Aya Gold & Silver Reports High-Grade Exploration Results at Boumadine, Extends Imariren Zone to 0.7km and Adds 4 New Regional Permits

MONTREAL, June 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aya Gold & Silver Inc. (TSX: AYA; OTCQX: AYASF) (“Aya” or the “Corporation”) is pleased to announce new high-grade drill exploration results from its 2024 - 2025 program at Boumadine in the Kingdom of Morocco. Today's results extend the Imariren mineralized trend by 400 meters (“m”), confirming high-grade continuity along the Boumadine Main Trend. In addition, Aya is pleased to announce the addition of four (4) new permits to the west, expanding the Boumadine exploration footprint by 15.7% to over 314.5 square kilometers (“km²”).

Highlights¹

• High-Grade Intercepts on the Boumadine Main Trend:
  • BOU-DD25-516 intercepted 5,373 grams per tonne (“g/t”) silver equivalent (“AgEq”) over 0.5m (66.7 g/t gold (“Au”), 111 g/t silver (“Ag”), 1.6% zinc (“Zn”), 1.0% lead (“Pb”) and 0.1% copper (“Cu”) and 114 g/t AgEq over 9.0m (1.24 g/t Au, 6 g/t Ag, 0.2% Zn, 0.1% Pb and 0.1% Cu)
  • BOU-DD25-513 intercepted 591 g/t AgEq over 1.8m (5.19 g/t Au, 118 g/t Ag, 1.0% Zn, 0.2% Pb and 0.5% Cu) and 698 g/t AgEq over 2.9m (5.52 g/t Au, 109 g/t Ag, 5.2% Zn, 0.2% Pb and 0.3% Cu)
  • BOU-DD24-465 intercepted 199 g/t AgEq over 10.6m (0.48 g/t Au, 81 g/t Ag, 2.0% Zn, 1.3% Pb and 0.02% Cu)
• High-Grade Intercepts on the Tizi Zone:
  • BOU-DD24-478 intercepted 460 g/t AgEq over 3.3m (4.61 g/t Au, 75 g/t Ag, 0.5% Zn, 0.1% Pb and 0.1% Cu)
  • BOU-DD24-474 intercepted 302 g/t AgEq over 4.0m (2.38 g/t Au, 37 g/t Ag, 2.5% Zn, 0.6% Pb and 0.1% Cu)
• Extension of the Imariren Strike Length to 0.7km:
  • BOU-DD25-509 intercepted 296 g/t AgEq over 9.3m (2.18 g/t Au, 62 g/t Ag, 1.5% Zn, 0.7% Pb and 0.1% Cu), including 1.6m at 897 g/t AgEq
  • BOU-DD25-504 intercepted 349 g/t AgEq over 6.6m (3.69 g/t Au, 46 g/t Ag, 0.3% Zn, 0.2% Pb and 0.05% Cu), including 1.2m at 851 g/t AgEq
  • BOU-DD25-511 intercepted 449 g/t AgEq over 4.9m (1.95 g/t Au, 270 g/t Ag, 0.6% Zn, 0.1% Pb and 0.1% Cu)
• Acquired one (1) mining licence and three (3) exploration permits totaling 42.9 km² in the Boumadine area (Figure 3).
• Completed 72,044m of drilling at Boumadine so far in 2025.

1. All intersections are in core lengths. Ag equivalent is based on a silver price of US$24/oz with a process recovery of 89%, a gold price of US$2,200/oz with a process recovery of 85%, a zinc price of US$1.20/lb with a process recovery of 72%, a lead price of US$1.00/lb with a process recovery of 85%, and a copper price of US$4.00/lb with a process recovery of 75% resulting in the following ratios: 1g/t Au: 77.9 g/t Ag; 1% Cu: 85.4 g/t Ag; 1% Pb: 24.2 g/t Ag; and 1% Zn: 24.6 g/t Ag.

Today’s high-grade drill exploration results highlight the scale and continuity of Boumadine and mark a significant step in unlocking its full potential,” said Benoit La Salle, President & CEO. “High-grade holes BOU-DD25-513 and BOU-DD25-516 confirm strong continuity of the Boumadine Main Trend at depth—this is the backbone of the deposit and will form the foundation of our upcoming PEA. Drilling continues to expand the footprint, with extensions to the north at Imariren and new intercepts at depth on the parallel Tizi structure. Boumadine continues to demonstrate the potential to become a large-scale, high-grade deposit with mineralization open in all directions. With four new permits secured, a consolidated 314 km² land package, and exploration rights over 600 km², we are in a strong position to continue creating value.”

Table 1 – Significant Intercepts from Boumadine Drill Exploration Program (Core Lengths)

* True width remains undetermined at this stage; all values are uncut.

** Ag equivalent is based on a silver price of US$24/oz with a process recovery of 89%, a gold price of US$2,200/oz with a process recovery of 85%, a zinc price of US$1.20/lb with a process recovery of 72%, a lead price of US$1.00/lb with a process recovery of 85%, and a copper price of US$4.00/lb with a process recovery of 75% resulting in the following ratios: 1g/t Au: 77.9 g/t Ag; 1% Cu: 85.4 g/t Ag; 1% Pb: 24.2 g/t Ag; and 1% Zn: 24.6 g/t Ag

Figure 1 - Boumadine Mining Licence Surface Plan with Magnetic Data (Residual Total Field) and 2025 Drill Holes

Figure 2 - Boumadine Property Surface Plan with 2025 Drill Holes

2025 Exploration Results

This year, 140 diamond drill holes (“DDH”), 31 reverse circulation holes (“RC”) and 11 multi-purpose drill holes (“MP”) totaling 72,044m have been completed at Boumadine (Figure 1, Figure 2 and Appendix 2). Drilling was conducted on strike along the Main Trend (North Zones), Tizi, Imariren as well as on some regional targets. The majority of results have been received for drill holes up to BOU-DD25-530 (Table 1, Figure 3, and Appendix 1).

Results received so far in 2025, including hole BOU-DD24-465, BOU-DD25-513 and BOU-DD25-516, confirm the high-grade continuity of the Main Trend, which remains open in all directions. Today’s results, with BOU-DD25-504, BOU-DD25-509 and BOU-DD25-511, also confirm the continuity of the Imariren Zone and extend Tizi mineralization to 0.7km. The Imariren Zone also remains open in all directions.

Hole BOU-MP24-015 returned high-grade silver results including 774 g/t Ag over 1.6m in an east-west structure.

The main mineralization generally measures 1m to 4m wide (locally reaching over a 10m width) N340-oriented massive sulphide lenses/veins sharply dipping eastward (> 70°). The massive sulphide veins (>80%) are mainly composed of pyrite, with variable proportions of sphalerite, galena, and chalcopyrite. Tizi and Imariren share the same characteristics except for their N000 orientation.

Figures 4 shows the newly acquired permits expanding the Boumadine exploration footprint by 15.7% to over 314.5 km².

Figure 3 – Surface Plan of Boumadine North, Imariren and Tizi Zones with New DDH Results

Figure 4 – Surface Map of Boumadine Property with Apparent Conductivity at 175Hz and New Permits

Next Steps

Significant upside potential exists to expand the Boumadine Main Trend, which currently extends 5.4km and remains open in all directions. Currently, the Corporation has mobilized 6 drill rigs to complete the 100,000m to 140,000m drilling program. Half of the drilling will focus along the Main Trend and Tizi to continue extending the known mineralization trend along strike and at depth and to infill known areas advancing the project towards a preliminary economic assessment. The remaining 50% will focus on greenfield exploration designed to test geological hypotheses and drill targets generated from the past three years of work. The results from ongoing geology work will determine additional development work.

Technical Information

Aya has implemented a quality control program to comply with best practices in sampling and analysis of drill core and RC chips. For core drilling, all individual samples represent approximately one meter in length of core, which is halved. Half of the core is kept on site for reference, and its counterpart is sent for preparation and assaying to African Laboratory for Mining and Environment (“Afrilab”) in Marrakech, Morocco. For drilling using RC, all individual samples represent 1.0m in length and a representative portion is kept for every meter in some chip trays stored on site. A split sample representing 1/16^th, ranging from 2 to 4 kilograms is sent for preparation and assaying to African Laboratory for Mining and Environment (“Afrilab”) in Marrakech, Morocco.

All samples are analyzed for silver, copper, iron, lead, zinc, tin, and molybdenum using Aqua regia and finished by atomic absorption spectroscopy (“AAS”). Samples grading above 200 g/t Ag are reanalyzed using fire assaying. Gold is assayed by fire assaying. Standards of different grades and blanks were inserted every 20 samples in addition to the standards, blanks and pulp duplicate inserted by Afrilab.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information contained in this press release have been reviewed by David Lalonde, B. Sc, Vice-President Exploration, Qualified Person, for accuracy and compliance with National Instrument 43-101.

About Aya Gold & Silver Inc.

Aya Gold & Silver Inc. is a rapidly growing, Canada-based silver producer with operations in the Kingdom of Morocco.

The only TSX-listed pure silver mining company, Aya operates the high-grade Zgounder Silver Mine and is exploring its properties along the prospective South-Atlas Fault, several of which have hosted past-producing mines and historical resources.

Aya’s management team maximizes shareholder value by anchoring sustainability at the heart of its production, resource, governance, and financial growth plans.

For additional information, please visit Aya’s website at www.ayagoldsilver.com or contact:

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain statements that constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (“forward-looking statements”), which reflects management's expectations regarding Aya’s future growth and business prospects (including the timing and development of new deposits and the success of exploration activities) and other opportunities. Wherever possible, words such as “continuity”, “confirm”, “continue”, “potential”, ‘advance”, “targets”, “confirming”, “potential”, “advancing”, “expand”, “belief”, and similar expressions or statements that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might”, “will”, or are “likely” to be taken, occur or be achieved, have been used to identify such forward-looking information. Specific forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements and information with respect to the exploration and development potential of Boumadine and the advancement of and success of the exploration program at Boumadine, and timing for the release of the Company's disclosure in connection with the foregoing. Although the forward-looking information contained in this press release reflect management's current beliefs based upon information currently available to management and based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, Aya cannot be certain that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements are based upon assumptions, opinions and analysis made by management in light of its experience, current conditions, and its expectations of future developments that management believe to be reasonable and relevant but that may prove to be incorrect. These assumptions include, among other things, the ability to obtain any requisite governmental approvals, the accuracy of Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource Estimates (including, but not limited to, ore tonnage and ore grade estimates), silver price, exchange rates, fuel and energy costs, future economic conditions, anticipated future estimates of free cash flow, and courses of action. Aya cautions you not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements.

The risks and uncertainties that may affect forward-looking statements include, among others: the inherent risks involved in exploration and development of mineral properties, including government approvals and permitting, changes in economic conditions, changes in the worldwide price of silver and other key inputs, changes in mine plans (including, but not limited to, throughput and recoveries being affected by metallurgical characteristics) and other factors, such as project execution delays, many of which are beyond the control of Aya, as well as other risks and uncertainties which are more fully described in Aya's 2024 Annual Information Form dated March 31, 2025, and in other filings of Aya with securities and regulatory authorities which are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Aya does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs, and opinions change. Nothing in this document should be construed as either an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy or sell Aya securities. All references to Aya include its subsidiaries unless the context requires otherwise.

Appendix 1 – Full Drill Results from Boumadine (core lengths)

* True width remains undetermined at this stage; all values are uncut.

** Ag equivalent is based on a silver price of US$24/oz with a process recovery of 89%, a gold price of US$2,200/oz with a process recovery of 85%, a zinc price of US$1.20/lb with a process recovery of 72%, a lead price of US$1.00/lb with a process recovery of 85%, and a copper price of US$4.00/lb with a process recovery of 75% resulting in the following ratios: 1g/t Au: 77.9 g/t Ag; 1% Cu: 85.4 g/t Ag; 1% Pb: 24.2 g/t Ag; and 1% Zn: 24.6 g/t Ag.

Appendix 2 – New Drillhole Coordinates of 2025 Boumadine Exploration Program (completed holes) (core lengths)