Metallic Minerals Corp. announced the completion of 2023 field activities at the Company's La Plata copper-silver-gold-PGE project in southwestern Colorado, USA. The 2023 exploration program included 4,530 meters in four diamond drill holes focused on expanding the current mineral resource and testing extensions of strong porphyry-style mineralization encountered in 2022 drill hole LAP22-04.

LAP22-04 intercepted 816 meters of continuous mineralization grading 0.41% copper equivalent with significant intervals of higher-grade mineralization. Assays are pending with results expected in early 2024, which will provide the basis for an update to the current mineral resource estimate of 1.2 billion pounds copper and 17.6 million ounces of silver1 as announced in July 2023. Additional field activities included detailed geologic mapping, surface rock and soil sampling, airborne and drill core hyperspectral surveys.

Drilling totalled 4,530 meters in four resource expansion drill holes ranging from 965 meters in depth to 1,350 meters in hole LAP23-06, which is the deepest hole to date in the project. All four drill holes intersected porphyry style mineralization over their entire lengths with varying levels of visible copper sulphides and vein density. Drilling in 2023 has extended mineralization to more than 1.5 kilometers vertically starting at surface and is anticipated to allow for inclusion of both gold and platinum group elements in future mineral resource estimates along with copper and silver.

An advanced airborne hyperspectral survey covering 157 square kilometers (453-line km) was completed by SpecTIR in the visible ("VNIR") to shortwave infrared ("SWIR") and longwave infrared ("LWIR") spectra (949 total bands) allowing for detailed mineral and alteration mapping across the entire district. Scanning of 3,848 meters of drill core was completed by GeologicAI providing hi-resolution RGB digital photography, laser profilometry using LIDAR, VNIR and SWIR hyperspectral imagery and x-ray fluorescence, allowing for detailed characterization of mineralization and alteration within the Allard deposit. Expansion of project surface sampling included 667 additional soil samples and 275 rock samples in conjunction with detailed geologic surface mapping both inside and outside of the Allard resource area.

This work has identified a number of new high priority target areas for follow up exploration and has expanded the known surface footprint of the Allard mineral system.