Oposura

“”Oposura Project (BRI 100%): Zinc-Lead-Silver

The Oposura Project is located approximately 30 km southwest of the town of Moctezuma, Sonora, Mexico, and about 150 km northeast of the Sonoran state capital of Hermosillo (Figure 1). The Oposura project displays mineralization and alteration styles consistent with distal skarn Carbonate Replacement Deposits (CRD) – see Figure 2.

In January 2023, Bendito voluntarily filed a NI43-101 Technical Report for the Oposura Project. The report discusses in detail historical exploration work undertaken on the project, historical estimates undertaken by previous parties for Oposura East and West, and the exploration opportunities that Bendito is advancing to develop the property.

Numerous mineralization opportunities have been identified by Bendito within the Project area, these include (see Figure 3):

• Base metal skarn mineralization,
• The project has the potential to host copper and molybdenum porphyry related mineralization which was not the focus of pre-Bendito work programs, and
• The Mina Blanca area has the potential to host base metal vein mineralization.

A number of phases of exploration and drilling have occurred on the project including geological mapping, geochemical sampling, airborne and ground geophysics, exploration and resource drilling, and underground mining. Previous drilling on the Oposura project totals 305 core holes for a total of 22,650m. Historical estimates were undertaken for both the Oposura East and Oposura West deposit which outcrop in the project area.

Bendito is currently planning exploration activities, including drilling, to develop maiden Mineral Resource Estimates for the Oposura project to be reported in accordance with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (“CIM”) Definition Standards and National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”).

Three widely spaced exploration holes previously drilled within the central zone between Oposura East and West (yellow areas in Figure 3), indicate the potential to expand the resources to potentially create a single deposit which remains open to the north (red area highlighted within Figure 3). Mineralisation remains open in all directions with geophysical, geochemical, and recent mapping data supporting the potential for further exploration to grow the footprint of known mineralisation. Earlier stage exploration activities are being developed to the north of the project extents to indicate the scale of CRD mineralization that may exist on the property.

Oposura East and West were historically discovered in outcrop. A small amount of exploration and trial mining through underground and open pit methods has been undertaken in the Oposura East deposit. Exposures show the presence of continuous, sub-horizonal massive sulphide mineralisation with mineable thicknesses.

NI43-101 Technical Report for the Oposura Project

Historical Estimates

Historical estimates were performed for previous owners Azure for the Oposura East and Oposura West deposits. The historical estimates were supported by internal documentation, and prior to Bendito’s technical report on Oposura had not been disclosed in a technical report under NI 43-101. Table 1 provides historical estimates for Oposura. These are discussed in detail in Bendito’s technical report on Oposura in section “6.2 Historical Estimates”. Bendito plans to update the geological, structural, and alteration interpretations of these deposits in conjunction with exploration drilling to support new mineral resource estimates.

Notes:
• ZnEq US$: equivalent Zn% values in US$ are determined by the following factors, which have not been updated to allow Mineral Resources from Oposura East MRE update and the June 2018 West Zone MRE to be aggregated:
• Formula: ((Zn%/100*[Zn price US$]*[Zn concentrate recovery]*[Zn smelter recovery]) + (Pb%/100*[Pb price US$]*[Pb concentrate recovery]*[Pb smelter recovery]) + (Ag ppm*[Ag price US$]*[Ag concentrate recovery]*[Ag smelter recovery])) / (*[Zn price US$]/100*[Zn concentrate recovery]*[Zn smelter recovery])
• Assumed zinc commodity price = $3,107.5/t
• Assumed lead commodity price = $2,411/t (spot price, LME, 2018. www.lme.com, cited 0:00 GMT 20/06/2018)
• Silver $16.20/oz (spot price, NYSE, 2018. www.kitco.com, cited 0:00 GMT 20/06/2018)
• Assumed concentrate recoveries: Zn 87.5%, Pb 85%, Ag 67% (Locked Cycle Flotation tests: Azure Minerals Limited, 2018)
• Assumed smelter recoveries: Zn 85%, Pb 95%, Ag 70% (Benchmark Tests: BPDT & Co., 2018).
• It is the opinion of Azure Minerals Ltd that all the elements included in the calculation have a reasonable potential to be recovered and sold.
• Rounding may have caused imprecise total calculations.

Figure 1: Location of the Oposura Project 30km southwest of Moctezuma. Mines shown on the figure are operated by third parties.

Figure 2: Styles of mineralization within a schematic Carbonate Replacement Deposit (Figure from Taylor et al., 2010)

Figure 3: Oposura exploration and resource drilling areas