Copper Mountain Mining Corporation announced positive results from the first four drill holes of its 2023 exploration program at the Copper Mountain Mine, located in southern British Columbia. Two of these holes were drilled at the Copper Mountain Mine main pit and two at New Ingerbelle, which is located approximately one kilometre to the west of the main pit. Drill hole CM-DD-897 intersected the highest-grade and most gold-rich, copper-gold mineralization yet discovered at New Ingerbelle and extends the known mineralized zone by approximately 200 metres below the current Mineral Resource.

This drill hole shows that the mineralized zone at New Ingerbelle has a vertical extent of at least 900 metres and the zone remains open both laterally and at depth. The 2023 exploration program is designed to test seven target areas within the NW-trending Copper Mountain-New Ingerbelle mineralized corridor, a 4 to 5 kilometre long, NW-trending zone of porphyry copper-gold mineralization. Multiple historical drill holes within this zone end in copper-gold mineralization and geophysical data strongly suggest that the mineralizing system extends well below the current known Mineral Resource, which is open both laterally and at depth.

The 2023 drill program consists of two phases. Phase 1 is expected to be completed mid-year and includes a large geophysical program and approximately 8,000 metres of diamond drilling. Phase 2 consists of approximately 10,000 metres of additional drilling.

At New Ingerbelle, drilling is currently ongoing with three holes completed and one hole in progress. At the Copper Mountain Mine, two holes have been completed and one hole is in progress, which is a 175-metre undercut of a 2010 drill hole that intersected a 72-metre zone grading 1.86% CuEq from 452 metres at depth. The current drill program is focused on finding higher-grade zones of mineralization below and adjacent to the current Mineral Resource, and similar to the higher-grade zones that have been discovered at other alkalic porphyry copper-gold deposits such as Red Chris in British Columbia and Cadia-Ridgeway in New South Wales, Australia.

The Copper Mountain deposit is the same geological age as the Red Chris deposit and both contain the same style of high-grade, A-quartz vein-hosted, copper-gold mineralization hosted within potassically-altered porphyry intrusions and adjacent country rock. Like Red Chris, copper and gold at the Copper Mountain deposit exhibit a strong correlation and Au/Cu ratios increase inward towards the core of the system. The discovery in hole CM-DD-897 of high-grade copper-gold mineralization, with Au/Cu ratios of >1 in the highest-grade interval, shows that the mineralizing system at New Ingerbelle becomes stronger and more gold-rich at depth.

The mineralized zone has a minimum vertical extent of 900 metres and remains open at depth. For comparison, zones of high-grade mineralization at Red Chris and Cadia-Ridgeway exhibit vertical extents of over 1,000 metres. The newly discovered higher-grade copper-gold zone at New Ingerbelle has similar grades to Red Chris, and the Company believes the overall mineralizing system is comparable in size.

A large geophysical program is also ongoing and is designed to infill and extend previous induced polarization/DC resistivity coverage. A 3D survey has been completed at New Ingerbelle and both 3D and 2D surveys have been completed at the Copper Mountain Mine. A magnetotellurics survey is currently ongoing at New Ingerbelle and will extend the depth of investigation below the limits of the IP/DC resistivity survey.

Large numbers of physical property measurements on drill core, including density, magnetic susceptibility, resistivity and chargeability have also been carried out on recent and historical drill core and will be used to constrain the geophysical modelling. These new geophysical and petrophysical data will be integrated with historical geophysical data and will be used to better define existing targets and to generate new target areas. The highest-grade intervals occur within zones of porphyry-related hydrothermal breccia, including a 42-metre zone grading 0.74% CuEq from 480 metres depth in hole CM-DD-895.

Most of the previous drilling in this area has consisted of relatively short holes. A drill hole from 2008, located approximately 200 metres to the west of the current drilling, intersected a 46-metre zone grading 0.65% CuEq from 374 metres at depth. Reconnaissance mapping of the area in 2022 identified a large, approximately 300 x 300 metre, zone with porphyry-style veins and related potassic alteration and anomalous copper values.

Mapping also located two historical adits in the area. Grab samples from waste piles outside these adits returned values greater than 1% Cu in rocks with A-quartz veins, chalcopyrite veinlets and Kspar-biotite-magnetite alteration. Both holes intersected copper-gold mineralization below the current Mineral Resource, and further drilling in the area is warranted.

This area of the deposit is the location of the future haul road to New Ingerbelle and a deeper reserve pit would have a positive impact on road construction costs and haul distances. Drill hole CM-DD-896 was a 200-metre undercut of high-grade porphyry-hosted copper-gold mineralization in a number of 2021 drill holes, including drill hole 21IG-11 located in the southwest area of New Ingerbelle. Drill hole CM-DD-896 intersected a wide zone of chalcopyrite-pyrite mineralization hosted in Nicola Group rocks, Lost Horse porphyry dykes and related hydrothermal breccias.

The highest-grade interval of 56 metres at 1.00% CuEq is mainly hosted in a biotite-sulfide cemented hydrothermal breccia. The mineralization intersected in this drill hole is below the current Mineral Resource, and the mineralized zone remains open to the southwest towards the CMS contact. Drill hole CM-DD-897 was a 200-metre undercut of the previous deepest drill hole at New Ingerbelle, 20IG01, which intersected a number of intervals of high-grade copper-gold mineralization.

Mineralization in CM-DD-897 is hosted within igneous breccias and Nicola Group country rocks and consists of a chalcopyrite-pyrite sulphide assemblage associated with potassic alteration, with local pyrrhotite associated with specific lithological units within the Nicola Group. The interval is also cut by narrow Lost Horse porphyry dykes, with quartz-chalcopyrite veins, chalcopyrite-pyrite veinlets, and locally intense potassic alteration. The highest-grade interval, 8.85 metres at 5.37% CuEq, consists of a quartz-magnetite-chalcopyrite-pyrite assemblage, hosted in what appears to be intensely altered Nicola Group rocks.

Drill core was cut and sampled at the Copper Mountain Mine core processing facility. Half core samples were collected in plastic bags together with sample tags and grouped in "apple crates" for dispatch to the assay laboratory.