Sunstone Metals Ltd. announced extremely promising assays from drilling at the large T2 geophysical anomaly at its El Palmar porphyry gold-copper discovery in northern Ecuador. The assays contain gold grades of up to 2m at 3.2g/t from 72m, and 13.5m at 1.1g/t from 97.5m, from the edge of the anomaly, which is 1km long x 450m wide. Furthermore, the anomaly is bound by the regionally-significant Toachi Fault zone and associated orthogonal structures ­ a scenario strongly similar to the 3 billion-tonne SolGold Alpala copper-gold porphyry deposit, within the Cascabel project, located 65km to the north-east.

Recent preliminary age dating has confirmed that the mineralised gold-copper porphyry at Sunstone's El Palmar project is the same geological age as Alpala. T2 drilling results: Target T2, located east of the El Palmar T1 porphyry system is developing as a very compelling large porphyry gold-copper target based on several independent datasets. Three drill holes have been completed and further drilling to test the target is planned to commence in late March.

Surface rock chip sampling defined an area of at least 220m x 50m averaging 0.4g/t gold and 0.1% copper in a strong porphyry stockwork underlying a silica-clay altered cap. The rock chip samples were consistently mineralised and included six samples which returned assays of greater than 1 g/t gold, which is encouragingly very high for porphyry systems. The geological interpretation is that this outcrop is part of the upper zones of a large porphyry system. Soil sampling at T2 defined a significant and coherent gold-copper-molybdenum anomaly coincident with an extensive alteration cap.

Geophysical surveying defined a conductive body coincident with the surface metal anomalism and recent drilling results. This conductive body plunges, expands and intensifies southward for a further 800m where it abuts the regional Toachi Fault zone. The structural scenario at T2 is very significant and can be compared to the nearby Alpala copper-gold porphyry deposit at the SolGold Cascabel Project.

Geological age dating from samples from El Palmar T1 have returned preliminary results that indicate these systems have a similar geological age as Alpala. The recent drilling results reinforce the concept of an upper-level porphyry/epithermal system with significant gold mineralisation grading down to a copper-gold system with porphyry B veins in the lower parts of EPDD024. Additional porphyry targets for testing at El Palmar: Drill hole EPDD021 was drilled into the T1 target.

It intersected 866.6m at 0.26g/t gold and 0.1% copper from surface, including 24m at 0.39g/t gold and 0.19% copper from 45.5m, and 11.25m at 0.81g/t gold and 0.2% copper from 501m. This result confirms the significant vertical extent of mineralisation at T1 which requires follow-up drilling. 3-D geological modelling is being undertaken at T1 based on the 21 drill holes completed to date and follow- up drilling will be planned to target mineralisation in the down plunge extent.

One hole has been completed into target T5 (EPDD025, with assay results expected in late March). One hole is planned to be drilled into porphyry target T4 in Second Quarter 2023. Tituana Epithermal Gold Targets preliminary results: Several epithermal gold targets have also been defined within the El Palmar concession, with the highest priority being the Tituana target.

Three drill holes have now been completed and assay results are expected in late March. Holes 1 and 3 have intersected an epithermal system with mineralisation. The Tituana target is located on a NNE-trending structure, which may link to the south to the main El Palmar porphyry system ­ a common scenario in porphyry and epithermal systems. The target exhibits coincident zinc and arsenic anomalies in soil sampling.

Trenching has returned results of up to 6.7g/t gold. Rock chip sampling has yielded a >85m-long (and open) zone from which 101 surface samples averaged 1.2 g/t Au, 25 g/t Ag and 0.16% Cu, with peak values for these elements being 6.47 g/t Au, 225g/t Ag and 0.78% Cu.