Emerita Resources 2022 Year-In-Review: Successful Major Drill Campaign Expands Deposits In Advance Of Initial NI 43-101 Resource Estimate, Permitting Process Commenced, and Strengthening Management Team
36 Lombard Street West, Floor 4, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5C 2X3
Emerita Resources 2022 Year-In-Review: Successful Major Drill Campaign
Expands Deposits In Advance Of Initial NI 43-101 Resource Estimate,
Permitting Process Commenced, and Strengthening Management Team
TORONTO, ONTARIO, JANUARY 17, 2023 – Emerita Resources Corp. (TSX – V: EMO; OTCQB: EMOTF;
FSE: LLJA) (the “Company” or “Emerita”) is pleased to provide the following summary of the
Company’s progress in 2022 and lay out priorities and objectives for 2023. Emerita has been running
an accelerated diamond drill campaign on its wholly owned Iberia Belt West Project (“IBW” or the
“Project”) since June 2022 when it received permits to drill the large La Romanera deposit.
David Gower, P.Geo., CEO of Emerita remarks, “2022 was a very busy and productive year for the
Company and our team made excellent progress in adva ncing the IBW project towards a potential
production decision. 2023 will see the culmination of that effort with completion of the initial NI 43-
101 mineral resource estimate, metallurgical testing and commencement of economic and
engineering studies. The Company is in a solid financial position to complete the planned work
programs.”
The Company is also strengthening its management team with the addition of Mr . Ian Parkinson as
Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Capital Markets. Ian brings a wealth of mining
and capital markets industry experience to the Emerita team. He has spent the past 16 years as a sell-
side mining analyst for several leading brokerage firms on Bay Street including Stifel GMP, GMP
Securities and CIBC World Markets. He has a bachelor’s degree in Earth Science from Laurentian
University followed by a decade of geology and business development experience with Falconbridge
and Noranda, which formed the foundation for his work as a mining analyst. He built on his geology
base with experience in metals trading, metal marketing and business development at the corporate
level. Mr. Parkinson will greatly improve Emerita’s outreach to shareholders and potential strategic
investors.
Diamond Drill Program
The Company has completed a total of 184 diamond drill holes on the IBW project as of the end of
2022 - 78 drill holes at the Infanta deposit and 106 at the Romanera deposit. Most of the drilling was
completed after June 2022, when the number of drills on the P roject were increased to 15 with 14
rigs in total at the Romanera deposit. Drilling at that pace is expected to continue for approximately
one more month which will add approximately 50 additional intercepts at which time the database
will be locked to commence estim ation of the initial NI 43 -101 mineral resource estimate for both
deposits. The Company expects to have most of the remaining assays required for the mineral
resource estimate by early March. Work on the technical report including site visit, database and
QA/QC process validation has already commenced and the final report is expected early in Q2 2023.
Both deposits are expected to be open for future expansion at depth and along strike at that time.
Initial proposals for completing the metallurgical testing have also been received and this work is
expected to proceed concurrently with the resource estimation work and be completed in mid-2023.
36 Lombard Street West, Floor 4, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5C 2X3
The drilled footprint of the Romanera deposit has been increased to approximately 650 meters along
strike and at depth to approximately 450 meters (previously 450 meters east west and 400 meters
depth). In addition, assays to date indicate significantly higher precious metals, particularly go ld,
relative to the historical estimates for Romanera, which is expected to result in increased tonnage.
Mineralization at the Infanta deposit has been traced over a strike length of approximately 2
kilometers, and to a depth of 400 meters (previously 600 meters to a depth of 120 meters). Infanta
also remains open along strike and down dip. Portions of La Infanta are very high grade. La Romanera
is the thicker deposit of the two and contains significantly more tonnes. The third historical deposit
on the Project, El Cura, located between La Romanera and La Infanta is expected to be drill tested in
2023, along with further drilling to continue to expand the resources at La Romanera and La Infanta.
Permits and landowner agreements are already in place for the El Cura drilling.
Joaquin Merino, P.Geo., President of Emerita remarks, “We eagerly anticipate the completion of the
initial resource estimate. We have signed a contract with Wardell Armstrong LLP, a highly
experienced, international firm to complete the independent mineral resource estimate. In addition
to the drilling, we have been following up on the geophysical survey by conducting detailed structural
mapping. This has revealed there are historical workings, some dating back to Roman times, that
extend the potential to the west as far as the western property boundary.”
Permitting
Emerita is moving forward with the permitting process at IBW with the objective of converting the
existing Exploration License to an Exploitation License. In support of this, environmental baseline
studies commenced in April 2022 and will be completed in April 2023. Flora and fauna studies are
ongoing and the Heritage evaluation study for the site has been completed. The archaeological study
was completed in 2022.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Emerita strives to meet the highest standards for Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) in its
operations. Presently, the Company has 45 employees in Spain, including 12 professionals balance d
between technicians and local employees, many of whom have been trained by Emerita for their
positions. The Company also employs an additional 160 contractors , primarily diamond drillers. The
Company adheres to strict employment standards and hire s locally where possible. Two of the drill
rigs are operated by all-female crews. Dedicated safety training is completed by all staff.
The Company has a progressive reclamation policy such that drill sites are reclaimed and restored as
soon as work is completed. In addi tion, the team installed a large centrifugal unit to reduce water
consumption and to reduce the volume of drill muds for disposal. To date, the Company has had zero
environmental incidents.
The Company operates transparently within the communities and has ongoing dialogue with the
mayors of Paymogo and Puebl a de Guzman as well as regulatory officials. Within the communities ,
Emerita supports various social engagement initiatives including sponsoring two football teams and
the local cycling team. Regarding Culture and Heritage , the Company supports the studies of the
Puebla de Guzman castle fortifications. The Company is also proceeding with tree planting and
36 Lombard Street West, Floor 4, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5C 2X3
initiating a Natural Resources classroom program for the community. Emerita has hosted
undergraduate geological students from several universities to provide training in geology, geological
modeling, drilling techniques and QA/QC procedures.
Nuevo Tintillo Project
The Nuevo Tintillo project is a large property located approximately 75 kilometers to the east of IBW.
It covers approximately 23 k ilometers of stratigraphy between the Aznalcollar deposits and the
famous Rio Tinto mine. In 2022, the Company completed an Airborne Electromagnetic (AEM) survey
over this large property. Airborne follow up to date has focused on the west side of the p roperty in
the area surrounding the historical Santa Flora and Nazaret Mines (Nazaret produced 6% copper
according to archival reports). Detailed mapping of the geology indicates similar stratigraphy to the
Rio Tinto mine approximately 7 kilometers west. Numerous high priority conductors were identified
by the AEM survey, and these are being covered by detailed gravity surveys to further prioritize
targets in advance of drilling in 2023.
Aznalcollar Legal Cases
In 2022, progress was made on the resolution of the Aznalcollar legal case s. Two key resolutions
occurred. In May 2022, the Administrative Superior Court of Andalusia resolved that it concurred that
the findings of the Criminal trial were sub stantially similar with the findings of the Administrative
court. It reversed its previous decision to proceed ahead of the Criminal Courts ruling and as is the
normal process in Spain determined it would withhold judgement un til the Criminal trial has
concluded. Five superior court judges of the Criminal courts have unanimously concluded that there
exist strong indications of crimes committed in the awarding of the Aznalcollar Public Tender. The
second resolution was that the court date for the criminal trial was set for July 2025 (please see the
Company’s November 25, 2022 press release for further details).
Quality Assurance/Quality Control
Drilling at La Romanera is HQ size and core is placed into core trays at the drill site and transported
directly from the site to Emerita’s coreshack (15 Km) from La Romanera and (8 Km) from La Infanta.
Once the cores are received at Emerita's coreshack they are photographed and geotechnical logging
is performed. Geological, mineralogical and structural logging follows and mineralized zones are
identified. The samples are marked every 1m or less, and respecting lithological contacts, with most
of the samples 1.0m long. The zone immediately above and below the mineralized zones are also
sampled. Core samples are sawed in half and half of the core is returned to the core tray for future
reference. Once the core samples are cut, bagged and tagged, they are shipped to the ALS laboratory
in Seville by Emerita personnel where sample preparation is done. In Seville, ALS performs the
mechanical preparation of the samples and then the pulps are sent to ALS Ireland (ICP) and ALS
Romania (fire assay). The analysis at ALS Lab c orresponds to the ME-ICPore (19 elements) package,
together with the Au-AA23 fire assay (Gold).
10% of the analyzed samples correspond to control samples (fine blanks, coarse blanks, high, medium
and low grade standards). In addition, 10% of pulps are reanalyzed at a second independent certified
36 Lombard Street West, Floor 4, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5C 2X3
laboratory (AGQ Lab Sevilla). When the analysis is completed, the certificates are received from the
laboratory and the QA/QC protocol identifies any deviation or anomaly in the results and the entire
batch is reassayed in such case. Once the data is approved by the QA/QC protocol assays are entered
digitally directly into the database.
Qualified Person
The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mr.
Joaquin Merino, P.Geo, President of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 of
the Canadian Securities Administrators.
About Emerita Resources Corp.
Emerita is a natural resource company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of
mineral properties in Europe, with a primary focus on exploring in Spain. The Company’s corporate
office and technical team are based in Sevilla, Spain with an administrative office in Toronto, Canada.
For further information, contact:
Vincent Chen
+1 778 990 9433 (Toronto)
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Information
This press release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian
securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, the mineralization of
the IBW Project and Nuevo Tintillo, the Company’s mineral exploration activities; the Aznalcollar legal
proceedings and the timing and results thereof; the impact of managerial appointments; the timing
of assay results; the prospectivity of the Project and Nuevo Tintillo; the Company’s ability to obtain
all requisite permits and governmental approvals; the timing and ability of the Company to produce
an NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate; the economic viability of the Project; the impact
of the Company’s CSR activities; and the Company’s future plans. Generally, forward -looking
information can be identified by the use of forward- looking terminology such as “plans”, “expects”
or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”,
“anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, or “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases or state
that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will be taken”, “occur” or
“be achieved”. Forward - looking information is subject to known and unknown ris ks, uncertainties
and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements
of Emerita, as the case may be, to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such
forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic, competitive,
geopolitical and social uncertainties; the actual results of current exploration activities; risks
associated with operation in foreign jurisdictions; ability to successfully integrate the purcha sed
properties; foreign operations risks; and other risks inherent in the mining industry. Although Emerita
has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from
36 Lombard Street West, Floor 4, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5C 2X3
those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to
be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove
to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated i n
such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward- looking
information. Emerita does not undertake to update any forward- looking information, except in
accordance with applicable securities laws.
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ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.