Sunstone Metals Limited announce strong assays from four more holes in the upper 500m at El Palmar which confirm that the project hosts a significant gold-copper porphyry discovery. The latest assays extend the known, continuous mineralisation to an area of at least 500m x 300m by 500m vertical extent, from surface. In addition, early-stage deep drilling has intersected peripheral mineralisation in wallrock that is interpreted to be close to higher grade mineralisation, providing further exploration targets at depth.

El Palmar is located in northern Ecuador in the vicinity of the 1Bt Llurimagua copper-molybdenum porphyry deposit and in the same regional structural belt that hosts the 2.6Bt Alpala copper-gold deposit within the Cascabel project . The El Palmar results reported in this release comprise all assays from drill holes EPDD007, 008, 010 and 011 in the upper 500m zone of the southeast sector of El Palmar, and holes EPDD009 and 016, which drilled deeper into the El Palmar system in the central sector of El Palmar. Previously released results are collated.

Drill hole EPDD007 targeted the area below the high-grade mineralisation in EPDD002, and defined continuity of mineralisation at depth below and north of EPDD002. Drill hole EPDD008 drilled above strong mineralisation in EPDD001 and defined continuity of mineralisation from EPDD001 northward to surface. Drill hole EPDD010 drilled over and to the south of EPDD002, 006 and 007, and also defined continuity of mineralisation both above and south of EPDD002.

Drill hole EPDD011 drilled to the north and into a previously undrilled area. This hole was drilled at a shallow angle of -350 and as such has defined a broad mineralised zone which will now be explored to depth. No holes to date have drilled underneath this mineralised domain.

All holes within the south-eastern and eastern portions of the El Palmar intrusive complex have defined strong mineralisation from surface. This zone measures at least 500 x 300m, with a vertical extent of at least 500m, which remains open . Drill hole EPDD009 was drilled to test a deep magnetic anomaly below and west of the two shallower mineralised zones in EPDD004, but the hole deviated and lifted so that it passed over the upper section of the anomaly .

Nevertheless, EPDD009 intersected 513m @ 0.17m Au, 0.09% Cu from 225m, including 68m at 0.14g/t gold and 0.1% copper within a syn-mineral bi-modal quartz diorite body. The broad interval of 513m of anomalous gold and copper comprises two of these syn-mineral intrusives and the intervening mineralised wallrock. Drill hole EPDD016 was drilled to test a sub-vertical magnetic anomaly in the north-west area of the El Palmar target.

The drillhole intersected two phases of diorite with variable veining, and traces of chalcopyrite and molybdenite to the end of hole at 974m. The mineralisation graded up to 0.78g/t gold with anomalous copper at 840m, and 0.3g/t gold and 0.23% copper at 740m. These narrow intervals sit below broader highly anomalous intervals of 77m at 0.29g/t gold and 0.14% copper from 549m within a bi-modal quartz diorite, similar to the mineralised intrusions in BMDD009.

Figure 3 shows combined El Palmar magnetic models 1 and 6, with drill holes, and a portion of the models removed to better visualise the lack of drill holes piercing the deep magnetic targets. The geometry of the magnetic models at this depth are less reliable than at shallower positions, and therefore will be combined with the recently completed MT models to further refine deep drill hole targeting. It is clear that mineralisation at El Palmar occurs in a variety of rock types, including in higher-grade syn- mineral intrusions, in lower-grade syn-mineral intrusions, and in their immediate wallrocks.

In porphyry systems it is the amalgamation of these multiple mineralised domains that contribute to the large tonnage and hence economies-of-scale that apply to their eventual extraction. In this regard El Palmar is displaying these same characteristics. Whilst chalcopyrite is the dominant copper-sulphide mineral that is being observed in drilling, bornite, covellite and chalcocite are associated with more strongly mineralised sections of drill core.

These sulphides have higher copper tenor and are also being modelled to understand their distribution as drilling progresses. Several highly prospective satellite anomalies that are also related to deeper magnetic bodies will be drilled in 2022.