Multi-Metal Development Ltd. announced that it has completed the stage 2 ore-sorting analysis of the drill core at its CuMo project. The work completed involved the detailed visual analysis of all holes (37) drilled by the Company into the mineralized zone and is in addition to the stage 1 Ore-Sorting analysis reported in news release date June 2, 2017. The Cumo Deposit is a vein stockwork deposit with the vast majority of the contained metals (Mo, Cu, Ag, Re and W) occurring within very thin veins and veinlets, irregularly spread throughout the deposit.

This means that the largest part of potentially mined material will be waste, and a smaller portion will be mill feed. The Company intends to utilize and optimize industry-proven ore-sorting technology, which is designed to remove a large percentage of the waste before it enters a mill for further processing. Since a large part of the waste is being removed, ore sorting also substantially improves the grade of the material being fed to a mill.

Importantly, the elimination and removal of significant percentages of waste material prior to processing provides the ability to utilize a smaller mill or concentrator than would be needed without ore sorting, which further translates into potentially material savings in capital and operating expenditures. Stage 1 ore sorting tests successfully established that X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) can be used to identify the grade of mined material and thereby eliminate and divert away from the mill significant portions of waste material. The current work completed involves the detail visual analysis to determine the percentage of the material in the drill holes that contains the actual metals, expanding on the stage 1 testing.

A total of 62,319 feet of core in 37 drill holes were separated into one of three geologic zones previously identified and examined based on the 50-foot bench composites used to calculate the current resources. Each 50-foot composite was broken down into 3-inch sections (75 mm). Visually, it was determined, if the individual piece contained any metal bearing veins/veinlets, the number and thus the total length of metal bearing material was determined.

The results of the analysis show that overall, approximately 16% of the identified resource contains the largest part of the metals in the deposit. In the table below the mill feed feet represents the total footage of metal containing material identified. The results are extremely encouraging as they clearly show that by separating the metal bearing veins from the host rock, a large portion of waste can be eliminated immediately after mining, and the head grade of the metals in the material being fed to the mill will be substantially higher than the grade found in the resource.

The Preliminary Economic Analysis (PEA) completed in June 2020 by SRK, based on 10-foot sample intervals, assumed that ore sorting would remove 28% of the mined material as waste, meaning that 72% of mined material would pass through to the mill. The visual analysis indicates that with optimized ore sorting, a substantial improvement can be possibly achieved, where theoretically up to 84% of the mined material could be removed prior to mill processing. Overall, the results are as follows: From 0.058% MoS2, visual sorting indicates a mill feed grade between 0.379% and 0.480%; From 0.08% Cu visual sorting indicates a mill feed grade between 0.86% and 1.09%; From 2.3 g/t Ag, visual sorting indicates a mill feed grade between 26.2 g/t % and 33.1 g/t; From 0.071 MoS2 Equivalent, visual sorting indicates a mill feed grade between 0.444 % and 0.562%; From 0.354% Cu Equivalent, visual sorting indicates a mill feed grade between 2.42 % and 2.80%.

In addition to the grade effect due to the reduction in volume, the corresponding mill size can be much smaller. The SRK PEA identified a mill of 150,000 tons per day. The Company believes that a mill designed at 30,000 to 45,000 tons per day, using the enhanced mill feed grade, could produce similar amounts of metals as projected by SRK.

This could also lead to a significant reduction in capital and overall operating costs. The targets and the potential grade enhancements are conceptual in nature as there has been insufficient work done to confirm the target values as defined by NI 43-101 and it is uncertain that further work would result in establishing these targets. The Company, subject to financing and other conditions, intends to proceed with stage 3 ore sorting analysis which will involve testing using existing scanners and additional technology, at various scales from bulk sorting to particle sorting in order to determine the most optimum scanning techniques that can produce results similar to the visual sorting.

The visual results will be used to confirm that the machines are performing optimally.