Aztec Minerals Corp. announced it is summarizes the drilling results on the Cervantes porphyry gold targets from its recently completed 2022, Phase 2, RC and oriented core drilling programs comprising a 26-hole, 5,248.6 metre track-mounted reverse circulation drill program and a 11-hole, 2,588 m man-portable, oriented core program on the 100% owned Cervantes porphyry Au project located in the district of Soyopa, Sonora, Mexico. The oriented core drilling program in 2022 tested step-outs of 35 to 450 meters using varying azimuths and inclinations.

The combined 2022 drilling totaled 37 drill holes and 7,836.6 m on four targets (California, California Norte, Purisima East and Jasper) The 2022 drilling program was conducted in part during the rainy season, and for the entire program there were no injuries or accidents. Drill samples are collected every 1.52 m from RC chips and every 1.5m from sawing the core drill holes. The samples are analyzed by Bureau Veritas for gold with a 30-gram sample size using the method FA430 followed by MA300.

Over limits, when present, are analyzed by AR404 or FA550. All holes contain certified blanks, standards, and duplicates as part of the quality control program. The QA/QC has delivered excellent results to date good data integrity.

The samples are shipped to and received by Bureau Veritas Minerals laboratory for the gold and multielement geochemical analysis and additional gold results will be received and reported in the next several weeks. The QAQC for the drilling programs has been evaluated and found to have good results. Now that drilling has concluded and the dry season has started, Aztec in early 2023 will next carry out channel sampling and geologic mapping of the new drill roads at California, California Norte and Jasper, as well as to expand surface sampling and mapping on the property in general to continue the 2021 - 2022 surface exploration program.

Cervantes is a highly prospective porphyry gold-copper project located in southeastern Sonora state, Mexico. The project lies 160 km east of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico within the prolific Laramide porphyry copper belt approximately 265 km southeast of the Cananea porphyry copper-molybdenum mine (Grupo Mexico).Cervantes also lies along an east-west trending gold belt 60 km west of the Mulatos epithermal gold mine (Alamos Gold), 35 km northeast of the Osisko San Antonio gold mine, 45 km west of the La India mine (Agnico Eagle), and 40 km northwest of Santana gold deposit (Minera Alamos). Cervantes is a highly prospective porphyry gold-copper project located in southeastern Sonora state, Mexico.

The project lies 160 km east of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico within the prolific Laramide porphyry copper belt approximately 265 km southeast of the Cananea porphyry copper-molybdenum mine (Grupo Mexico).Cervantes also lies along an east-west trending gold belt 60 km west of the Mulatos epithermal gold mine (Alamos Gold), 35 km northeast of the Osisko San Antonio gold mine, 45 km west of the La India mine (Agnico Eagle), and 40 km northwest of Santana gold deposit (Minera Alamos). Preliminary metallurgical tests on California drill cores were conducted in 2019. Drill core samples were grouped into 4 separate types of mineralization: Oxide 1, Oxide 2, Mixed Oxide/Sulfide and Sulfide.

The preliminary results of bottle roll tests showed excellent potential for heap leach gold recovery, as follows: 85.1% recovery on 2.0mm material and 94.3% on 75-micron material in sample Oxide 1, 87.7% recovery on 2.0mm material and 94.2% on 75-micron material in sample Oxide 2, 77.9% recovery on 2.0mm material and 89.0% on 75-micron material in sample Mixed Oxide/Sulphide, 51.2% recovery on 2.0mm material and 78.7% on 75-micron material in sample Sulphide. Purisima East - outcropping gossans, altered and mineralized diatreme breccias and porphyry intrusions marked by a 700m by 600m geochemical soil anomaly in 193 samples that average 0.25 gpt gold, a small historic ‘glory hole' mine where rock chip sampling returned high-grade mineralization up to 44.6 gpt gold. Estrella - outcrops of gossan and sulfides in silicified Paleozoic sediments near quartz porphyry dikes with rock chip samples up to 3.9 gpt gold and 2,010ppm copper.

Purisima West - a mirror image of Purisima East in size and type of gossans, altered and mineralized breccias and intrusions in association with gold and copper soil anomalies. Jasper - 2017 trenching returned skarn/replacement-type mineralization up to 0.52% copper and 0.62 gpt gold over a 92.4 m length. In 2022 RC drilling found a broad zone of copper - gold mineralization in JAS22-001.

California North - coincident IP chargeability and gold-copper-molybdenum soil geochemical anomalies with demonstrated gold - copper mineralization by RC drilling, it may be a north extension of the California target. Other targets - porphyry alteration and geochemical soil anomalies mark the Jacobo and Brasil prospects but more work is required to expand and define these targets.