Dr. Tim Coughlin reports

ROYAL ROAD MINERALS PROVIDES EXPLORATION UPDATE FROM ITS SANTO DOMINGO PORPHYRY COPPER AND GOLD DISTRICT; SAN JUAN PROVINCE, ARGENTINA

Royal Road Minerals Ltd. has released results of geological mapping, soil geochemical sampling and saw-cut rock-chip channel sampling from its Santo Domingo porphyry copper and gold project in San Juan province, Argentina.

The Santo Domingo district is located 120 kilometres east of San Juan City at an average altitude of approximately 1,200 metres above sea level. The district comprises three as-yet undrilled porphyry copper-gold occurrences (El Arriero, Divisoria and Alunita) and several vein-hosted gold and silver mineralized systems located within a mineral rights package covering a total area of approximately 185 square kilometres. Royal Road has entered into an option agreement with an individual titleholder to acquire 100 per cent of the mineral rights package (see press release Feb. 15, 2023).

The porphyry occurrences at Santo Domingo are shallowly eroded and partly exposed, but broadly reflect characteristic zoned porphyry alteration patterns from stockwork veining and copper-mineralized potassic altered cores, to haloes of phyllic and propylitic alteration which are overprinted by later gold and polymetallic vein systems. Initial scout diamond drilling is scheduled to commence at El Arriero in early August of this year.

The company has completed geological mapping, grid-based soil geochemical sampling and saw-cut rock-chip channel sampling at El Arriero. Geological mapping has revealed a cluster of variably altered, porphyritic intrusions and coeval subvolcanic bodies that have been emplaced within earlier ring-fracture controlled magmatic breccia bodies. The shallow-dipping contact between mineralized intrusive and breccia bodies with crystalline metamorphic host rocks is clearly exposed in surrounding hill sides, indicating that present-day exposure at El Arriero represents an eroded window into the very top of the porphyry mineralizing system. Hydrothermal alteration at El Arriero is cyclical and complexly overprinting, but broadly characterized by domains of chlorite-epidote and pyrite alteration overprinting earlier potassic zones represented by potassium feldspar, biotite after hornblende, and associated vein stockworks of quartz chalcopyrite and bornite.

Sampling and analysis of immature, mostly colluvial soils have revealed a coherent 1,000-metre-by-600-metre copper, molybdenum and selenium anomaly which covers the ring-fracture controlled intrusive and breccia system at El Arriero and remains open toward the northeast. Saw-cut channel samples collected mostly from basement rocks hosting sheeted vein systems located peripheral to the porphyry centre have returned best results of 20 metres at 1.2 grams per tonne gold.

Mapping and further reconnaissance rock-chip sampling are currently under way at the neighboring Divisoria and Alunita porphyry systems and at the Yvette gold-rich polymetallic vein system in the very east of the Santo Domingo district.

The company has completed a preliminary socio-demographic baseline and community perception study, water and air monitoring, flora and fauna baseline studies, and has commenced an archeological study of the Santo Domingo district.

"It is testament to the quality and commitment of our team, of our community support, and the exemplary rigour and assistance of relevant regulatory bodies in San Juan that we have managed to take this project from initial acquisition in late November last year to drill ready as of now," said Dr. Tim Coughlin, Royal Road's president and chief executive officer. "In terms of commencing the very first scout drilling program at Santo Domingo, we are ready and we expect the rig to be turning by the first week of August."

The information in this news release was compiled, reviewed and verified by Dr. Coughlin, BSc (geology), MSc (exploration and mining), PhD (structural geology), FAusIMM, president and CEO of Royal Road Minerals, and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

Quality assurance and quality control

Rock-chip channel samples are collected continuously over one-metre horizontal intervals from 15-centimetre-wide channels which are cut using a rock-saw. Samples are prepared and assayed by independent and ISO accredited laboratories of Alex Stewart International Argentina. Gold is analyzed by fire assay with an atomic absorption finish and a measurement range of 0.01 to 100 parts per million. Multielement concentrations are analyzed as a 39-element suite by aqua regia and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy. Soil samples were collected from immature and often colluvial soil accumulations by pick and shovel at 50 m intervals along north-south lines separated by 100 m. Samples were sieved in the field to minus two millimetres and then dry sieved in the laboratory to minus 80 mesh. Gold is analyzed by fire assay with an atomic absorption finish and a measurement range of two to 20,000 parts per billion. Multielement concentrations are analyzed as a 48-element suite by aqua regia and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Commercially prepared standards (gold-copper pulps), blanks (pulps and coarse chips) and field duplicates are inserted into the sample stream by Royal Road Minerals for a total of 15 per cent QA/QC to ensure sample precision. In the case of duplicate analyses of a sample, the average of both analyses is used as the final reported value. Unless otherwise stated, gold grades are not capped. For historic samples, the following information was derived from public announcements by the previous operator at Santo Domingo. Rock-chip samples were prepared at the Acme Analytical Laboratories (AcmeLabs) preparation facility in Mendoza, Argentina, and assayed by fire assay at the AcmeLabs laboratory in Chile and for ICP-MS 32 elements at the AcmeLabs laboratory in Vancouver, all ISO-9001:2000 certified laboratories. Samples returning greater than 10 g/t gold and/or greater than 100 g/t silver are assayed using gravimetric analyses. Samples returning greater than 1 per cent lead and/or greater than 1 per cent zinc are assayed using aqua regia digestion ore grade/atomic absorption spectroscopy.

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