Mr. Joseph van den Elsen reports

PAMPA METALS COMMENCES DIAMOND DRILL PROGRAM AT THE PIUQUENES COPPER-GOLD PORPHYRY PROJECT

Pampa Metals Corp. has commenced follow-up diamond drill testing at the Piuquenes copper-gold porphyry project. The primary objectives of the program are to test the depth and lateral extension of the high-grade intervals of open mineralization at Piuquenes Central, and its potential to host an orebody of 1,000-metre depth and 300 m to 500 m diameter.

Follow-up diamond drill program

The follow-up program consists of up to four diamond drill holes, including two priority drill holes of approximately 850 m to 900 m depth, and is summarized as follows:

• Hole 1 (REC-01) is orientated along a northeast-southwest geological section, proximate to the historical P8A (Inmet) and PIU16-DDH01 (Anglo) drill holes, and designed to extend the depth of known mineralization at the southwestern edge of Piuquenes Central porphyry.
• Hole 2 (REC-02) is orientated along an east-west section, proximate to the historical P4 and P2 drill holes (Inmet), and designed to test the lateral extension of the mineralized body, primarily along the western edge of the Piuquenes Central porphyry.
• A third, and possibly a fourth, hole will focus on extending known depth to the northeast and southeast edges of the Piuquenes Central mineral body, and seek to validate a potential mineral column of 1,000 m depth and 300 m to 500 m diameter.

Joseph van den Elsen, the company's president and chief executive officer, stated: "We are pleased to have swiftly commenced the first of an aggressive, multicampaign exploration program testing the Piuquenes project's exceptional potential. We now look forward to driving significant shareholder value over the short, medium and long term as we first test the depth and lateral extension of the reported high-grade intervals of open mineralization at Piuquenes Central (558.2 m at 0.38 per cent Cu [copper], 0.42 gram per tonne [g/t] Au [gold] and 2.4 g/t Ag [silver] (0.73 per cent CuEq [copper equivalent]), including 130 m at 0.81 per cent Cu, 0.6 g/t Au and four g/t Ag (1.31 per cent CuEq) -- refer Dec. 5, 2023, news release), and thereafter Piuquenes East and other targets from our growing pipeline."

Piuquenes porphyry copper-gold project

The Piuquenes project consists of nine mining titles that cover an area of approximately 1,880 hectares in the San Juan province of Argentina, adjacent (to the north) with the Altar copper-gold porphyry project (Aldebaran Resources Inc.) and approximately 190 kilometres west of the city of San Juan. Other large porphyry copper projects in the San Juan Miocene porphyry belt include El Pachon (Glencore), approximately 30 km to the south, the operating Los Pelambres copper mine (60 per cent Antofagasta PLC) in Chile and Los Azules (McEwen Mining), 50 km to the northeast.

The first evidence of copper oxides at Piuquenes was reported in 1970 by Minera Aguilar, which subsequently completed the first exploration program between 1973 and 1975. Between 1995 and 1997, Inmet Mining Corp. (IMC) completed a heli-magnetic/radiometric survey, surface geology, rock and soil geochemistry, ground magnetics, PD-IP (pole-dipole-induced polarization), and eight diamond drill holes for a total of 1,894.2 m. Subsequently, in 2015 to 2016, Anglo American Argentina (AAA) completed detailed 1:2,500 geology and geochemistry, 17.8 km of gDAS24 deep 3-D PD-IP/NSMT (natural source magnetotelluric) and a single 920.2 m diamond drill hole.

Since its discovery, the Piuquenes copper-gold porphyry has until now remained privately held.

Inmet Mining's (subsequently acquired by First Quantum in 2013) eight diamond drill holes for a total of 1,894.2 m intersected significant copper and gold mineralization, including:

• 413.5 m (167 m to 580.5 m) at 0.47 per cent Cu and 0.52 g/t Au (0.87 per cent CuEq);
• 67.5 m (207 m to 274.5 m) at 0.63 per cent Cu and 0.51 g/t Au (1.02 per cent CuEq); and
• 158 m (three m to 161 m) at 0.32 per cent Cu and 0.6 g/t Au (0.78 per cent CuEq).

In November, 2023, Pampa Metals assayed and relogged Anglo American's 2016 diamond borehole of 920.2 m length, which had crossed the mineral zones previously drilled by Inmet Mining. These results were reported in a Dec. 5, 2023, news release, and included:

• 558.2 m (362 m to 920.2 m EOH (end of hole)) at 0.38 per cent Cu, 0.42 g/t Au and 2.4 g/t Ag (0.73 per cent CuEq), including:
  • 130 m (362 m to 492 m) at 0.81 per cent Cu, 0.6 g/t Au and four g/t Ag (1.31 per cent CuEq).

Piuquenes East stockwork zone

Since optioning the Piuquenes porphyry copper-gold project (refer to Nov. 30, 2023, news release) Pampa Metals has completed a comprehensive review of the project's technical data.

This review, complemented by Pampa Metals' recent drill core relogging, field validation and preparatory works for follow-up drilling, has led to the identification of three additional areas of undrilled porphyry intrusives at the Piuquenes project.

One of these zones, referred to as the Piuquenes East prospect, is located immediately proximate to the mineralized Altar North porphyry held by Aldebaran Resources.

The Piuquenes East prospect is characterized by outcrops of sinuous and banded dark gray quartz veinlets covering an area of 100 m by 200 m hosted within an altered intermineral porphyry. Alteration is typical of that commonly observed in the epithermal-porphyry transition zone of fully preserved, high-level porphyry systems. The mapped stockwork zone is associated with a 400 m by 300 m copper-gold soil-rock geochemical anomaly, and co-incident intermediate chargeability and intermediate-high resistivity anomalies in electrical (induced polarization) geophysics.

About Pampa Metals Corp.

Pampa Metals is a postdiscovery copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry exploration company.

In November, 2023, the company announced it had entered into an option and joint venture agreement for the acquisition of an 80-per-cent interest in the Piuquenes copper-gold porphyry project in San Juan province, Argentina.

Qualified person

Technical information in this news release has been approved by Mario Orrego. Mr. Orrego is a geologist, a registered member of the Chilean Mining Commission and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Orrego is a consultant to the company.

We seek Safe Harbor.