Arizona Gold & Silver Inc.  (TSX-V: AZS) (OTCQB:AZASF) is pleased to announce gold recovery from both agitation leach and heap leach cyanidation tests completed at Kappes, Cassidy & Associates on a bulk sample from the Philadelphia gold-silver project located in Mohave County, Arizona. Results are summarized below with details following.

Summary of Results

• Gold recovery of 91-99% was achieved by agitation leach cyanidation on modest grind sizes of 0.40-0.136mm (40 – 110 mesh).
• +50% of total gold recovered in first 10 days of column leaching.
• Gold recovery of 84% was achieved by heap leach on bulk material crushed to -6.3mm using HPGR (high pressure grinding rolls) over a 177-day leach cycle, with regression analysis suggesting 86% recovery over 360 days.
• Agglomeration and compaction test work demonstrated heap leach material crushed to -6.3 mm was amenable to stacking heights of 10 to +30 meters with 2-4 kilograms/tonne of cement added to the agglomeration process.
• Silver recovery of 49-72% was achieved by agitation leach cyanidation on grind sizes of 0.40-0.136mm (40 – 110 mesh), while silver recoveries from bulk material under heap leach was 37%.
• Gold recovery using HPGR crushing for heap leach exceeded recovery using conventional third stage crushing by 12%, while silver recovery using HPGR crushing exceeded conventional crushing by only 3%.
• The results demonstrate the attraction of treating higher grade material by agitation cyanide leach, where higher silver grades accompany higher gold grades in the deposit, and treating the lower grade material by heap leach processes using HPGR crushing.

Bulk Sampling and Head Grade

A bulk sample of 415.5 kilograms was collected from a fresh bench cut at the current surface operation on the property and trucked to the Kappes, Cassiday & Associates by Company personnel under strict chain-of-custody protocols. The target head grade, based on previous channel sampling of the bench cut, was 1.0-1.2 grams per tonne gold.  The results of multiple head assay analyses on the bulk sample returned gold grades of 1.929-1.988 grams per tonne and silver grades of 2.82-3.34 grams per tonne. The higher grades in the bulk sample over those in the original channel samples is typical for the property, where larger samples generally return higher grades due to the presence of fine to wire size particle gold.

Agitation Leach Test Results

Bottle roll tests were performed for a 120-hour leach period on material ground to p80 feed sizes of 1.2 – 0.136 mm. Gold extractions were up to 99%, depending upon particle size under leach, with lower extractions attendant to coarser particle sizes and high extractions attendant to finer particle sizes. See accompanying leach curve below.  Cyanide and lime consumption were low at 0.08-0.21 kgs/tonne and 0.5 kgs/tonne respectively.

Column Leach Test Results

Tests were performed on four splits from the bulk sample.  Two splits were crushed to -12.5mm and -6.3mm using conventional jaw and cone crushing equipment, and two splits were crushed to -12.5mm and -6.3mm using HPGR crushing equipment.  Prior laboratory tests and industry operational experience indicated HPGR crushing could generate higher gold extractions than conventional crushing by generating microfractures and finer particles that would allow cyanide access to gold sites that conventional crushing could not achieve.  The results are summarized in the graph below.  Higher gold recoveries up to 84% were achieved with -1/2” (-6.3mm) HPGR crushing, are achieved with finer particle sizes, as with agitation leach.  This is a relationship that has been demonstrated by all previous metallurgical testing on samples from the property.  The application of HPGR crushing results in an average of 12% higher gold extraction over conventional crushing, regardless of target crush size.  As with conventional crushing, finer crushing generates higher gold extractions.  Reagent consumption was higher in column tests than in agitation leach tests, due to the longer leach times involved.  Cement addition was nominally 2 kgs/tonne for all columns.  Lime addition was 1 kg/tonne in all columns, and cyanide 2.2-2.34 kgs/tonne. KCA indicated that actual reagent consumption during heap leach operation “would be only 25-33 percent of laboratory column test consumptions”.

QA/QC Protocols

The metallurgical test program was designed and supervised by Ing. Eugenio Iassillo of Process Engineering LLC out of Tucson Arizona, in conjunction with management from Kappes, Cassiday & Associates.  The bulk samples were taken by management of Arizona Gold & Silver Inc. and transported by management directly to the KCA laboratory in Reno, Nevada.  KCA has their own internal analytical laboratory, ​Florin Analytical Services, part of the KCA group, which operates as an independent commercial analytical lab, providing high quality, reliable assays.for continuous solution analyses and head and tail assays of feed and product material.

Qualified Person 

Gregory Hahn, Vice Chairman of Arizona Gold & Silver Inc., and a Certified Professional Geologist (#7122), is a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 and has prepared and approved the technical information contained in this news release.

About Arizona Gold & Silver Inc. 

Arizona Gold & Silver Inc. is a leading exploration company focused on uncovering precious metal resources in Arizona and Nevada. With a commitment to sustainable practices and innovative exploration techniques, the company aims to drive value for stakeholders while prioritizing environmental stewardship. The flagship asset is the Philadelphia gold-silver property where the Company is drilling off an epithermal gold-silver system ahead of an initial resource calculation.

On behalf of the Board of Directors: 

ARIZONA GOLD & SILVER INC.

Mike Stark, President and CEO, Director

Phone: (604) 833-4278