Azucar Minerals Ltd. announced that it has mobilized a drill to the El Cobre project where it plans to commence initial drill testing of the large area of lithocap alteration coincident with the focus area resulting from the mineral chemistry porphyry vectoring study. As discussed in the company's News Releases of November 4, 2021 and December 21, 2021, the newly mapped lithocap alteration (Lithocaps are large domains of altered rocks that are observed to form above and to the side of porphyry intrusive complexes worldwide) and mineral vector target area both overlap the location of a deep IP geophysical anomaly, which does not crop out, within an area of moderate magnetic response. The deep IP anomaly is interpreted to potentially represent the core to an upper broad near surface anomaly which encompasses all the known outcropping porphyry targets on the project.

The closest hole to this deep core IP anomaly, which did not test the anomaly, intersected intense quartz pyrite sericite (QSP) phyllic alteration which provides further support to this new target representing a possible porphyry centre. The new spectral mineral mapping in this area has further defined a strong alteration signature with clear zoning including a central diaspore-pyrophyllite-shallow alunite/dickite and concentric halos of paragonitic and muscovitic white mica and inner propylitic epidote halo. Observed illite crystallinity shows consistent high crystallinity over the entire target.

Iron oxide rockchip mapping shows a hematite core zone and a goethite halo as well. The central zones of diaspore are associated with a large 700 metre (E-W) x 550 metre (N-S) pyrophyllite anomaly with sporadic halos of dickite, minor alunite (shallow level) and a significant halo (up to 900 metres) of paragonitic illite grading to a circular muscovitic alteration halo bordering the inner epidote propylitic alteration halo. This alteration signature is interpreted to reflect the surface zoning of an underlying porphyry body with structures likely acting as feeder to high temperature fluids (pyrophyllite >250°C) and diaspore forming a partially eroded lithocap at surface.