Five Targets Drilling At Bear Deposit

VANCOUVER - Lion Copper and Gold Corp. reported on the 2023 exploration program in the Yerington District of Nevada. Five targets were drilled with results produced at the Bear deposit, a large and partially-defined zone of porphyry copper mineralization, located almost entirely on private lands and concealed beneath a thick fault slice of younger Tertiary ignimbrites and alluvial cover. Diamond core drill hole B-053A encountered 926 ft of 0.31% TCu, including 233 ft of 0.47% TCu, collared 925 ft northwest of legacy Anaconda drill hole B-014, and diamond core drill hole B-054 encountered 1,048 ft of 0.26% TCu, including 131 ft of 0.50% TCu, collared 925 ft northwest from B-053A.

These deep angle drill holes were located along a northwest projection of elevated copper grades defined by legacy Anaconda drilling and a coincident magnetic low and strong Induced Polarization (IP) anomaly, both of which are recognized trends in the Yerington District. Information gained from this recent drilling not only expands the size of the Bear deposit but also highlights additional targets which remain untested.

Travis Naugle, CEO, states, "The thick intervals of copper mineralization encountered in our latest drilling continue to showcase the immense size and potential of the Bear deposit. With mineralized intercepts expanding over 1,800 feet from previously known mineralization, we have only begun to touch on the boundaries of this expansive porphyry system that covers more than three square miles. Despite historic drilling by major miners like Phelps Dodge and Anaconda, who calculated over 6.4 billion pounds of contained copper potential on Anaconda lands alone (not NI 43-101 compliant), and the private land consolidation completed by the Company, the deposit remains woefully underexplored for such a legacy asset. These exceptional results validate our belief that systematic exploration can unlock substantial new zones of high-grade copper mineralization and significantly expand the known footprint of the deposit."

Two angled diamond core drill holes, B-053A and B-054 were collared and drilled to depths of 3,503 ft and 3,458 ft, respectively, northwest along the mineralization trend previously identified by Anaconda legacy drill holes B-013 and B-014. Legacy drill holes B-013 and B-014 intersected large zones of sulfide mineralization, including intervals with grades greater than 1.0% TCu. Higher copper grades intersected in legacy drill holes occur within a felsic endoskarn host rock, a magnetite-chalcopyrite rich rock associated with occurrences of massive chlorite and actinolite which are related to the contact of the older host rocks of granodiorite and younger quartz monzonite. The extension of the endoskarn zone and mineral assemblage was intercepted in B-053A and B-054 along a northwesterly projection. Though the total copper grades are less than those reported in legacy holes, it is not unexpected to have strongly variable copper grades within the endoskarn zones due to the irregular distribution of copper typically found in this type of geologic environment.

The intercepts in B-053A and B-054 have expanded the Bear deposit 1,850 ft in the northwesterly direction as represented by a +200 ft grade times thickness zone. This same zone is seen in drill hole B-015, located 1,900 ft west-northwest, containing 125 ft of 0.44% TCu, including 44 ft of 0.76% TCu. Legacy drill holes B-007, B-009A, B-011, and B-012, on a north-south drill line at the western edge of the known deposit, were too shallow to test for the western extent of the Bear deposit. Deeper step-out drilling west-northwest of these legacy drill holes are expected to further expand the deposit footprint.

B-053A and B-054 are the only angled drill holes ever drilled in the deposit and have therefore now better defined the structural orientation of the mineralized zones. The quartz monzonite porphyry dikes and associated mineralization strike roughly east-west to northwest-southeast with a 45° northerly dip as shown in the cross-section. Mineralization at the Bear deposit appears to include a first pulse that occurred with the intrusion of quartz monzonite into the granodiorite and is characterized as a skarn along the contact. A second pulse of mineralization appears to have occurred, where quartz monzonite porphyry dikes intrude into the quartz monzonite and mineralized veinlets are strongly seen in and along the margins of the porphyry dikes.

In general, porphyry copper deposits have a high pyrite shell, with lesser chalcopyrite mineralization surrounding a zone with higher copper grades. Drill holes B-053A and B-054 contain sulphide mineralization percentages consistently average greater than 3%, and in some cases up to 35%. These are some of the highest percentages of sulphide mineralization ever observed in any of the drilling completed at Bear. The high sulphide mineralization percentages in B-053A and B-054 may be indicative of a high pyrite shell and proximity of a higher-grade copper mineralized zone.

Future exploration work is recommended to focus on the mineralized quartz porphyry dikes which remain open down-dip to the north and up-dip to the south, as well as along strike to the east and west. Higher grade zones might be found to occur in well-developed felsic skarns or within closely spaced quartz porphyry dikes with overlapping zones of altered mineralization. The source of the mineralized quartz porphyry dikes remains an untested target below the current depth of exploration.