Monarch Continues to Define High-Grade Gold Mineralization at Depth at the Beaufor Mine, With 52.19 g/t Au Over 2.1 m (6.9 ft), 44.9 g/t Au Over 1.4 m (4.6 ft), 16.97 g/t Au Over 3.6 m (11.8 ft) and 57.0 g/t Au Over 0.8 m (2.6 ft)

• Monarch has received additional assays from its 2021 underground drilling program, which include high-grade intersections of 52.19 g/t Au over 2.1 m, 44.9 g/t Au over 1.4 m, 16.97 g/t Au over 3.6 m and 57.0 g/t Au over 0.8 m.
• The underground drilling program included 3,656 metres of drilling in 34 holes for which assays were still pending. The 2021 program totalled 21,791 metres of drilling in 169 holes.
• Recent drill results have enabled the geology team to continue defining resources and to identify favourable extensions of known ore zones. Strategic positioning of the diamond drill rigs has also resulted in the identification of additional mineralized zones, adding upside to the Beaufor Mine deposit. The newer zones are 80 m deeper than the current underground workings, with the mineralization remaining open at depth.
• Exploration and definition drilling is ongoing, with five drills underground.
• Monarch continues to prepare for a resumption of underground mining at Beaufor in 2022, currently developing three stopes and raises in the Q Zone and carrying out underground development and rehabilitation in the W and 350 zones.
  

MONTREAL, Feb. 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MONARCH MINING CORPORATION (“Monarch” or the “Corporation”) (TSX: GBAR) (OTCQX: GBARF) is pleased to report additional results from its 2021 underground 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 intersections, including 52.19 g/t Au over 2.1 m, 44.9 g/t Au over 1.4 m, 16.97 g/t Au over 3.6 m, 57.0 g/t Au over 0.8 m, 9.52 g/t Au over 3.6 m, 20.67 g/t Au over 1.5 m and 59.0 g/t Au over 0.5 m. Much of the underground drilling was aimed at expanding known ore zones, defining several of the zones with a focus on production and testing new areas with potential to add upside to the Beaufor deposit. An overwhelming majority of these favourable results are within 100 metres of the current workings.

The Beaufor Mine 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, 263 holes totalling 44,039 metres have been completed during the exploration and definition program. Given the positive results, additional holes are being drilled to allow the zones in question to be converted into reserves and included in a future mine plan. Monarch is continuing its exploration definition drilling, with five underground drill rigs.

Underground development and rehabilitation are ongoing in the W and 350 zones, which are easily accessible from the surface ramp located 350 metres from the main Beaufor shaft. The surface ramp providing access to the W and 350 zones presently extends to a vertical depth of 180 metres below surface.

BBA Inc. finalized the mineral resource estimate (“MRE”) for the Beaufor Mine in August 2021. An additional 26,243 metres of drilling in 110 drill holes has been completed since.

“Beaufor continues to show strong exploration potential at depth, as we continue to encounter high-grade gold mineralization in various parts of the mine,” said Jean-Marc Lacoste, President and Chief Executive Officer of Monarch. “With five drills currently at work, we look forward to releasing additional drilling results as they become available and returning the mine to producing status later in 2022.”

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 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 750 tpd Beacon Mill. Monarch owns 29,000 hectares (290 km²) of mining assets in the prolific Abitibi mining camp that host a combined measured and indicated gold resource of 478,982 ounces and a combined inferred resource of 383,393 ounces.

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.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

 www.monarchmining.com

Table 2: Beaufor Mine significant assay results (underground drilling)

*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 locations

Table 4: Monarch combined gold resources

¹ Source: Monarch Gold prefeasibility study (January 19, 2018). This resource was completed for Monarch Gold and has not been reviewed by a qualified person for Monarch Mining as required under National Instrument 43-101 and is thus considered as an historical estimate. Furthermore, a qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves; and therefore, Monarch is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves.
² Numbers may not add due to rounding.