Capitan Mining Inc. (TSX-V: CAPT) is pleased to report results from drillhole 21-CARC-29 and regional surface work from its fall work program at the Peñoles project, Durango, Mexico.

Highlights:

• RC Hole: 21-CARC-29 intersected 38.1m of 0.63g/t AuEq within a broad zone of 195.1m of 0.34g/t AuEq and intersected a second interval with Jesus Maria (JM) style silver mineralization (New)
• The second interval in Hole 21-CARC-29, is located immediately below the Capitan Hill Main Zone and is highlighted by an intersection of 3.0m of 103 g/t Ag, 0.26 g/t Au, 0.1% Pb and 0.49% Zn
• This new discovery is significant as it represents a 350m step out down-dip, and to the south of the previously drill-defined extent of the Jesus Maria Silver deposit
• Chip sampling on outcrops north of the Jesus María Silver deposit have discovered new zones with values up to 410 g/t Ag, 0.9 g/t Au, 1.67% Pb and 0.7% Zn over 0.6m
• Trenching along the new Gully Fault target, between the Capitan gold deposit and the Jesus Maria silver deposit, has identified a wide zone of mineralization up to 54m wide with 0.14 g/t Au
• First 10 holes at the Jesus Maria Silver deposit are completed and awaiting assay, this is part of a 5,000m inaugural RC drill program at the Jesus Maria Silver deposit planned to be completed in H1 2022

Overview: Jesus María Silver Deposit 

The Jesus Maria (JM) silver deposit is located approximately 280m to the northeast of the Capitan deposit (see figures 1 & 3). It has been traced by surface trenching and diamond drilling over a strike length of 750m and to a depth of 150m, with the majority of drilling focused over 250m strike length and less than 100m below surface.

The Jesus Maria Silver deposit has a long mining history going back to the late 1800’s, when the Penoles Mining company constructed several shafts and drifts to exploit the high-grade silver veins in the area. In recent years, work programs conducted by previous operators has demonstrated significant potential at the Jesus Maria silver deposit. The work to date has identified Two (2) distinct styles of silver mineralization.

1. High-grade silver polymetallic veins (Silver gold lead-Zinc) 
2. High-grade silver with gold veins  

Highlights of trenching and diamond drilling by previous operators are presented below:

Prior Trenching Highlights – Jesus Maria (2011-2013)

• 22m of 224g/t Ag, 1.08 g/t Au, 2.5% Pb and 1.7% Zn (2011)
• 8.3m of 144 g/t Ag, 1.68 g/t Au, 2.4% Pb and 2.2% Zn (2011)
• 13.4m of 309 g/t Ag, 1.7 g/t Au. 2.4% Pb and 0.6% Zn (2011)
• 15.4m of 420.8 g/t Ag, 0.15 Au (2013)
  • Including 2m of 2,152.2 g/t Ag and 0.48 g/t Au
• 15.8m of 129.8 g/t Ag and 0.16 g/t Au (2013)
  • Including 2m of 378.9 g/t Ag and 0.97 g/t Au

Prior Diamond Drill Highlights – Jesus Maria (2013-2014)

High-grade Silver Polymetallic veins

JM-DDH-13-06: 0.9m of 3,409.1 g/t Ag, 0.9 Au, 3.4% Pb and 7.1% Zn within a wider interval of 11.85m of 320.3 g/t Ag and 0.17 Au
JM-DDH-13-07: 2.1m of 279.5 g/t Ag, 0.21 g/t Au, 4.09% Pb and 7.57% Zn
JM-DDH-14-10: 2.3m of 113.8 g/t Ag, 0.82 g/t Au, 4.3% Pb and 1.8% Zn

High Grade Silver & Gold Veins

JM-DDH-14-24: 7.15m of 988 g/t Ag and 1.24 g/t Au within a wider interval of 70.8m of 147.8 g/t Ag, 0.37 g/t Au
JM-DDH-14-10: 4.25m of 732.2 g/t Ag, 1.2 g/t Au, within a wider interval of 40.6m of 123.9g/t Ag and 0.54 g/t Au
JM-DDH-13-07: 2m of 988.5 g/t Ag, 0.23 g/t Au within an interval of 4m of 533 g/t Ag and 0.16 g/t Au
JM-DDH-14-27: 4.7m of 398 g/t Ag and 1.33 g/t Au within a wider interval of 47m of 125 g/t Ag and 0.4 g/t Au

Approximately 3,100m of diamond drilling were completed by previous operators at the Jesus Maria silver deposit (2011-2014), which were used to complete an initial 43-101 compliant, Inferred resource in 2015 consisting of 7.5M tonnes at 62 g/t Ag (15M ounces) and  0.1 g/t Au (26k ounces).

It’s Capitan Mining’s position that the existing resource was completed too early in the project’s progression, as previous operators were undercapitalized and unable to follow-up on successful work programs. At present, the Jesus Maria deposit remains open along strike and at depth,

In H2 2021, Capitan commenced work programs at Jesus Maria which included prospecting, sampling, mapping and drilling. To date 10 holes have now been completed and sent to the lab for assaying (see figure 1).

Discussion: Hole 21-CARC-29

The significance of Jesus Maria (JM) style mineralization in hole 21-CARC-29 is illustrated in figure 3, which shows the current drill-defined extents of both the Capitan gold deposit and the JM silver deposit. It is evident from figure 2 that the reported silver mineralization in Hole 21-CARC-29 does not correlate well with the drill defined, down-dip projection of JM zone. This implies that new zones of JM style mineralization, are developing in the untested footwall to the Capitan deposit. The fact that this new zone was found over 350m down-dip from the current extents of the JM deposit, increases the potential footprint of the JM deposit, which has only been drilled to a shallow depth.

New Mineralized Zones: Gully Fault and JM North

Surface work programs including mechanical trenching and prospecting were conducted at the Peñoles Project in Q4 2021. The focus of this work has been on identifying new targets at the Gully Fault and JM North areas (see figure 3)

The Gully Fault had previously been identified through drilling and topographic analysis, as a steeply dipping, northeast trending fault, that is interpreted to exert a strong influence on the distribution and deposition of higher-grade Au-Ag mineralization at both the Capitan Hill gold deposit and Jesus Maria silver deposit. Until recently, little effort had been made to locate its surface expression, as well as to pursue it as a stand-alone exploration target. Trenching at the Gully Fault target has shown that the structure is prospective for Capitan Style mineralization, with sampling returning 54m of 0.14 g/t Au and 11.6m of 0.21 g/t Au. At present the Gully Fault target has been exposed over a strike length of approximately 150m and remains open to the northeast, beyond the Jesus Maria deposit.

Prospecting was also conducted north of the Jesus Maria silver deposit, to follow-up on anomalous soil samples, that were collected in the spring of 2021. Numerous grab and chip samples were collected from mineralized outcrop exposures over this area with several returning significant, high-grade Ag-Au and accessory base metal mineralization. The best values include 0.6m of 410 g/t Ag, 0.9 g/t Au, 1.67% Pb and 0.7% Zn and 0.9m of 183 g/t Ag, 2.13 g/t Au, 2.9% Pb and 0.76% Zn. These new zones are located between 40m and 140m north of the Jesus Maria deposit.

Compilation and interpretation of lithology and structural data indicate that this new zone of mineralization follows a similar trend as the JM silver deposit to the south and is now referred to as the JM North target. Follow-up prospecting and trenching is scheduled to begin on this target within the next few weeks, to gather more information on its attitude and the extent of its surface expression.
Capitan’s CEO, Alberto Orozco, stated: “We are very excited about the potential hole 21-CARC-29 has created for the Peñoles Project, as it identified silver-polymetallic mineralization similar to what we’ve see in the 2013-2014 drill data at the Jesus María Silver deposit. We now believe this style of mineralization has the potential to be expanded underneath the Capitan Hill oxide gold zone. Overall, I am pleased with the results from our 2021 field program, as I believe we’ve significantly expanded the oxide gold mineralization at Capitan Hill Gold deposit. This year, we hope to make similar progress at our Jesus Maria Silver project, where we will focus on high grade silver opportunities. We are well capitalized and waiting on assays from the first 10 drill holes at the Jesus Maria.

Figure 1: 2020-2021 Drill Hole Map at Peñoles Project

Figure 2: Cross Section showing hole 21-CARC-29 in relation to Jesús María silver deposit

 Figure 3: Locations of New Targets, Deposits and Significant results at the Penoles Project

Table 1. Table of Drill Results

Note: Only drill intercept lengths are reported in the table. Drill holes are designed to cut the mineralized zones as close to true width as possible, with true widths ranging from 70-95% of the reported drilled length. 
*Gold equivalent calculated at 80:1 ratio 

Table 2: Trench and Grab Sample Highlights from The Gully Fault and JM North Target

Note: Trench samples were collected as 1m chips along  the trench wall. Chip sample width was 
limited by outcrop exposure. True widths of the zones above are unknown at this time

Qualified Person & QA/QC:

The scientific and technical data contained in this news release pertaining to the Peñoles Project was reviewed and approved by Marc Idziszek, P.Geo, a non-independent qualified person to Capitan Mining, who is responsible for ensuring that the technical information provided in this news release is accurate and who acts as a “qualified person” under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Capitan Mining Inc. has a Quality Assurance/Quality Control program that includes insertion and verification of control samples including standard reference material, blanks and duplicates consistent with industry standards.

RC drill samples from the Peñoles Project are collected and split at the drill site using a Gilson Universal Splitter. The samples are stored in either plastic bags (dry) or micropore bags (wet) and secured with plastic zip-ties and then transported to the preparation laboratory of Bureau Veritas in Hermosillo, Sonora. The sample pulps are then transported to the Bureau Veritas’ laboratory in Vancouver, where they are assayed for gold by fire assay with atomic absorption finish (FA430 assay method code; 0.005 to 10 ppm detection limit). Samples over 10 ppm Au are assayed with gravimetric finish (Assay code FA530). All samples are also assayed by ICP-ES (code AQ300) for a suite of 33 elements.

All summarized intervals reported in this press release were calculated using a 0.10 ppm Au cut-off grade. Intervals contain no more than 3 metres of internal dilution. High grades have not been capped.

About Capitan Mining Inc.:

Capitan Mining is a well-funded junior exploration company focused on its 100% owned gold and silver Peñoles Project in Durango, Mexico. The company is led by a management team that has successfully advanced and developed several heap leach operations in Mexico over the past 16 years.