Start Of First Phase Drilling At La Plata Silver-Gold-Copper Project In Southwest Colorado

VANCOUVER - Metallic Minerals reported the start of the first phase of drilling of up to 2,000 meters at the La Plata silver-gold-copper project in southwest Colorado along with an update on exploration activities to date. This initial diamond core drill program is designed to test and confirm mineralization in the central porphyry system, which hosts an historical resource estimate, as the first steps toward developing a new NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate.

The road accessible La Plata project covers 33 km2 approximately 26 km northwest of Durango, Colorado within the historic high-grade La Plata mining district located at the southwest end of the prolific Colorado Mineral Belt. Mineralization is related to a large-scale precious-metals-rich porphyry copper system with associated high-grade silver and gold epithermal vein and replacement deposits.

Project Highlights: Drilling to date within the central porphyry system has defined a northeast trending, near vertical zone of copper-silver-gold mineralization covering an area of at least 3 km by 1 km with over 1 km of vertical relief that remains open to expansion along trend and to depth with excellent potential for additional discoveries; Surrounding the central porphyry system is an associated high-grade silver and gold-rich epithermal system measuring at least 8 km by 2 km that hosts 56 identified vein, replacement, and breccia structures; Historical production from some of these high-grade structures exceeded 1,000 grams per tonne ("g/t") silver and over 15 g/t gold with some of the richest deposits delivering true bonanza grades for silver and gold; Drill hole LP-03 intersected 395 m of porphyry style mineralization grading 0.57% copper equivalent (0.51% Cu, 6.3 g/t Ag, and 0.017 g/t Au) including 108 m grading 0.75% copper equivalent (0.65% Cu, 7.7 g/t Ag and 0.034 g/t Au) starting from surface and with the hole ending in mineralization; and Exploration in 2021 is designed to expand known zones of mineralization and to advance a new NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate for the central porphyry system.