Mr. Gregory Duras reports

WESTERN METALLICA RESOURCES CORP. ANNOUNCES PROGRAM AT THE NUEVA CELTI COPPER PROJECT AND UPDATE TO PENEDELA DRILLING

Western Metallica Resources Corp. has provided updates on the company's various mineral projects in Spain, primarily results from the recently completed Penedela project drill program and plans for the launch of a preliminary exploration program at the company's 100-per-cent-owned copper project, Nueva Celti. Nueva Celti is a strategic and priority exploration project due to the amount of regional and historic data, as well as past production at commercial grades of 5 per cent copper with infrastructure on and adjacent to the property, making it a prime long-term project and key asset which has the potential to be advanced toward a significant copper and base metal resource for the company.

The recently completed Penedela drill program involved a stepout along trend from previous targets with the aim of testing underexplored regions of the property, and incorporated detailed mapping, rock sampling and the drilling. The Penedela project underwent a cumulative total of 2,236 metres drilled across 12 holes from period 2020 to 2022, to a maximum depth of 335.6 metres, with the Penedela zone drilled approximately 130 metres vertical from surface and a total of approximately 500 metres on strike. The program was generally aimed at testing the control on mineralization by the NS structure, with the exception of IB029 located on the southern edge of the project, that was drilled with a 350-degree azimuth. The continuing modelling is focused on wireframing two different mineralized bodies that run parallel, constituting the Penedela zone: one hangingwall skarnoid, continuous and lower-grade body, and another footwall, one represented by a zone of quartz-galena-arsenopyrite veining.

The four main targets of the Penedela program restart underwent a cumulative 1,411 metres of drilling which confirmed the mineralization within the Penedela system, still open toward south and north as well as the width of the main Penedela zone that still remains to be defined as summarized below:

• Target 1 -- Penedela structure: Drill holes IB025 and IB026 verified the Penedela body extension. Hole IB030 twinned a historical hole aimed at better defining two mineralized domains being currently wireframed, and confirmed a wider mineralized zone expanding inside the quartzite far from the contact with the slates. The continuing relogging and resampling exercise of hole IB019 (2020 program hole) and IB026 seems to point out that the mineralization remains open at depth. IB019, that returned significant results of 11 metres at 0.7 gram per tonne gold and three metres at 1.8 g/t Au, was drilled down to 115.7 metres ending in Qz-As veining, and exhibits a wider zone of potential mineralization approximately 100 metres below surface.
• Target 2 -- saddle reef: Drill holes IB024 and IB028 targeted the possible control by the anticline hinge. Hole IB028 was drilled to a total depth of 197.1 metres, aimed to potentially intersect the hinge of the regional San Martin anticline approaching the eastern limb of the fold, as this sector of the Penedela property remained untested and recent fieldwork indicated a folding style characterized by a short wave-length chevron structure similar to other similar systems worldwide.
• Target 3 -- NS feeding zone: Drill hole IB027 targeted a possible feeder of the Penedela system, as pointed out by high Au grade returned from surface rock samples. Thre-dimensional interpretation inferred the presence of an NS fault as a possible structure feeding the system which assumes a conceptual massive quartz vein traditionally coined saddle reef structure. Hole IB027 was drilled to a total depth of 150.2 metres and intercepted a couple of silicified zones with fine-disseminated arsenopyrite and pyrite prospectively indicating north-south fault systems dipping eastward.
• Target 4 -- San Martin anticline extension: Drill hole IB029 targeted the southern extension of the San Martin anticline hinge as well as the east-west-trending vein system observed, on the northern side of the river, to crosscut the Penedela structure. The possibility of saddle reef mineralization was initially tested by IB029 (on the southern sector of the property), which indicated results of 0.75 metre at 5.53 g/t Au, 0.45 metre at 0.37 g/t Au and 0.55 metre at 0.50 g/t Au, within a wide interval between 71.2 and 87.4 metres, returned from east-west-trending veining. Here the gold grades resulted more erratic than the north-south-trending veining characterizing the Penedela zone. A sulphide-matrix hydrothermal breccia intercepted at 222.35 metres returned 3.30 metres at 0.36 g/t Au, 0.2 per cent Cu as well as quartz-arsenopyrite-pyrite veining, located at the breccia footwall, returned 0.95 metre at 5.21 g/t Au from 231.5 metres. Hole IB029 reached a total depth of 335.6 metres, proving the presence of a skarnoid-type alteration, also marked by 20-to-30-metre-wide pyrrhotite in envelop, resulted from the metasomatism of felspathic sandstone layers interbedded within the Los Cabos quartzite.

Penedela remains a project of importance for the company, being positioned in the prolific Iberian Peninsula, formed by multiple gold mineralizing events and hosting two of the largest currently known deposits in the area.

As previously announced, the company's Sierra Alta project, in the same region, will undergo a targeted drill program aimed to validate historical work and specifically intended to validate a jasperoidal breccia that returned encouraging results. The company has launched a first-stage 1,000 metre, five-hole, diamond drilling program in Q1 2023 at Sierra Alta, where land access has been granted (refer to press release dated Dec. 6, 2022). The company expects initial channel sampling results conducted across a four-kilometre strike length testing the Montefurado-La Freita trend, with drilling at Sierra Alta to commence in Q1 2023.

Gregory Duras, chief executive officer and director of Western Metallica Resources, commented: "The company is satisfied, having demonstrated the extension of mineralization at Penedela, and intends as next steps to further understand the potential of its other assets, in order to prioritize the allocation of its capital to continue its goal of developing a maiden resource. The company has approximately $5.3-million in cash as at the end of December, 2022, to continue to advance its projects."

Nueva Celti inaugural program

Nueva Celti, the company's 100-per-cent-owned copper project is located in the Ossa Morena geological province in Andalusia, a project that spans 1,500 hectares with historic copper mineralization and production grades reported over 5 per cent copper, positioned in a region where copper mineralization has been recognized since ancient times. Nueva Celti was the location of historic production of copper and other metals until 1918, with an underground mine that was developed across two shafts to approximately 130 metres depth, along one vein, which was then optioned out by Asturiana de Zinc SA, which then carried out an encouraging drill exploration campaign. Western Metallica is currently reviewing and compiling historical data, including the review of 19 diamond drill holes executed by Asturiana de Zinc, and intends to conduct geophysical tests across the structure to generate immediate drill targets, including the acquisition of typical recognition, low-cost, self-potential data acquisition across the historical induced polarization anomalies which effectively detects the target structures, in combination with simple lithological and structural context that in VMS (volcanogenic massive sulphide) environments provides robust information. The company intends to conduct data interpretation, validation and scout drilling as next steps at Nueva Celti, including the coding of all historical drill hole information from the 1970s programs to generate a working 3-D model in support of the next step drilling plan and target generation during Q1 2023.

Quality assurance and quality control

Sample preparation and analyses are conducted according to standard industry procedures. Drill core samples are crushed, split and pulverized prior to analysis of gold by fire assay and atomic absorption and multielements by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy after four-acid digestion. Analytical performance is monitored by means of certified reference materials (CRMs), coarse blanks, coarse and pulp duplicate samples. Samples have been prepared in ALS Chemex preparation lab in Seville, Spain, and analyses have been completed in ALS Rosia Montana, Alba, Romania (fire assays), and LAS Loughrea, Galway, Ireland (ICP).

Qualified person

The technical and scientific information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Giovanni Funaioli, EurGeol, vice-president, exploration, of Western Metallica, who is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Giovanni Funaioli is an employee of the company and is not considered independent under NI 43-101.

About Western Metallica Resources Corp.

Western Metallica is an Ontario-registered company with its head office in Toronto, Ont., trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol WMS. Western Metallica is in the business of mineral resource exploration and development; its principal asset is its 100-per-cent-owned Penedela gold property in the Navelgas gold belt in Asturias, Spain. Western Metallica also has an interest in two other Spanish gold projects in the Navelgas gold belt in Asturias (Valledor and Sierra Alta) and one project located in Andalucia (Nueva Celti).

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