• Monarch reports gold assays from 13 drill holes of its 2022 McKenzie Break drilling program.

• Hole MK-22-348 intersects an impressive 1.77 g/t Au over 31.0 m, including a higher grade section of 2.83 g/t Au over 15.6 m along the southeast limit of the current proposed pit shell.

• Notable broad zones of mineralization include 1.33 g/t Au over 9.35 m (MK-22-342) with the potential to extend the pit shell to the south, and 1.54 g/t Au over 14.91 m (MK-22-363) at the northeast limit of the drilling area.

• Higher grade mineralization includes 9.09 g/t Au over 1.48 m (MK-22-363) and 8.54 g/t Au over 1.40 m (MK-22-367).

• Results from the 2022 drilling program confirm that the pit shell and underground mineral resource can be expanded beyond the limits defined in the 2021 mineral resource estimate.

• Assays are pending for 17 holes.

MONARCH MINING CORPORATION (TSX: GBAR) (OTCQB: GBARF) is pleased to report additional results from the 2022 drilling program on its wholly-owned McKenzie Break gold project, located 25 kilometres north of the Corporation’s wholly owned Beacon mill.

The 2022 drilling program on the McKenzie Break property totaled 16,104 metres in 53 holes. Today, Monarch is reporting the results from an additional 13 holes totalling 4,523 metres (see Figure 1, Table 1 and 2). Assays are pending for the remaining 17 holes of this drill program.

The drilling program was aimed at expanding the size of the 2021 mineral resource estimate (“2021 MRE”), including the current pit shell in the up-dip direction (to the west and south), and the underground resource to the east and north. The mineralized envelope currently measures 1,100 metres by 600 metres and has been tested down to a vertical depth of 400 metres.

The most significant intersection was found in hole MK-22-348, which returned 1.77 g/t Au over 31.0 m, including higher grade sections of 2.83 g/t Au over 15.6 m and 8.42 g/t Au over 3.0 m along the southeast limit of the current proposed pit shell.

Drill hole MK-22-363, located at the northeast limit of the deposit, intersected 1.54 g/t Au over 14.91 m, including a high grade intercept of 9.09 g/t Au over 1.48 m. This hole confirms that gold mineralization remains open to the northeast.

Drill hole MK-22-342 intersected 1.33 g/t Au over 9.35 m from 8.0 m to 17.35 m down the hole, confirming the near-surface gold mineralization continuing to the south. The drill hole is located 70 metres south of the pit shell limit and demonstrates the potential to extend the pit shell to the south and southwest.

Drill hole MK-22-367 intersected 8.54 g/t Au over 1.40 m and 8.99 g/t Au over 1.0 m.

Since the publication of the 2021 MRE by Geologica and GoldMinds (see Table 3), Monarch drilled a total of 41,465 m in 121 drill holes. The holes are relatively shallow and were primarily drilled at the outer edge of the proposed pit shell limits and in the area of the underground mineral resource blocks. This drilling has confirmed that the pit shell and underground mineral resource can be expanded beyond the limits defined in the 2021 MRE.

“The known limits of the McKenzie Break mineralization continue to be extended near-surface and at depth as per our geological model, confirming that the proposed pit limits can be expanded,” said Jean-Marc Lacoste, President and Chief Executive Officer of Monarch. “We expect the remaining drill assays will continue to give positive results and further expand the known mineralization.”

Drilling and Quality Control

Drill results are obtained by sawing the drill core into equal halves along its main axis and shipping one of the halves to ALS Canada or AGAT Laboratories in Val-d’Or, Quebec, for assaying. The samples are crushed, pulverized and assayed by fire assay, with an atomic absorption finish. Samples exceeding 3 g/t Au are re-assayed using the gravity method and samples containing visible gold are assayed using the metallic screen method. Monarch uses a comprehensive QA/QC protocol, including the insertion of standards, blanks and duplicates.

The technical and scientific content of this press release has been reviewed and approved by Louis Martin, P.Geo., the Corporation’s qualified person under National Instrument 43-101.

About Monarch

Monarch Mining Corporation is a gold mining company that owns four projects, including the Beaufor Mine, which is currently on care and maintenance and has produced more than 1 million ounces of gold over the last 30 years. Other assets include the Croinor Gold, McKenzie Break and Swanson properties, all located near Monarch’s wholly owned Beacon Mill with a design capacity of 750 tpd. Monarch owns 29,504 hectares (295 km²) of mining assets in the prolific Abitibi mining camp that host a combined measured and indicated gold resource of 666,882 ounces and a combined inferred resource of 423,193 ounces.

Figure 1: McKenzie Break Significant Intervals from Press Release

 Table 1: McKenzie Break Assay Results and Significant Intervals

*The width shown is the core length. True width is estimated to be between 85% and 90% of core length.

NSA = No Significant Assays

Table 2: McKenzie Break Drill Hole Location

Table 3: 2021 MRE for McKenzie Break

Notes :

1. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. An Inferred Mineral Resource has a lower level of confidence than that applying to a Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource and must not be converted to a Mineral Reserve. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, market or other relevant issues. The quantity and grade of reported inferred resources are uncertain in nature and there has not been sufficient work to define these inferred resources as indicated or measured resources.
2. The database used for this mineral estimate includes drill results obtained from historical records and up to the recent 2018-2020 drill program.
3. Mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.50 g/t Au for the pit-constrained and underground mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 2.38 g/t Au within reasonably mineable volumes.
4. These cut-offs were calculated at a gold price of C$1,980 ounce.
5. The pit-constrained resources were based on the following parameters: mining cost $3.5/t, processing, transportation + G&A costs $27/t, Au recovery 95%, pit slopes 15 degrees for overburden and 50 degrees for rock.
6. The underground reasonably mineable volumes were based on the following parameters: mining cost $98/t, processing, transportation + G&A costs $27/t, Au recovery 95%, dilution of 15% at 0 g/t Au with a minimum stope dimension of 10m x 10m x 5m.
7. The geological interpretation of the deposits was based on lithologies and the typical mineralized interval mainly composed by diorite hosted shear zones.
8. The mineral resource presented here was estimated with a block size of 5m x 5m x 5m for the pit-constrained and for underground.
9. The blocks were interpolated from equal length composites calculated from the mineralized intervals. Prior to compositing, high-grade gold assays were capped to 60 g/t Au applied on 0.6-metre composites.
10. The mineral estimation was completed using the inverse distance squared methodology utilizing two passes. For each pass, search ellipsoids followed the geological interpretation trends were used.
11. Tonnage estimates are based on rock specific gravity of 2.77 tonnes per cubic metre for all the zones. Results are presented undiluted and in situ.
12. Estimates use metric units (metres, tonnes and g/t). Metal contents are presented in troy ounces (metric tonne x grade / 31.10348).
13. This MRE is dated February 11, 2021, and with an amended date of October 14, 2021. The effective date for the drillhole database used to produce this updated mineral resource estimate is February 1, 2021. Tonnages and ounces in the tables are rounded to the nearest hundred. Numbers may not total due to rounding.
14. No economic evaluation of the resources has been produced.
15. The MRE was prepared by Alain-Jean Beauregard, P.Geo., Daniel Gaudreault, P.Eng. of Geologica Groupe-Conseil Inc., and Merouane Rachidi, P.Geo., Claude Duplessi, P.Eng. of GoldMinds GeoServices, all qualified persons under National Instrument 43-101.

Table 4: Monarch Combined Mineral Resource Estimates