HIGHLIGHTS:

• Near-surface, high-grade, sulphide-rich gold and cobalt mineralisation confirmed
• Massive sulphides may represent a feeder zone from underlying porphyry source 
• Maximum grades returned of 53.8g/t Au (over 0.90m) and 2.82% Co (over 0.80m) 
• Best gold intercept: DSA-14: 19.6m @ 8.6g/t Au, including 15.3m @ 10.6g/t Au
• Best cobalt intercept: DSA-14: 3.65m @ 1.19% Co, including 1.5m @ 2.66% Co
• Geophysical exploration planned to track sulphide-rich, high-grade mineralisation

Azure Minerals Limited (ASX: AZS) (“Azure” or “the Company”) is pleased to advise that followup diamond drilling has intersected additional high-grade gold and cobalt mineralisation on its 100%-owned Sara Alicia project, located in Sonora State, Mexico.

The Stage 2 drilling campaign comprised 13 holes for 1126.90m (see Figures 1 to 3), designed to test for extensions to the high-grade gold and cobalt mineralisation identified by its 2017 maiden drilling program, which intersected up to 26.2m @ 9.5g/t Au and 1.26% Co (refer ASX announcements dated 27 November and 7 December 2017).

Some significant mineralised drill intersections from the current program include:

Hole DSA-14 unexpectedly drilled into a mining void, indicating the old mine workings may be more extensive than recorded in the historical data. DSA-14 intersected 19.6m @ 8.65g/t Au, which included a 1.90m mining void from 22.75m to 24.65m downhole. Drill core samples taken from immediately above and below the void returned high grade mineralisation of 19.95g/t Au & 0.907% Co and 19.0g/t Au & 1.065% Co respectively, suggesting that higher grade material may have been exploited by the historical miners.

The high-grade cobalt mineralisation is hosted within a shoot of massive and semi-massive sulphides that outcrops near the top of the Sara Alicia hill and plunges at a shallow angle towards the northwest. This sulphide-rich shoot also contains high grade gold mineralisation, while drilling has confirmed that gold is widespread in the rocks of the surrounding skarn system.

Historical mining within the upper 40m exploited some of the highest grade material but drilling and inspection of the mineralised system within the old mine workings indicate that the shoot continues at depth towards the northwest. Azure considers that this sulphide-rich mineralisation may represent a feeder zone sourced from the underlying porphyry that extends upwards into the overlying limestone, now skarn, horizon.

The massive and semi-massive sulphides forming the mineralised shoot provide the Company with the opportunity to explore for extensions of the gold and cobalt mineralisation by utilising geophysical techniques. Azure is planning an Induced Polarisation (IP) survey to trace the subsurface dimensions and orientations of the mineralised zone.