NGEx Minerals Ltd. (TSX: NGEX) (OTCQX: NGXXF) is pleased to provide the fourth update on its ongoing Phase 3 drill program at the 100% owned Lunahuasi high-grade copper-gold-silver project in San Juan, Argentina. Eight drill rigs are now turning at Lunahuasi with eleven holes completed and 16,433m drilled.

Highlights:

• Drillhole DPDH031 intersected:
  • 31.65m at 8.14% copper equivalent (“CuEq”) (including 8.56 g/t Au) from 128.9m, including:
    • 13.00m at 15.30% CuEq (including 16.56 g/t Au) from 133.00m
• Drillhole DPDH032 intersected:
  • 27.40m at 25.19% CuEq (including 23.17 g/t Au) from 461.00m, including:
    • 8.60m at 15.80% Cu, 69.82 g/t Au and 127.4 g/t Ag from 476.50m
    • §  CuEq was not reported for this interval as two samples returned >100% CuEq
• Drillhole DPDH033 intersected:
  • 16.25m at 6.79% CuEq from 353.00m, including:
    • 4.00m at 16.39% CuEq from 353.00m, plus
  • 23.00m at 4.49% CuEq from 407.00m
• Drillhole DPDH035 intersected:
  • 51.5m at 12.26% CuEq (including 10.42 g/t Au) from 222.00m, including:
    • 21.50m at 26.68% CuEq (including 23.81 g/t Au) from 224.70m

Wojtek Wodzicki, President and CEO, commented, “Our drilling program this year was planned around testing the deposit at three ranges: short, medium and long. We have been very successful with the medium and long-range testing – discovering additional high-grade mineralization in large gaps in the drill pattern and pushing the boundaries of the deposit out to a minimum of 1,000m north-south by 1,000m east-west by 1,000m vertical. This release highlights the success with our short-range holes where we are starting to see good continuity, predictability and scale around one of the thick, high-grade intersections from last year’s program. Today’s results also continue to highlight the very high gold grades at Lunahuasi, which is turning out to be a very significant gold deposit as well as high-grade copper deposit.

Short-range holes were planned to step out from the intersection in hole DPDH014 (23.0m @ 23.02 % CuEq; 14.68% Cu, 9.95 g/t Au, 123.1 g/t Ag) and we are now starting to test the size and geometry of this zone with the intersections between 40m and 100m away in holes DPDH031 (13.0m@ 15.30% CuEq), DPDH032 (27.4m @ 25.19% CuEq) and DPDH035 (21.5m @ 26.68% CuEq).

One of our key goals this year was to test the concept of a porphyry lying to the west of the Lunahuasi deposit with long-range step out holes. We currently have one of these holes well underway (DPDH027 at 1,559m) and another just starting (DPDH037 at 387m). A third hole, DPDH029, was stopped at a depth of 1,600m due to technical difficulties. Full results for these holes will be released when complete assays are available.

We have accomplished most of our program goals already this year and still have a lot left to drill. We are confident that our Phase 3 program will confirm Lunahuasi as one of the best discoveries in recent years and demonstrate that it has clear potential to develop into something well beyond what we have seen so far.”

This news release includes partial results for six holes (DPDH030, DPDH031, DPDH032, DPDH033, DPDH034 and DPDH035). Highlighted intersections, including individual metal grades and estimated true widths, are shown in Table 1. Updated drill program progress and collar locations are shown in Table 3 and a summary of all Phase 3 assay intervals by news release date is included in Table 4.

Table 1: Significant Intersections

DPDH030 was collared from the same platform as DPDH014 and drilled at -53^o towards 256^o to test for an extension to the high-grade zone in hole 14 to the south. The hole intersected several narrow, mineralized structures as noted in the table above, including one at 240.00m which may correlate with the high-grade zone (“HGZ”) in DPDH014, 32m to the north, based on its location and grade profile – especially the high gold value. This hole was completed to a final depth of 502.90m and all assays have been reported.

DPDH031 was also collared on the DPDH014 platform and drilled at -46^o towards the west to test the up-dip extension of the HGZ. Eleven individual intersections across the 860m length of this hole highlight the number of mineralized structures and the breadth of the mineralized zones at Lunahuasi. The HGZ was intersected at 128.90m, with the eastern contact 50m vertically above the HGZ eastern contact in hole 14 and the western contact 90m above the equivalent in hole 14. This hole has been completed to a final depth of 860.00m and all assays have been reported.

DPDH032 was collared on a new platform 416m west of DPDH014 and drilled towards the east at -52^o to intersect the HGZ near the hole 14 intersection but in the opposite direction in order to help understand the geometry of the zone. Several structures were intersected corresponding to the up-dip extensions of multiple mineralized structures drilled in several previous holes. The HGZ was intersected at 461m with one of the highest-grade intersections yet drilled, including a 1.60m sample at 39.34% Cu and 81.80 g/t Au, a 1.00m sample at 5.29% Cu and 110.50 g/t Au and a 1.30m sample at 3.37% Cu and 180.00 g/t Au. DPDH032 crosses the HGZ very close to the intersection in DPDH014 and confirms a sub-vertical orientation. This hole has been completed to a final depth of 896.10m with assays reported to 573.00m.

DPDH033 was collared from the same platform as DPDH025 and angled to the north at 288^o with a dip of -54^o to test for a northern extension to the mineralization in hole 25.  This hole was successful in intersecting several mineralized structures, extending the deposit to the north by up to 50m. The hole was completed to a final depth of 1,235.00m and assays have been reported to a depth of 475.80m.

DPDH034 was collared from the same platform as DPDH028 and drilled towards the west at -57^o degrees in order to undercut hole 28 and test the down-dip extension of the structures intersected by it. Several mineralized structures were intersected over the upper part of the hole as reported above, however assays have not yet been received for the projection of the main zone in holes 28 and 22. This hole has been completed to a final depth of 1,329.70m and assays have been reported to a depth of 353.30m.

DPDH035 was collared from the DPDH014 platform and drilled towards the west at a dip of -65^o in order to test the HGZ down-dip of the intersection in hole 14. A shallow intersection at 161.00m may represent a splay to the main HGZ which was intersected starting at 222.00m and produced a very strong intersection including the high gold grades characteristic of this zone. The centre of the intersection here is about 60m below the intersection in DPDH014 and 115m vertically below the intersection in hole DPDH031 and the zone remains completely open below it. This hole was completed to a final depth of 1,073.00m and assays have been reported to a depth of 273.50m.

An interactive 3D visualization of drill results will be posted on the Company website shortly.

Discussion:

Short-range step out holes have successfully intersected the HGZ first intersected in hole DPDH014 last season. Intersections into this zone are shown below:

Table 2: High-Grade Zone Intersections

Additional drilling is required to fully understand the geometry and extent of this zone, but the north-south distance between DPDH025 and DPDH035 is 70m and the dip extent between the shallowest intersection (DPDH025) and the deepest intersection (DPDH035) is 160m. The zone remains open for expansion in several directions.

In addition to this zone, drilling so far has intersected several other significant intersections that suggest we can expect to find multiple additional zones like this one within the deposit as we continue to drill. Examples include previously released intersections from DPDH028 over 51.1m from 464.3m (13.84% CuEq; 5.98% Cu, 9.70 g/t Au, 90.4 g/t Ag) located 370m southwest of the HGZ and the same hole over 53.5m from 1,219.5m (7.79% CuEq; 5.64% Cu, 2.45 g/t Au, 41.1 g/t Ag) located over 1,000m west of the HGZ.

Drillholes DPDH027 and DPDH029 are long holes testing the concept of porphyry mineralization located to the west of the main Lunahuasi deposit. Hole DPDH029 ended at 1,600m while DPDH027 is still drilling at a depth of 1,559.3m and is intended to drill as deep as possible. Assays for the remaining parts of these holes will be released once results for the entire holes are received.

Table 3: Drillhole Information

Table 4: Assay Intervals by News Release Date

Qualified Persons and Technical Notes

The scientific and technical disclosure included in this news release have been reviewed and approved by Bob Carmichael, B.A.Sc., P.Eng. who is the Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Carmichael is Vice President, Exploration for the Company.

Samples were cut at NGEx’s operations base in San Juan, Argentina by Company personnel. Diamond drill core was sawed and then sampled in maximum 2-meter intervals, stopping at geological boundaries. Core diameter is a mix of PQ, HQ and NQ depending on the depth of the drill hole. Samples were bagged, tagged and packaged for shipment by truck to the ALS preparation laboratory in Mendoza, Argentina where they were crushed and a 500g split was pulverized to 85% passing 200 mesh. The prepared sample splits were sent to the ALS assay laboratory in either Lima, Peru or Santiago, Chile for copper, gold and silver assays, and multi-element ICP. ALS is an accredited laboratory which is independent of the Company. Gold assays were by fire assay fusion with AAS finish on a 30g sample. Copper and silver were assayed by atomic absorption following a 4-acid digestion. Samples were also analyzed for a suite of 48 elements with ME-MS61 plus mercury. Copper and gold standards as well as blanks and duplicates (field, preparation, and analysis) were randomly inserted into the sampling sequence for Quality Control. On average, 9% of the submitted samples are Quality Control samples. No data quality problems were indicated by the QA/QC program.

Copper equivalent (CuEq) for drill intersections is calculated based on US$3.00/lb Cu, US$1,500/oz Au and US$18/oz Ag, with 80% metallurgical recoveries assumed for all metals. The formula is: CuEq % = Cu % + (0.7292 * Au g/t) + (0.0088 * Ag g/t).

True widths are rounded to the nearest metre for widths over 10 m and to the nearest 0.1 m for widths less than 10 m, as this better reflects the precision of the estimates. True widths should be regarded as approximate as these are derived from an estimation that uses a preliminary interpretation of the geological model and are subject to change as more information becomes available.

Assay composites are calculated based on a 2% CuEq cutoff with a maximum of 10 consecutive metres of waste material included. Intervals are then reviewed and manually adjusted to reflect coherent geological intervals where necessary.

Integration of core scanning into our core logging and geological interpretation processes is being implemented to improve workflows for more routine tasks and to give geologists more time for targeting and interpretation.

About NGEx Minerals

NGEx Minerals is a copper and gold exploration company based in Canada, focused on exploration of the Lunahuasi copper-gold-silver project in San Juan Province, Argentina, and the nearby Los Helados copper-gold project located approximately nine kilometres to the northeast in Chile’s Region III. Both projects are located within the Vicuña District, which includes the Caserones mine, and the Josemaria and Filo del Sol deposits.

NGEx owns 100% of Lunahuasi and is the majority partner and operator for the Los Helados project, subject to a Joint Exploration Agreement with Nippon Caserones Resources LLC, which is the indirect 30% owner of the operating Caserones open pit copper mine located approximately 17 kilometres north of Los Helados. Lundin Mining Corporation holds the remaining 70% stake in Caserones.

Lunahuasi Geology Drill Plan 2025 March (CNW Group/NGEx Minerals Ltd.)