Anova Metals : First Majestic to acquire Jerritt Canyon Mine for US$470M

For personal use only

15 March 2021

ASX ANNOUNCEMENT

First Majestic to acquire Jerritt Canyon

Gold Mine for US$470M

HIGHLIGHTS:

•  Definitive agreement for First Majestic to acquire the Jerritt Canyon Gold Mine from Sprott Mining for US$470 million.

•  Anova's Big Springs Gold Project located immediately adjacent to Jerritt Canyon and within a 20 km radius of its underutilised processing plant (currently operating at ~50% of capacity).

•  The Jerritt Canyon flowsheet is well suited to treatment of Big Springs resources.

•  Big Springs is fully permitted for open pit mining of its 601 deposit.

•  Extensive exploration program for Big Springs in 2021 targeted at aggressively testing extensions to existing resources as well as drilling of high-priority new exploration targets.

Anova Metals Limited (ASX: AWV) (Anova or the Company) notes the recent announcement that First Majestic Silver Corp. (TSX:FR, NYSE:AG, Frankfurt: FMV) (First Majestic) and Sprott Mining Inc. (Sprott Mining) have entered into a definitive agreement for First Majestic to acquire all of the shares of Jerritt Canyon Canada Ltd, owner of the Jerritt Canyon Gold Mine (Jerritt Canyon), from Sprott Mining for US$470 million in First Majestic shares plus 5 million share purchase warrants.

Jerritt Canyon is located immediately adjacent to Anova's Big Springs Gold Project (Big Springs), with the entirety of the Big Springs tenure located within a 20 km radius of the Jerritt Canyon mill (Figure 1). The highly prospective Golden Dome South prospect, identified from last year's intensive geophysical survey work, shares a tenement boundary with Jerritt Canyon, and is located less than 10 km from the Jerritt Canyon mill.

Big Springs currently has Measured, Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources totalling 16 Mt at 2.0 g/t Au for 1.03 Moz gold (refer Table 1 and Anova ASX release dated 26 June 2014). At an increased cut-off grade of 2.5 g/t gold, the high-grade component of the Big Springs resource is 3.1 Mt at 4.2 g/t Au for 415 koz gold.

The mineralogy of this resource base is directly comparable with that of Jerritt Canyon and the Jerritt Canyon flowsheet appears well suited to treatment of Big Springs resources. Anova also holds current permits to commence and conduct open pit mining activities at its South Sammy 601 deposit.

Jerritt Canyon has been in production since 1981 and produced over 9.5 million ounces of gold over its 40 years history. It currently operates underground mines and one of three permitted gold processing plants in Nevada utilising roasting (a process well suited to treating Big Springs material). Due to limitations on underground ore production the Jerritt Canyon mill is currently operating at approximately 2,200 tonnes per day, which represents only approximately 50% of the plant's nameplate capacity (4,500 tonnes per day).

In 2020, Jerritt Canyon produced 112,749 ounces of gold. The current independent mineral resource estimate for Jerritt Canyon (2018) is 1.97 Moz gold (at 6.37g/t).

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As part of its public release announcing the acquisition, First Majestic stated that it has "identified several opportunities to enhance both the cost and production profile of Jerritt Canyon".

In coming weeks Anova expects to announce its substantial planned exploration programs for 2021. These activities are targeted at resource growth via aggressive testing of extensions to existing resources as well as exploring of high-priority new exploration targets worked up through the 2020 field season.

First Majestic's public release is attached to this announcement.

Figure 1: Location of Big Springs Project, Nevada, US.

This announcement has been authorised for release by: Mingyan Wang, Managing Director

CONTACT:

Investors	Media
[phone]	Michael Vaughan (Fivemark Partners)
[e-mail]	[phone]
Anova Metals Limited	Level 3, 3-5 Bennett Street, East Perth WA 6004
ABN 20 147 678 779	P [phone] [e-mail]

Wanovametals.com.au

About First Majestic

For personal use only

First Majestic is a publicly traded mining company focused on silver production in Mexico and is aggressively pursuing the development of its existing mineral property assets. First Majestic presently owns and operates the San Dimas Silver/Gold mine, the Santa Elena Silver/Gold mine and the La Encantada Silver mine. Production from these mines is projected to be between 12.5 to 13.9 million silver ounces, or 20.6 to 22.9 million silver equivalent ounces in 2021.

Table 1: Mineral Resources

Measured

Indicated

Inferred

CombinedProject

kTGradeKoz

kTGradeKoz

kTGradeKoz

kTGradeKoz

Big Springs (JORC 2012)

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North Sammy

7.0

77.9

North Sammy Contact South Sammy Beadles Creek Mac Ridge Dorsey Creek Briens Fault

295

615 443

3.1 2.3

62.2 32.4

498 864

2.8 1.4

44.1 39.3

1,458 1,307

3.9 1.7

184.1 71.8

4.0

38.2

3,586 119

2.1 2.2

239.9

3,721

1.3

159

7,602

1.8

437.2

8.2

2,583

2.3

193.5

201.7

1,887

1.3

81.1

278

1.4

12.9

278

81.1

1.4

12.9

799

1.6

40.5

40.5

Big Springs Sub-Total

641

5.6

116.1

4,762

2.2

343.3

10,630

1.7

570.4

16,032

2.0

1,029.9

Note: Appropriate rounding applied

1. The information in this announcement that relates to the mineral resources for the Company's Big Springs Project was first reported by the Company in its resource announcement ("Resource Announcement") dated 26 June 2014. The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in the Resource Announcement, and in the case of estimates of Mineral Resources, that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimates in the Resource Announcement continue to apply and have not materially changed.

Competent Person Statement

The information in this report that relates to Exploration Result for the Big Springs Project is based on information compiled by Dr. Geoffrey Xue. Dr. Xue is a full time employee of Anova and a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and has sufficient experience of relevance to the styles of mineralisation and types of deposits under consideration, and to the activities undertaken to qualify as Competent Persons as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. Dr. Xue consents to the inclusion in this report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which they appear.

The information in this report that relates to Mineral Resources for the Big Springs Project is based on information compiled by Mr Lauritz Barnes, Principal Consultant Geologist - Trepanier Pty Ltd. Mr Barnes is a shareholder of Anova. Mr Barnes is a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and has sufficient experience of relevance to the styles of mineralisation and types of deposits under consideration, and to the activities undertaken to qualify as Competent Persons as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. Mr Barnes consents to the inclusion in this report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which they appear.

Anova Metals Limited ABN 20 147 678 779

Level 3, 3-5 Bennett Street, East Perth WA 6004

4

P [phone] [e-mail] Wanovametals.com.au