Completion Of First Two Drill Holes At San Jose Project

TORONTO - Michael R. Smith, Senior VP Exploration of Monarca Minerals, Inc., said, “The first two drill holes at the San Jose project have been completed. We are very excited about the positive results of the San Jose drilling, having demonstrated the existence of significant skarn mineralization".

Drill holes SJ01 and SJ03 have been completed - each drill hole successfully intersected skarn mineralization with sulfide minerals, based on field quick logs. Both exoskarn and endoskarn mineralization were observed. The sulfide minerals observed were dominantly pyrite, with very fine grained dark sulfide minerals, which appear to be sphalerite and galena in some cases. Chalcopyrite was locally observed. Assay results are not yet available. The first batch of samples for assay will be shipped in a few days to the sample preparation laboratory in Chihuahua, Mexico.

SJ01: Drill hole SJ01, angled easterly at -60º, was drilled to 140.2m and was completed in one day. It targeted the mineralized contact between limestone and adjacent granodiorite, at the Guadalupana mine. SJ01 intersected 9.1m of exoskarn with about 1% pyrite and <1% of fine grained dark sulfide minerals. It also cut 42.7m of endoskarn. The remainder of the hole was silicified granodiorite with about 1% pyrite.

SJ03: Drill hole SJ03 was drilled vertically to 329.2m and was completed in four days, having intersected three exoskarn horizons. A booster compressor was utilized to manage water flows, which at a constant rate were about 5 gallons per minute. It targeted an IP geophysical anomaly in an area where the nearest outcrop was about 100m distant, at the El Leon prospect. Three thick zones of exoskarn were intersected, each with sulfide mineralization consisting of pyrite and fine grained dark sulfide minerals. From 207.3m to 208.8m exoskarn mineralization was observed, with about 20% pyrite and fine grained dark sulfide minerals. The total intersected length of exoskarn mineralization was 83.8m, along with 76.2m of endoskarn. There appears to be potassic alteration (shreddy biotite) in the granodiorite in the bottom 32.0m of drill hole SJ03.