Mr. Akiba Leisman reports

MAKO MINING PROVIDES Q3 2023 PRODUCTION RESULTS

Mako Mining Corp. has provided third quarter 2023 (Q3 2023) production results from its San Albino gold mine in northern Nicaragua, which is the ninth full quarter of production results since declaring commercial production on July 1, 2021. Financial results for Q3 2023, including detailed reporting of Mako's operating costs, are expected to be released by next month.

Q3 2023 production highlights:

• 47,732 tonnes mined containing 11,047 ounces of gold at a blended grade of 7.20 grams per tonne gold and 13,931 ounces of silver at a grade of 9.08 grams per tonne silver:
  • 26,982 tonnes mined containing 9,153 oz Au at 10.55 g/t Au and 11,209 oz Ag at 12.92 g/t Ag from diluted vein material;
  • 20,749 tonnes mined containing 1,894 oz Au at 2.84 g/t Au and 2,722 oz Ag at 4.08 g/t Ag from historical dump and other mineralized material above cut-off grade;
  • 23.2:1 strip ratio overall which includes prestripping of the Southwest pit and the commencement of the bulk sample at San Pablo and Mina Francisco.
• 51,578 tonnes milled containing 10,997 oz Au at a blended grade of 6.63 g/t Au and 14,782 oz Ag at 8.91 g/t Ag:
  • 44 per cent and 56 per cent from diluted vein and historical dump and other, respectively;
  • 598 tonnes per day (tpd) milled at 94-per-cent availability;
  • Recoveries of 77.4 per cent for gold in Q3 2023 (85.5 per cent from Sept. 1).
• 134,608 tonnes in stockpile containing 10,379 oz Au at a blended grade of 2.40 g/t Au;
• 8,601 oz Au equivalent recovered and 5,698 oz Au equivalent sold during the quarter due to a temporary delay in third party refining which was resolved in October; 2,234 finished product inventory as of Sept. 30, 2023.

Akiba Leisman, chief executive officer of Mako, states: "Since Aug. 14, after permits to begin mining Las Conchitas were received, and bulk sample mining was fully ramped up at Las Conchitas, the mine has been operating at record levels. September was an all-time record of 3,817 ounces recovered, and October is on pace to significantly exceed this. There was a substantial amount of unsold gold held in inventory at quarter-end due to a temporary third party refining issue, which will introduce some noise around our cash cost, total cost and AISC reporting when we report our Q3 financials next month. However, all of this unsold gold was liquidated last week at recent high gold prices, which will not only reverse this effect on reported costs for Q4, but the performance of the plant and mine will also lead to record Q4 financial results."

Mining

The mine averaged 519 tpd of diluted vein and historical dump plus other material in Q3 2023 with a strip ratio of 23.2:1 which included prestripping of the Southwest pit and the commencement of the bulk sample at San Pablo and Mina Francisco. The current stockpile is 134,608 tonnes containing 10,389 oz Au at 2.40 g/t Au.

Sevety-nine per cent of the total production of diluted vein material in Q3 2023 was mined from phase 3 of the West pit, 1 per cent from the Southwest pit and 20 per cent from Las Conchitas (San Pablo and Mina Francisco), respectively. The company expects to begin extracting the high-grade diluted vein material from Bayacun and Dolores located at Las Conchitas South later this quarter. Las Conchitas South is considered to be the best part of Las Conchitas with a relatively low strip ratio and higher-than-average grades. A maiden resource estimate for Las Conchitas will be available in the coming weeks.

The average grade of the diluted vein was 10.55 g/t Au during the quarter. In the first half of the quarter, the company did not have access to initial production from the Las Conchitas bulk sample. After obtaining permits to begin mining this area, average grades extracted from the mine improved, and the quality of material extracted significantly reduced the amount of preg-robbing material reporting to the griding facility, which significantly improved the process plant recovery.

Milling

All components of the 500 tpd gravity and carbon-in-leach processing plant have been fully operational since the beginning of May, 2021. During Q3 2023 the plant throughput rate was 598 tpd with a plant availability of 94 per cent. The plant processed 44 per cent diluted vein material and 56 per cent historical dump plus other material to achieve a blended feed grade of 6.63 g/t Au. The gold recovery improved from 71.8 per cent in Q2 to 77.4 per cent in Q3 (and 85.5 per cent in September) due to enhanced residence time, reduced mill throughput, higher gold grade and a reduction in the preg-robbing potential of the mill feed once material from Las Conchitas was available.

In the second half of Q3, tonnage from test pits from Las Conchitas began producing mill feed. The percentage of Las Conchitas in the overall mill feed is expected to increase during Q4. The early tonnage from Las Conchitas will primarily be oxide material with relatively low preg-robbing carbon which will contribute to an expected gold recovery improvement during Q4 compared with Q2 and Q3.

Temporarily delay from third party refinery

Prior to the receipt of Las Conchitas mining permits, when the mill was operating with a blend of 35 per cent diluted vein material instead of the blend of 50 per cent diluted vein material, the company had lower-than-planned head grades and higher-than-planned preg-robbing material, which led to lower gold production.

In addition, the locations in the pit mined during the quarter contained significantly higher deleterious elements than the overall deposit average resulting in much higher concentrations of these elements in the dore bars. Deleterious element content in the mined material is expected to return to deposit averages in the coming months.

In addition to minor penalties from the company's third party refiner, the high concentration of deleterious elements led to a 13-day delay in its gold sales process. This, in part, led to a 2,900 oz difference between gold ounces recovered and gold ounces sold during the quarter. These ounces were sold later in October, and due to improvements in head grades and the normalization of the elution circuit, the company no longer faces this issue.

Since the company reports cash cost, total cost and all-in sustaining cost based on gold ounces sold and not gold ounces recovered, this will have a negative impact on these accounting costs during Q3, and a positive impact on these accounting costs in Q4 relative to what they would have otherwise been. Serendipitously, because of this delay, the company benefited from higher gold prices which were almost $100 (U.S.) higher than where these ounces would have otherwise been sold.

Qualified person

John Rust, a metallurgical engineer and qualified person (as defined under National Instrument 43-101), has read and approved the technical information contained in this press release. Mr. Rust is a senior metallurgist and a consultant to the company.

About Mako Mining Corp.

Mako Mining is a publicly listed gold mining, development and exploration company. The company operates the high-grade San Albino gold mine in Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua, which ranks as one of the highest-grade open-pit gold mines globally. Mako's primary objective is to operate San Albino profitably and finance exploration of prospective targets on its district-scale land package.

We seek Safe Harbor.