Expanding Aston Bay’s large-scale high-grade copper portfolio

TORONTO, Ontario, April 24, 2024 - Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSX-V: BAY; OTCQB: ATBHF) (the “Company” or “Aston Bay”) is pleased to announce that on April 23, 2024, it entered into a definitive agreement (the “Agreement”) with Emerald Geological Services (“EGS”) pursuant to which it has been granted an option (the “Option”) to acquire an undivided 80% beneficial interest in a property owned by EGS in Nunavut, Canada (the “Property”) (see March 1, 2024 Aston Bay press release). In addition, the Company is excited to announce the appointment of Dr. Elizabeth Turner to the Company’s Technical Advisory Board.

Highlights

• Mineralization at Epworth is similar in style to the mineralization in deposits of the Central African Copper Belt and Aston Bay’s Storm Copper Project
   
• Over 74-kilometre (“km”) long trend of sediment-hosted style stratiform copper (“Cu”), silver (“Ag”), zinc (“Zn”) and cobalt (“Co”) mineralization
   
  • Chalcocite boulders at surface yield up to 61.2% Cu with 5600 grams per tonne (“g/t”) Ag in select rock grab samples from over 300 historic samples
     
  • Recent prospecting rock grab samples yielded up to 37.8% Cu, 27.4% Zn, 1100 g/t Ag, 3.0 g/t gold (“Au”) and 1700 ppm Co
     
• $3 million total expenditure over four years to acquire an 80% interest with no yearly minimums
   
• Airborne electromagnetic (“EM”) geophysical program planning is underway for late spring 2024
   
• Land Use Permit granted, mapping program planned for summer 2024, with late summer drill program contemplated
   
• Dr. Turner brings a wealth of experience in sediment-hosted copper deposits and the geology of northern Canada

Figure 2: Epworth Property claim block with select rock grab and lake sediment samples. From over 300 rock grab samples, 51 samples yielded over 1% Cu, 29 samples yielded over 30 g/t Ag and 15 samples yielded over 1% Zn.  Noted historical diamond drill intersections are from a total of 130 m of drilling in three diamond drill holes on the property.

Geology

The Epworth Project is part of a broad platform-type clastic carbonate sequence belonging to the early Proterozoic Coronation Supergroup that extends from the north shore of Takijuq Lake to the Coronation Gulf for over 130 km. Polymetallic sulphide mineralization occurs as disseminations in the matrix of coarse clastic quartzites or as concordant zones of cherty replacements within permeable dolomite. The mineralization assemblage, stratigraphy, diagenetic evolution and rift-related tectonic setting of the Coronation Supergroup compares favourably to the African Copperbelt that hosts large (>100mt) high-grade (3-4% Cu) sediment-hosted stratiform copper deposits.

History

The Epworth Project was explored by Noranda Mining and Exploration in the mid-1990’s, resulting in the discovery of new base metal showings. Prospecting, mapping, geophysics and sparse drilling (only 132m in the original claim block, <2000m total over the newly expanded claims) were conducted over four exploration seasons. The best intercepts yielded 10.4% Cu over 0.9m, 0.3% Cu over 8m, and 18.4% Cu with 302 g/t Ag over 0.3m in very shallow drilling in 1995-6. The Epworth Project has not been drilled since, and no modern geophysical surveys have been conducted.

Historical Work

Prospecting programs in the 2020’s have defined several trends in conjunction with historic work. Rock grab samples up to 38% Cu, 1100 g/t Ag, 3.0 g/t Au, 27% Zn, 17% lead along with 1700 ppm Co and other anomalous mineralization define the 2.8 km long “Metallic Trend.” From over 300 total historic rock grab samples, 51 samples yielded over 1% Cu, 29 samples yielded over 30 g/t Ag and 15 samples yielded over 1% Zn. Prospecting and soil sampling have yielded promising new trends and showings such as the new Northeast Showing discovered in 2023 yielding up to 19% Pb and 0.8% Cu in rock grab samples.