Excellon Resources Inc. (TSX: EXN) (OTCQB: EXNRF) (FRA: E4X2)  is pleased to announce the initial diamond drilling results from the recently completed 2022-2023 exploration program at its Oakley property in Idaho, USA.  Assays from additional six drill holes are still outstanding.

Centerra (U.S.) Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Centerra Gold Inc. (TSX:CG) (NYSE:CGAU), has an option to earn up to a 70% interest in Oakley by, among other things, spending US$7 million in exploration expenditures on the project by May 2026.  At the end of February 2023, Centerra had spent US$4.5 million to earn an initial 51% interest in Oakley.

Highlights

• Significantly expanded mineralization more than 90 metres from the currently defined extents of the mineral resource estimate at Blue Hill Creek, with results from the recent drilling including:
  • 0.40 grams/tonne (g/t) if gold (Au) over 189.56 metres (m) in BHC-22-02; and
  • 0.43 g/t Au over 110.64 m in BHC-22-03, including 3.94 g/t Au over 2.03 m.
• Further assays are pending.

“These intercepts extend mineralization by more than 120 metres (m) from the nearest drill hole and represent a significant step towards unlocking the potential of the Blue Hill Creek claims,” stated Jorge Ortega, Vice President Exploration at Excellon. “We are encouraged by these initial results as they demonstrate that the deposit is open to the south and the west, and confirm the outstanding opportunity to increase the currently defined inferred mineral resource estimate (163,000 oz Au; 9,972,000 tonnes (t) @ an average grade of 0.5 g/t Au)¹“.

The 2022-2023 drill program comprises 12 diamond drill holes totalling 2,751.53 metres targeting Blue Hill Creek and Cold Creek claim blocks.

Figure 1: Plan view demonstrating the extent of the Oakley project, drill hole locations and the estimated mineral resource area.

Figure 2: Cross-Section demonstrating assay results for BHC-22-02 and BHC-22-03

Drilling at Cold Creek focused on testing mineralization within the Tertiary Conglomerate unit that hosts mineralization at Oakley to the south of the currently defined mineralization footprint.  Although weakly mineralized conglomerates were encountered, no significant Au values were reported.  At Blue Hill Creek, the assay results for three diamond drill holes have been received.  BHC-22-01 tested the location of the mineralization-bounding Tertiary Conglomerate/Paleozoic Limestone contact and did not intersect significant mineralization.  Both BHC-22-02 and BHC-22-03 intersected wide mineralized zones east of the previously identified mineralization, indicating that the Tertiary Conglomerate unit extends 100 metres deeper than anticipated, which significantly increases the potential of the area to host mineralization.

Technical Information and Quality Control Notes

The drill results contained in this news release have been prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators. True widths of cited intercepts are unknown.

Oakley drill core samples are prepared and assayed by Bureau Veritas lab at Elko, Nevada. BV is accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2017. Assay turnaround times have been impacted recently by a worldwide increase in demand for laboratory services. Centerra has a comprehensive quality assurance and quality control program supervised by a Qualified Person, as defined in NI 43-101.

The sampling of, and assay data from, the core sampling and reporting are monitored through a QA/QC program designed according to best industry practices. Samples from HQ drill core are selected by Centerra geologists and cut into halves at the project site. Half of the core is retained at the site for reference purposes.  Samples are labelled and packed into sealed plastic bags which are grouped into larger fibre bags for shipping. A formal chain-of-custody procedure is in place for the security of samples from project to laboratory.

Samples are shipped by Centerra staff to the BV laboratory in Elko, Nevada. Samples then undergo crushing to 70% passing 10 US Mesh (2mm), rotary split of 250 grams, a 50-gram sub-sample is selected for analysis. Fire assay with atomic absorption spectrometry for gold is performed at Reno, Nevada BV facility, and ICP-MS 36 multi-element analysis is performed at Vancouver, British Columbia BV laboratory.

Qualified Person

Mr. Jorge Ortega, P. Geo, Vice President Exploration of the Company and a Qualified Person, as defined in NI43-101, reviewed, verified and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release.

About the Oakley Project

The Oakley Project is a gold-silver exploration prospect located 21 km south of Oakley, Idaho. The Oakley project totals 2,833 hectares. The exploration targets include hot-spring style low-sulfidation epithermal mineralization hosted by tertiary rocks as well as the potential for low-sulfidation Carlin-style epithermal mineralization hosted within Basin-and-Range Palaeozoic sediments. The property lies along the western flank of the Albion Mountains, part of the Albion-Raft River-Grouse Creek Metamorphic Core ­Complex. Oakley contains multiple targets, including Cold Creek, Blue Hill Creek and Matrix Creek. The Oakley Project’s mineralization at Blue Hill Creek is comparable to Liberty Gold’s Black Pine project, also in southern Idaho, currently with an indicated mineral resource estimate of 2.613 M Au oz (157,267,000 t @ an average grade of 0.52 g/t Au and inferred mineral resource estimate of 0.48 M Au oz (35,150,000 t @ an average grade of 0.43 g/t Au). The Black Pine mineral resource estimate was reported using a constraining resource pit at a cut-off grade of 0.20 g/t Au. As reported by Libery Gold, metallurgical testing at Black Pine is positive, averaging an 80.8% gold recovery for oxidized ore on column leach tests.²

About Excellon

Excellon’s vision is to realize opportunities for the benefit of our employees, communities and shareholders, through the acquisition of advanced development or producing assets with further potential to gain from an experienced operational management team.  The Company is advancing a portfolio of gold, silver and base metals assets including Kilgore, an advanced gold exploration project in Idaho; and Silver City, a high-grade epithermal silver district in Saxony, Germany with 750 years of mining history and no modern exploration. The Company has also entered into an agreement to acquire La Negra, a past-producing Ag-Zn-Cu-Pb mine with exploration potential, located in Querétaro State, Mexico.

Figure 1: Plan view demonstrating the extent of the Oakley project, drill hole locations and the estimated mineral resource area. (CNW Group/Excellon Resources Inc.)

Figure 2: Cross-Section demonstrating assay results for BHC-22-02 and BHC-22-03 (CNW Group/Excellon Resources Inc.)