over three kilograms, were then mixed prior to splitting off 800 grams. The 800-gram splits were pulverized to minus 200 mesh. A 250-gram portion of this pulverized material was submitted for multielement analysis at ALS Chemex in North Vancouver. 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 North Vancouver assayed the samples using a four-acid digestion with an ICP-MS finish. The 48-element ME-MS61 technique was used to provide a geochemical signature of the mineralization. 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. The over limit analyses contributed to delays in receiving final assay results.

For germanium analyses completed on individual sphalerite grains, 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 the University of British Columbia 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.

For the germanium results completed on bulk core, a portion of the remaining pulverized material from the base metal analysis was analyzed by ALS Chemex in North Vancouver, Canada. The pulverized samples were analyzed using a sodium peroxide fusion followed by an ICP mass spectrometer finish on a 0.2-gram pulverized sample.

The technical information and results reported 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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