Chesapeake Gold Corp. provided a metallurgical update for its world class, Metates gold-silver project located in Durango State, Mexico. The sulphide heap leaching metallurgical test program commenced in May 2021 with a sample that had already been crushed to ½" and stored in Denver for several years.

The sample was placed in a transparent column for the oxidation phase. The column was run for 128 days and achieved an oxidation of approximately 30%. After the oxidation phase, the column was rinsed and then leached with a standard lime cyanide solution.

The leach cycle was run for 90 days, similar to a standard oxide gold heap leach test. The oxidation rate, however, when compared to the first sample tested was slower and did not reach a similar oxidation level. A second round of testing is underway and is designed to investigating ways to speed up the oxidation kinetics and have multiple columns running under various conditions to improve and optimize the oxidation rate.

The variables being tested includes crushing finer to ¼", using High Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR) to crush finer, different reagent strengths, different pH's, on/off irrigation, and varying air addition rates. Initial oxidation response from some of these changes are encouraging and show higher initial oxidation rates. Despite the slower oxidation rate of the fresh core samples, Chesapeake remains optimistic that will be able to optimize and accelerate the oxidation to achieve the desired recoveries.

Over the time since started the drilling early 2021, have observed that the Metates mineralization will oxidize naturally when exposed to air and moisture. The core was broken in November and clearly shows that the oxidation is also penetrating the sample. Additionally, parts of the core have visibly decomposed.

A sample of this decomposed material was taken for X ray defection analysis (XRD).