Zacapa Resources Ltd. has completed all permitting requirements related to the inaugural South Bullfrog drill program in Beatty, Nevada. Drilling is anticipated to commence next month, with 3,000 metres planned to test top ranked epithermal gold exploration targets at the Shingleback and Longtail prospects. Zacapa has received approval from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for its Notice of Intent for proposed drilling activities at the Longtail prospect, which together with previously reported Shingleback permit (January 17, 2023) completes the permitting activities for the inaugural 3,000 metre drill program at South Bullfrog.

The approved drill program at South Bullfrog includes four drill pad locations at Shingleback and three drill pad locations at Longtail. The total number of drill holes and metres drilled from each pad will be based on results and can be increased pending success. Epithermal Gold Deposits and the Beatty District: The Shingleback and Longtail prospects are located in the northern third of the South Bullfrog project, north of Beatty Nevada.

These two prospects were discovered through diligent mapping and sampling programs, combined with remote sensing, geophysics, and geochemical surveys. Zacapa's claims in this area are bordered to the west, north, and east by AngloGold Ashanti, which is activity advancing its North Bullfrog and Silicon development projects, while also exploring its Merlin discovery. The upcoming South Bullfrog drill program will test below what is interpreted as the shallow expression of alteration in a low-sulfidation epithermal system.

In these types of systems, hot metal-bearing water migrates up faults and fractures in a hot spring type setting, similar to modern day Yellowstone. As the metalliferous water ascends, the pressure decreases and it begins to boil, which causes metals such as gold and silver to drop out of solution forming gold-bearing quartz-carbonate veins. In some areas, rocks with high permeability will also allow the metalliferous water to migrate laterally away from the fault, forming larger disseminated deposits, often containing disseminated pyrite.

The Beatty District displays both styles of mineralization, sometimes within the same deposit (e.g. Silicon). Often, when the hot spring system is fully preserved, as it is at Silicon, the upper "steam-heated" alteration zones contain little if any gold or precious metals13,16. Instead, they are dominated by extensive silicification with alunite and kaolinite alteration, containing elevated concentrations of mercury and lesser antimony and arsenic.

Longtail Drill Program: At Longtail a 40-metre-wide window through alluvial cover reveals strongly silicified, alunite-kaolinite altered, volcanic rocks with strongly elevated mercury along with traces of arsenic, antimony, and gold. This target sits adjacent to the inferred margin of the Oasis Valley Caldera, and the coincidence of the mercury anomaly with a large magnetic low suggest that there could potentially be a large zone of alteration, up to 1 km strike length, where the steam-heated alteration has destroyed magnetite in the rocks to create the observed magnetic low. Drilling at Longtail will test several interpreted structures as well as the extent of the alteration, with the goal of drilling into the controlling structure at depth where gold mineralization would be expected to occur.

Three pad locations have been permitted at Longtail to target interpreted sources of shallow alunite-kaolinite-opaline silica "steam-heated" alteration observed in outcrop at depth where gold deposition is likely to have occurred. Zacapa anticipates three to five drill holes 200-400 metres deep, with the option to increase pending success. Shingleback Drill Program: At Shingleback, more extensive erosion has removed the upper steam-heated alteration zone and silicified blanket, revealing clay alteration and local silicification on several prospective fault zones.

Two of these fault zones, the Basalt fault and Twin Shafts fault, trend into an IP-resistivity high discovered during Zacapa's geophysical survey (April 27, 2022), which is interpreted as the strongly silicified boiling zone at depth. At surface the north-south trending Twin Shafts fault displays a clay altered and iron-oxide stained fault zone with weakly anomalous trace metals. The northeast-southwest trending Basalt fault parallels a larger regional structural trend and displays locally intense silicification with elevated trace metals.

Individually, each of these faults are prospective as former pathways for mineralizing fluids. However, at Shingleback, the projection of the two faults meet under younger alluvial cover very near the IP-resistivity high identified by Zacapa. East of the resistivity high is a zone of elevated chargeability, which could indicate a disseminated pyrite halo beyond the silicified zone.

At the Silicon deposit, pyrite is associated with the illite alteration halo adjacent to the deeper portions of the mineralized zone (Bartos et al., 2022). Initial drilling will test this fault intersection in the vicinity of the IP-resistivity high with the expectation that this fault intersection was an area of concentrated fluid flow that is highly prospective for gold mineralization. Four pad locations have been permitted at Shingleback to test the Twin Shafts fault, Basalt fault, and the IP-resistivity+chargeability highs near their intersection.

Zacapa expects to drill 5-7 holes, 200-400 metres deep with the option to increase pending success.