Kingfisher Metals Corp. announced the full results of the 2023 diamond drilling program at the HWY 37 Project with 2,150 m drilled over six holes. The project is located in northwest British Columbia within the Golden Triangle.

The Mary deposit is one of three advanced targets on the HWY 37 Project in addition to the Williams Cu-Au porphyry deposit and the Hank Au-Ag epithermal deposit. The Mary porphyry system is located 9 km from Highway 37 and the Northwest Transmission Line. Drilling at the Mary deposit in 2023 expanded the northerly strike length from 360 m to 450 m and increased the width to 240 m. No previous programs have drilled beneath the cover rock to determine the economic potential of geological units, and these drill holes demonstrate that alteration projects under cover in a large region.

The cover unit represents a significant untested target area that measures 1 x 1 km and is flanked by a significant stockwork body at Cliff to the south, a broad flanking-type porphyry alteration pattern to the east at Mary Root Zone target, and a drill delineated Mary deposit to the north. The Mary Root Zone target concept was based on a large coincident chargeability-resistivity geophysical anomaly, and two holes were able to identify that the scale and depth of the anomalies is consistent with a very large gold-bearing hydrothermal system. Metal zonation patterns, particularly of zinc, are commonly distributed in a flanking (along-side) or a carapace (above) body relative to the copper zone at both nearby porphyry deposits (e.g., Williams and Goldstorm deposits).

The Cliff stockwork body was tested by two holes - one to test the width extent and a second to test the depth extent. Compared to the Mary deposit, drilling intercepted a unique and more felsic phase of intrusion with a higher quartz vein abundance, a low gold to copper ratio, and high relative molybdenum to gold. The Cliff porphyry is interpreted as a relatively small, younger phase emplaced at the margin of a km-scale, zoned porphyry system represented in part by the Mary deposit and the Mary Root Zone target.

Hole M-23-006 successfully expanded both the strike-length and width of the Mary deposit with 0.43 Au Eq. over 438 m and also verified that significant exploration potential exists below the barren cover. The initial drill hole, M-23-005, was abandoned due to difficult drilling conditions and did not reach the interpreted location of the target copper body.

Drilling at the Mary deposit in 2023 expanded the northerly strike length from 360 m to 450 m and increased the width to 240 m. The Mary deposit dimensions are yet to be fully delineated, and significant potential exists under cover to the south and southeast. Previous groups have been deterred from drilling below the barren cover unit due to the absence of geochemical anomalism. Holes M-23-005 and -006 are the first to collar in this geochemical ?dead zone' and demonstrate that this draped cover conceals a large porphyry alteration system.

The very high gold to copper ratios and presence of narrow high-grade silver at Mary, with 811 g/t Ag over 3 m, are unusual for a porphyry deposit. In the upper couple hundred meters of the deposit, the gold to copper ratio ranges 8:1 to 6:1 and at mid-levels the gold to copper ratio is slightly higher at around 2:1. The high-gold metal ratios and epithermal textures near surface at Mary reflect the highest reaches of a porphyry system. Such systems commonly grade vertically into copper-dominant domains at depth.

Significant exploration potential exists for vertical zonation down to a copper-rich body at Mary. There are many examples in the region where gold-rich or gold-only porphyry deposits were discovered at surface and copper-rich bodies were eventually drilled below those levels. Examples include the deeper levels of the Goldstorm deposit (Treaty Creek project) the Mitchell deposit below Snowfield (KSM project), the Lower Iron Cap deposit below Iron Cap (KSM project).

The Company cautions the reader that mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on the HWY 37 Project. Two holes at the Mary Root Zone Target were drilled at a spacing of 170 m. Broad anomalous gold and zinc were intercepted, such as 241.7 m of 0.16 g/t Au, and 0.13% Zn. A third hole was planned and a drill pad built to test the highest value chargeability anomaly, 260 m north of M-23-002, but slow drilling conditions at the Mary deposit (holes M-23-005 and -006) prevented the completion of the planned third hole during the 2023 program.

For hole descriptions, see previous news release (November 2, 2023). The Mary Root Zone target tests a large coincident chargeability-resistivity geophysical anomaly that is mostly positioned below the barren cover rock. The area of drilling tests the margin of the barren cover rock and reflects a geochemical signature consistent with a flanking (alongside) or overlying domain to a gold-bearing porphyry.

Broad zinc anomalism was intercepted throughout both holes, such zinc anomalism is known both locally and regionally to be situated proximal to Cu-Au porphyry deposits.