NGEx Minerals Ltd. (TSX: NGEX) (OTCQX: NGXXF) is pleased to provide the first update on its ongoing Phase 3 drill program at the 100% owned Lunahuasi high-grade copper-gold-silver project in San Juan, Argentina. Drilling started in mid-October 2024, and six diamond drill rigs are currently working on the project. This news release includes results received to date for the upper portions of the first two holes only. Individual metal grades and estimated true widths of the intersections are shown in Table 1.

Highlights

• Drillhole DPDH024 intersected:
  • 86.60m at 4.39% copper equivalent  from 89.40m, including:
    • 12.25m at 23.35% CuEq from 139.75m, including:
      • 4.05m at 55.26% CuEq from 145.35m
  • This hole was completed to a final depth of 968m on November 29; assays have been received for the first 394m
• Drillhole DPDH025 intersected:
  • 51.40m at 3.69% CuEq from 143.80m, including:
    • 11.90m at 10.74% CuEq from 143.80m, including:
      • 3.50m at 19.29% CuEq from 150.00m
  • This hole is in progress and currently at a depth of 1,100m; assays have been received for the first 271m

Wojtek Wodzicki, President and CEO, commented, “These initial results from the upper parts of the first two holes of this program have exceeded our expectations. Today’s news release and especially the results from DPDH024, highlights some of the extremely high grades found at Lunahuasi. Of particular note are the bonanza-grade gold values which demonstrate that Lunahuasi has the potential to be an important high-grade gold deposit as well as a significant copper and silver deposit. These gold values would be noteworthy at many high-grade gold-only deposits. Hole DPDH025 is also important because it clearly shows that the system continues strongly to the north and remains open beyond it. With only 6,500m drilled to date and most of the drill program still ahead of us, we have had a great start to the program and look forward to sharing ongoing results on a regular basis over the coming months as we continue to expand and infill this remarkable deposit. With three ongoing drill holes now over 1,000m deep, two of which are planned to reach at least 2,000m, we are well on our way to achieving our goal of significantly expanding the mineralized footprint of the deposit.”

Six drill rigs are currently working at Lunahuasi with one hole (DPDH024) completed and holes DPDH025 through DPDH030 in progress. Additional intersections for these holes, including those from the lower portions of holes DPDH024 and DPDH025, will be released once assays are received, analyzed, and confirmed by the Company.

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.

Core scanning and integration of artificial intelligence (AI) 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.