Santana Minerals Limited (ASX: SMI) ('Santana' or 'the Company') is pleased to announce further results from the 100% owned Bendigo-Ophir Project ('the Project').

Interim Phase 5 Metallurgy Testwork Results.

Following on from the ASX announcement of 24th April 2023, the results from the balance of testing of 320 samples have been received. The testwork objective was to better understand the cyanide leach characteristics of the mineralization, by undertaking bulk leach extractable gold (BLEG) testing on minus 75-micron material from 320 drill core crush reject samples, followed by gold fire assay of the BLEG residue. The 320 samples were taken from 44 drillholes across the RAS deposit. The results indicate higher gold recoveries are associated with higher grades and spatially occur throughout the axis of the deposit (per Plan). For each gold grade bin above 0.5g/t Au the weighted average of recovery via leach ranges between 84.5% and 94.7% with an average head grade of 3.5g/t at a cut-off of 0.5g/t Au. The final part of the Phase 5 testing is underway and aims to understand the deportment of the gold in the BLEG residues using aqua regia gold extraction on 51 residue samples and the impact of grind size on gold cyanide leach recovery on 10 BLEG samples.

Reviewing these results, General Manager NZ, Damian Spring said: 'The assays from MDD142 suggests an extension of the high-grade zone to the south and upper section of the Rise and Shine deposit and represents an increase in grade of ore that would likely be processed early in the mine life. Alongside the recent positive metallurgical testing reporting high recoveries of gold, these results provide strong confidence the Project is tracking well towards a positive Scoping Study which is expected in the September quarter this year '. Infill drilling continues to focus on converting inferred resources to indicated at RAS. RC infill drilling continues at the other resources at SHR, SRE and CIT.

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