Kootenay Silver Inc. announced that an exploration program has been approved by the Cervantes Joint Venture. The plan calls for a two-phase, $1.13 million exploration program in 2021 for the Cervantes porphyry gold-copper property in Sonora, Mexico. The first phase calls for an $85,000 program of sampling and mapping. The second phase is a $1.05 million drilling program to start sometime in the fall. Aztec and Kootenay recently formed a 65/35 joint venture respectively and the JV Management Committee met last week to review and approve the 2021 program as detailed by the operator in an Aztec news release and para phrased below. The JV plans to commence work in the first quarter on a Phase 1, $85,000 program of soil and rock sampling and geological mapping (525 soils and 150 rocks will be analyzed) to extend the 100 meter (m) by 100m geological and geochemical grid to the north, west and east boundaries of the property. Mapping will focus on detailed lithological, structural, and alteration mapping of the California, California North, and Estrella targets. View: Cervantes Phase 1 Proposed Sampling and Mapping Plan Subject to the results from Phase 1 and available funding, the JV plans to initiate a Phase 2, $1.05 million, 22 hole, 5,000m reverse circulation ("RC") drill program during the late third quarter of 2021. Four main targets will be tested. View: Cervantes Proposed Phase 2 RC Drilling Plan At the California target, previously discovered extensive porphyry gold-copper mineralization (drill intercepts up to 0.77 gpt gold over 160m), the JV will drill 14 infill and step-out holes at a 50m spacing to expand and define the area of mineralization, followed by two 500m deep holes to test the depth extent of the strong IP chargeability anomaly. At the California North prospect, one hole will test the coincident IP chargeability/gold-copper-molybdenum anomaly. At the Jasper prospect, one hole will test the outcropping copper mineralization and copper-molybdenum anomaly. At the Purisima East target, four holes will test the high-grade gold mineralization in the Glory Hole mine working and coincident IP chargeability and gold-copper-molybdenum anomaly within a breccia along the rim of a porphyry intrusion. The primary objectives of the two phase 2021 exploration program are to better define the open pit, heap leach gold potential of the porphyry oxide cap at California, evaluate the potential for deeper copper-gold porphyry sulfide mineralization underlying the oxide cap, test for north and west extensions of the California mineralization at California North and Jasper, and assess the breccia potential of Purisima East.