Monarch Confirms the Continuity of High-Grade Zones at Depth on its Beaufor Property, Intersecting 56.91 g/t Over 0.7 m (2.30 ft), 21.6 g/t Over 1.8 m (5.85 ft) and 24.5 g/t Over 0.5 m (1.64 ft)

• Near-mine underground exploration and definition drilling continues to yield multiple high-grade gold intersections.
• Drilling from the exploration drift at the lowest level of the mine confirmed the continuity at depth of previously mined zones, including 56.91 g/t Au over 0.7 m, 21.6 g/t Au over 1.8 m and 24.5 g/t Au over 0.5 m.
• In addition, definition drilling along the periphery of previously mined areas has extended the continuity of previously known economic zones: 106 g/t Au over 0.5 m, 64.0 g/t Au over 0.5 m, 11.6 g/t Au over 2.5 m, 9.5 g/t Au over 3.3 m and 14.5 g/t over 1.7 m.
• The 42,500-metre drilling program is ongoing, with four drills underground. To date, assay results have been received for a total of 206 holes (24,405 m), representing roughly 57% of the planned metres of drilling.
• Monarch continues to prepare for the restart of operations at the Beaufor Mine and Beacon Mill by June 2022.                

MONTREAL, Nov. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MONARCH MINING CORPORATION (“Monarch” or the “Corporation”) (TSX: GBAR) (OTCQX: GBARF) is pleased to announce additional results from its 2020‒2021 42,500-metre exploration diamond drilling program on its wholly-owned Beaufor Mine gold project, located 20 kilometres east of Val-d’Or, Québec. The results include several high-grade assays, including 106.0 g/t Au over 0.5 m, 32.6 g/t Au over 1.0 m and 56.91 g/t Au over 0.7 m, as Monarch continues to test for potential resources in proximity to the historical mine.

The Beaufor Mine initially began commercial production in the early 1930s and over the years has produced over 1.1 million ounces of gold. The mine is currently on care and maintenance, which has given Monarch an opportunity to drill-test targets throughout the mine area. In June 2020, the Corporation initiated a 42,500-metre diamond drilling program to test two types of targets: the areas around historical high-grade intersections near the existing underground infrastructure, and isolated resource blocks, which are typically defined by a single drill intersection. Both of these “near-mine” targets can often be tested from the existing underground workings, generally by holes less than 200 metres long. Currently, 275 holes are planned or are already being drilled at 25‑metre centres. If positive results are received, additional holes will be drilled to allow the zones in question to be converted into reserves and included in a future mine plan.

Assay results have been received for a total of 206 holes (24,405 m), representing roughly 57% of the planned metres of drilling. High-grade results previously reported from the program included 783 g/t Au over 0.2 m and 293 g/t Au over 0.5 m (see press release dated October 1, 2020), 35.87 g/t Au over 9.8 m (see press release dated January 19, 2021), 187 g/t Au over 0.5 m and 151.5 g/t Au over 0.5 m (see press release dated April 29, 2021), and 119.0 g/t Au over 0.5 m, 56.1 g/t Au over 0.8 m and 45.6 g/t Au over 0.75 m (see press release dated July 7, 2021).

Since the last reported results, the Corporation has drilled 36 additional underground exploration holes (4,308 m). The best results are shown in Table 2 below and holes BEU-21-30-051 and BEU-21-30-055 are shown in the attached figure. Several of the holes have multiple intersections due to the stacked nature of the mineralization. The intersection widths reported are core lengths and high-grade intersections have not been capped.

Figure 1: Assay results for the Q zone of the Beaufor property

Near-mine exploration drilling is ongoing, with four drill rigs underground. The focus remains high-grade composites that are open along strike and existing resource blocks that contain sufficient room for expansion. The Corporation is also pleased to announce that drilling from the exploration drift at the lowest level of the mine has confirmed the continuity at depth of previously mined zones. Drilling in this area will continue to identify additional mineral resources.

The BBA Inc. mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the Beaufor Mine was completed in August 2021. This new resource estimate incorporates much of the current 2020-2021 drilling program and represents the first resource estimate completed using a 3D block model for the Beaufor Mine.

“The results of this phase of drilling at depth have confirmed the continuity of the Q gold zone at depth, as well as new intervals in the S gold zone, located approximately 100 metres below the Q zone,” said Jean-Marc Lacoste, President and Chief Executive Officer of Monarch. “Although preliminary, this drilling appears to demonstrate that the Beaufor Mine remains open at depth and continues to have excellent discovery potential, hence the possibility of increasing the mine's resources.”

Sampling consists of sawing the drill core into equal halves along its main axis and shipping one of the halves to ALS Canada in Val-d’Or, Quebec, and AGAT Laboratories in Mississauga, Ontario, for assaying. The samples are crushed, pulverized and assayed by fire assay, with atomic absorption finish. Samples exceeding 10.0 g/t Au are re-assayed using the gravity method and samples containing visible gold are assayed using the metallic screen method. Monarch uses a comprehensive QA/QC protocol, including the insertion of standards, blanks and duplicates.

The technical and scientific content of this press release has been reviewed and approved by Christian Tessier, P.Geo., the Corporation’s qualified person under National Instrument 43-101.

About Beaufor
The Beaufor Mine is located within the Bourlamaque Batholith at the eastern contact with the Dubuisson Formation. The Bourlamaque Batholith, a synvolcanic intrusion, is a major geological feature of the Val-d’Or mining camp. It is a quartziferous granodiorite cut by fine-grained diorite dykes. Gold mineralization occurs in veins associated with shear zones dipping moderately south. Mineralization is associated with quartz-tourmaline-pyrite veins resulting from the filling of shear and extension fractures. Gold-bearing veins show a close association with mafic dykes intruding the granodiorite. A National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate for the Beaufor Mine property was prepared for Monarch Mining in August 2021 by Charlotte Athurion, P. Geo, BBA Inc. The mineral resource estimate is listed in the table below.

Table 1: 2021 mineral resource estimate for the Beaufor Mine

Mineral resource estimate notes:

1. The independent qualified person for the 2021 MRE, as defined by National Instrument (“NI”) 43-101 guidelines, is Charlotte Athurion, P.Geo., of BBA Inc. The effective date of this MRE is July 23, 2021.
2. These mineral resources are not mineral reserves as they do not have demonstrated economic viability.
3. The mineral resource estimate follows CIM definitions (2014) for mineral resources.
4. Results are presented diluted and considered to have reasonable prospects for economic extraction. Isolated and discontinuous blocks above the stated cut-off grades are excluded from the mineral resource estimate. Must-take material, i.e. isolated blocks below cut-off grade located within a potentially mineable volume, was included in the mineral resource statement.
5. The resources include 166 mineralized zones with a minimum true thickness of 2.4 m using the grade of the adjacent material when assayed or a value of 0.00025 when not assayed. High-grade capping varies from 20 to 65 g/t Au (when required) and was applied to composited assay grades for interpolation using an Ordinary Kriging interpolation method (ID2 for 96_01, 96_02, 20 zones, 21_01, 140, 367 and 350 zones) based on 1.5 m composite and block size of 5 m x 5 m x 5 m, with bulk density values of 2.75 (g/cm³). A second capping was applied for the second and third passes in order to restrict high-grade impact at greater distance.
6. Inferred Mineral Resources were defined for blocks within the units that have been informed by a minimum of two drillholes within 50 m of a drillhole (100 m of drill spacing); Indicated Mineral Resources were defined for blocks within the units that have been informed by a minimum of three drillholes within 12.5 m of a drillhole (25 m of drill spacing); Measured Mineral Resources were defined for blocks within the units that have been informed by a minimum of three drillholes within 5 m of a drillholes (10 m of drill spacing) or 3 m around voids. Measured Mineral Resources were only defined for zones with a good reliability of the geological continuity or supported by underground workings.
7. The estimate is reported for potential underground scenario at cut-off grades of 2.8 g/t Au (>=45 degree dip) and 3.2 g/t Au (<45 degree dip). The cut-off grades were calculated using a gold price of US$1,550 per ounce, a USD:CAD exchange rate of 1.32 (resulting in C$1,914 per ounce gold price); mining cost C$125/t (>=45 degree dip); C$150/t (<45 degree dip); processing cost C$35/t; G&A C$16/t; metallurgical recovery of 97%; royalties of US$37.52 per ounce; and refining and transport cost of US$1.50 per ounce.
8. The number of metric tonnes and ounces were rounded to the nearest hundred and the metal contents are presented in troy ounces (tonne x grade/31.10348). Rounding may result in apparent summation differences between tonnes, grades and contained metals content.
9. BBA Inc. is not aware of any known environmental, permitting, legal, title-related, taxation, socio-political or marketing issues, or any other relevant issues not reported in this Report that could materially affect the mineral resource estimate.

About Monarch
Monarch Mining Corporation (TSX: GBAR) (OTCQX: GBARF) is a fully integrated mining company that owns four projects, including the past-producing Beaufor Mine, which has produced more than 1 million ounces of gold over the last 30 years. Other assets include the Croinor Gold, McKenzie Break and Swanson properties, all located near Monarch’s wholly owned Beacon 750 tpd mill. Monarch owns 28,702 hectares (287 km²) of mining assets in the prolific Abitibi mining camp that host 478,982 ounces of combined measured and indicated gold resources and 383,393 ounces of combined inferred resources.

Forward-Looking Statements
The forward-looking statements in this press release involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Monarch’s actual results, performance and achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied therein. Neither TSX nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

Table 2: Beaufor Mine significant assay results

*The width shown is the core length. The true width is taken into account in the mineral resource estimate.

Table 3: Beaufor Mine drill hole location

Table 4: Monarch combined gold resources