Matador Mining Limited announced the commencement of drilling at the Malachite prospect located along the Company's Cape Ray tenements in southwestern Newfoundland. Drilling follows a summer field program where exploration activities defined several structurally controlled targets. The Canadian summer program included comprehensive prospecting, mapping and sampling based off the Company's previous geophysical and geochemical results that revealed several high tenor gold anomalies, a major bend in the Cape Ray Shear Zone ("CRSZ"), and a series of second- and third-order structures, features that are all conducive for discoveries.

The Canadian autumn drill program is helicopter-supported and designed to deliver 3,000 metres of diamond drilling across three distinct target areas at Malachite. The MAL01 target, approximately three kilometres north of the CRSZ, is the site of the best gold grain sample collected across the Malachite survey area (1,201 grains, equivalent to 1.93 g/t gold with 97% pristine grains)1. In total, there are nine highly anomalous gold grain samples (>10 grains) in the immediate drill target area which is also coincident with a major east-north-east trending structure identified in the detailed magnetics but buried under shallow till cover, and a 1,400 x 600 metre arsenic geochemical anomaly that is open to the west. The MAL02 target is just south of the CRSZ and is highlighted by a cluster of 11 anomalous gold grain samples (>10 grains), with the peak sample containing 336 gold grains (1.92 g/t gold)2. The drill target is also defined by the most coherent gold in till anomaly identified to-date in the Malachite area (>1,000 x 700 metres) with coincident arsenic, bismuth (+/- copper, molybdenum, zinc) pathfinder element anomalies.

The MAL03 target is located on the largest second order fault splay off the main bend in the CRSZ. The target area is at least 1,400 x 1,000 metres and is defined by coherent gold grain anomalism (>10 grains/sample) and the largest and strongest arsenic anomaly identified to date at Malachite2. The arsenic anomaly remains open to the south-west, and is coincident with copper, lead and antimony anomalism.

Arsenic is a key pathfinder for gold in the district and peak arsenic values at MAL03 are >400 ppm in an area where background arsenic values are <5 ppm.