Mr. Kenneth MacLeod reports

SONORO ANNOUNCES POSITIVE PEA RESULTS FOR CERRO CALICHE GOLD PROJECT: PRE-TAX NPV OF USD $71.4 MILLION AND PRE-TAX IRR OF 59%

Sonoro Gold Corp. has released the positive results of an independent preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on the company's Cerro Caliche gold project, located in Sonora state, Mexico. The PEA demonstrates the potential viability for a nine-year life-of-mine (LOM), open-pit, heap-leach mining operation with an initial two-year production rate of 4,000 metric tonnes per day and an increase to 12,000 mtpd for the remaining LOM.

The PEA has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of National Instrument 43-101 by DENM Engineering Ltd. of Burlington, Ont., and Micon International Ltd. of Toronto, Ont., with confirmation of the applicable resource estimates prepared by SRK Consulting (U.S.) Inc. of Denver, Colo.

Updated PEA highlights:

• Pretax net present value discounted at 5 per cent of $71.4-million (U.S.);
• Pretax internal rate of return (IRR) of 59 per cent;
• After-tax NPV5 of $47.7-million (U.S.) with an IRR of 45 per cent;
• Gold recovery of 72 per cent and silver recovery of 27 per cent;
• Nine-year life of mine with 297,575 ounces of gold equivalent;
• LOM annual average production of 33,000 ounces AuEq at 0.45 gram per tonne AuEq;
• Initial capex (capital expenditure) costs of $15.5-million (U.S.), including $1.83-million (U.S.) in contingency;
• Sustaining capital costs of $15.5-million (U.S.);
• Cash operating costs of $1,295 (U.S.) per oz AuEq;
• All-in sustaining costs of $1,395 (U.S.) per oz AuEq;
• Payback period of 2.9 years.

"This PEA draws on the extensive expertise of our technical team in Mexico under the direction of our VP [vice-president], operations, Jorge Diaz, who designed a mine plan which materially reduces upfront capital costs and increases throughput after year 2, with capital cost expansion financed exclusively from cash flow," stated Kenneth MacLeod, president and chief executive officer of Sonoro Gold. "This aligns with our objective to bring Cerro Caliche into production to allow potential resource expansion with minimal dilution to our shareholders."

John Darch, Sonoro's chairman, added: "To date, only 30 per cent of Cerro Caliche's known mineralized zones have been mapped and assayed. In addition to the upcoming targeted infill drilling program at El Colorado and Guadalupe vein zones, where our May, 2022, drilling campaign demonstrated multiple high-grade ore shoots, we recently identified future expansion targets in the northwest region of the property. These campaigns will proceed alongside the proposed development of the mining operation and have been designed to materially expand the project's oxide gold mineralization and potentially enhance the overall economics of the project."

Mineral resource estimate

The PEA utilizes the updated mineral resource estimate prepared by SRK and, as announced on Feb. 7, 2023, the MRE highlights include:

• Indicated mineral resources (cut-off of 0.20 g/t AuEq) of 19.9 million tonnes at 0.44 g/t Au and 3.5 g/t Ag;
• Contains within an optimized pit shell:
  • 280,000 oz of Au;
  • 2.24 million oz of Ag;
  • 290,000 oz of AuEq.
• Inferred mineral resources (cut-off of 0.20 g/t AuEq) of 10.5 million tonnes at 0.42 g/t Au and 4.0 g/t Ag;
• Contains within an optimized pit shell:
  • 140,000 oz of Au;
  • 1,345,000 oz of Ag;
  • 150,000 oz of AuEq.

The SRK report comments favourably on the upside potential of the project in terms of exploration. The current geological volumes and grade estimates, located outside of the pit shells, are considered too limited to establish grade continuity to meet the present requirements for reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction (RPEEE) for the mineralized area to be considered mineral resources. SRK has defined the ranges for the potential exploration targets outside of the current pit shells which are within the current modelled mineralized zones.

Based on the analysis, SRK considers the exploration potential (cut-off of 0.20 AuEq) within drilled areas for Cerro Caliche to be from 15 million to 22 million tonnes containing:

• 120,000 to 275,000 oz of Au at 0.25 g/t to 0.38 g/t Au;
• 1,045,000 to 2.35 million oz of Ag at 2.2 g/t to 3.2 g/t Ag;
• 125,000 to 285,000 oz of AuEq at 0.26 g/t to 0.39 g/t AuEq.

The reader is cautioned that the potential quantity and grade ranges noted above are conceptual in nature and insufficient exploration has been conducted to define this material as a mineral resource. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in these exploration target estimates being delineated as mineral resources or converted to mineral reserves in the future. SRK cautions that estimates of exploration targets are not a CIM-defined (Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum) category, are not mineral resources and are too speculative to fulfill the definition of mineral resources.

There are additional opportunities along strike and parallel to the current vein trends, and this potential may be quantified through additional drilling. In addition to drilling, surface mapping and sampling suggests that several mineralized trends have potential for additional resources along strike. Further exploration drill programs are warranted.

PEA summary

The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred resources that are considered too speculative to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty the estimates presented in the PEA will be realized. The full PEA will be filed on SEDAR+ and on Sonoro's website within 45 days of the issuance of this news release.

Capital costs

The estimated capital costs for the Cerro Caliche gold project are based on an open-pit, heap-leach operation with contract mining. Initial capital expenditures of $15.5-million (U.S.), including 15-per-cent contingency, contemplate an initial two-year production rate of 4,000 mtpd, with an increase to 12,000 mtpd in the third year of production. Costs include direct facility costs, such as processing facilities and leach pad impoundment, as well as infrastructure, EPCM (engineering, procurement and construction management), site preparation and indirect facility costs, such as technical studies, office equipment and light vehicles. Initial capital costs also include $1.8-million (U.S.) for a down payment on a crushing circuit, including equipment and related earthworks.

An additional $15.5-million (U.S.) is estimated for sustaining capital, including the expansion costs and lease-to-own payments on the crushing circuit as well as expansion costs on the heap-leach pad. Power transmission line and equipment replacement costs are also included. Reclamation costs are estimated at $2.9-million (U.S.).

Capital cost estimates are based on industry standards and were developed using quotes provided by mining contractors and specialists experienced in mining development in Mexico.

Operating costs

Cash operating costs for Cerro Caliche's LOM are estimated at $385.4-million (U.S.), or $1,295 (U.S.) per gold equivalent ounce, and include mining, crushing and processing, as well as maintenance and administration costs. All-in sustaining costs for LOM are estimated at $415.1-million (U.S.), or $1,395 (U.S.) per gold equivalent ounce, and include operating costs, sustaining capital, reclamation, royalties and refining charges.

Royalties include a 2-per-cent net smelter return (NSR) buyout to certain landholders, and taxes include payments to the Mexican government for mining royalty and specific mining-related taxes. Refining costs include carbon processing and production of dore bars.

Open-pit mining will be undertaken by a contractor and carried out by drill-and-blast conventional loading and truck haulage to the crushing facility. An estimated mining cost of $1.99 (U.S.) per tonne processed includes drilling, blasting and hauling mineralized feed to the heap-leach area. Waste mining is forecast to cost a further $4.17 (U.S.) per tonne processed.

The processing facilities at Cerro Caliche will comprise a crushing circuit where mineralized material is processed through a three-stage crushing plant to produce material that is p80 of one-half inch (80 per cent passing). The material is then conveyed and stacked in a conventional heap-leach pad and irrigated with a low-concentrate cyanide solution. An estimated crushing cost of 87 U.S. cents per tonne includes the cost of crushing and conveying.

Solution collected from the leach pad is then directed through a system of channels to the processing ponds, where it passes through a series of carbon columns. Gold-impregnated carbon and silver-impregnated carbon are collected periodically from the columns and then dried and stripped for dore bar production. An estimated processing cost of $5.72 (U.S.) per tonne includes leaching, assaying, labour and production of dore bars.

Operating cost estimates are based on industry standards and were developed using quotes provided by mining contractors and specialists experienced in mining development in Mexico.

Qualified person statement

David Salari, PEng, of DENM Engineering, Christopher Jacobs, CEng, MIMMM, Kerrine Azougarh, PEng, and William Lewis, PGeo, of Micon International, and Doug Reid, PEng, of SRK Consulting are independent of the company and are qualified persons as defined in NI 43-101.

Sonoro director Stephen Kenwood, PGeo, is a qualified person within the context of NI 43-101 and has read and approved this news release.

About Sonoro Gold Corp.

Sonoro Gold is a publicly listed exploration and development company holding the near-development-stage Cerro Caliche project and the exploration-stage San Marcial project in Sonora state, Mexico. The company has highly experienced operational and management teams with proven records for the discovery and development of natural resource deposits.

We seek Safe Harbor.