Metallis Launches 2019 Exploration Season at Kirkham Property

VANCOUVER, July 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Metallis Resources Inc. (TSX-V: MTS; OTCQB: MTLFF) (the "Company" or "Metallis") is pleased to announce the commencement of its Phase 1 Exploration Program (the "Program") at its 100%-owned Kirkham Property (the "Property"). The Property is prospective for multiple deposit types and is located in the prolific Eskay Camp of the Golden Triangle, northwestern British Columbia.

The 2019 exploration season which started on June 30^th, represents the most ambitious yet for Metallis with the largest and most experienced geological team to date now working on the Property. Building from 2018's successful exploration and drilling programs, the property-wide Program can be extended if deemed necessary. The Program has been designed to:

• Delineate more high-grade epithermal gold veins – found commonly near the periphery of the intrusive rocks;
  
  
• Discover nickel-rich massive sulphides like those found just to the north on Garibaldi Resources' Nickel Mountain Property; and
  
  
• Locate high-grade porphyry copper/gold mineralization within the Hawilson Monzonite and evaluate the large geophysical/geochemical anomalies that bear a distinct resemblance to signatures over known porphyry copper/gold deposits.

Highlights:

a)  Recent 3D geological modeling has indicated that

1. The zone containing high-grade gold epithermal veins (i.e. 137 g/t Au; MTS News Release November 29, 2018) discovered in 2018 at the Cole target can now be traced along the North-East trending faults between King and Terwilligen creeks, for approximately 2km; and
   
   
2. The Cliff-Nina corridor is centered within an eastward dipping (50°) graben structure, indicating that there is additional high-grade porphyry copper/gold potential to the east and that the potassic cores of the system are at deeper levels than most of the previous drill holes.

b)  Following the earlier confirmation of the presence of olivine gabbros at Thunder North through petrographic work, Dr. Peter Lightfoot will be spending five days at the Property during the current program to further evaluate the nickel potential of the Kirkham Property.

c)  Multiple, NE-trending, magnetic lineaments along normal faults correlating with a strong geochemical signature of anomalous gold, copper and molybdenite has highlighted an apparently deeper porphyry copper-gold system at the King East Target which the company intends to test in the upcoming 2019 program.

2019 Exploration Program details:

The Program currently underway includes channel sampling, soil sampling and detailed lithology/alteration mapping with a focus on high priority targets identified through off-season detailed data analysis by the geological team. The Program will enable the team to establish the best possible, drill ready targets for the upcoming 2019 drill program - planned to start in August.

High Grade Gold Targets

Following the 2018 high-grade gold discovery (Drill hole KH18-19; 11.8 g/t Au over 7.7m including 137 g/t over 0.6m), a geological mapping program along with substantial channel sampling across both the Cole and Etta target areas is to be completed. High-grade gold lenses historically mapped south of the Cole target near King Creek will also be investigated.

Nickel Targets

Work at both Thunder North and Thunder South is also included in the Program; focusing on all untested conductive and magnetic anomalies along a NE-trending structural corridor that runs through the target areas. Thunder North and Thunder South, collectively, cover approximately ten square kilometers of the northern portion of the Property, ideally located on the western margin of the Eskay Rift system. Field mapping in 2018 outlined extensive outcrops of the Hazelton Betty Creek Formation at Thunder South and Terwilligen Creek, similar to the stratigraphic units which are intruded by Garibaldi Resources' Nickel Mountain Gabbro complex. The northern Property boundary shares over ten kilometers with Garibaldi and its Nickel Mountain discovery is about 1.5 km north of the Property border.

Metallis' technical advisor, Dr. Peter Lightfoot, has generated a series of targets (Click here to view Nickel Target Map) for follow-up based on the discovery of olivine gabbro outcrops that are a phase of the intermediate to felsic intrusive rocks of the Texas Creek Series. The presence of olivine gabbronorite with 8.55% MgO was confirmed with the use of petrographic thin section analysis earlier in the year. Of the targets, Dr. Lightfoot has outlined six of the most prospective areas and scheduled a 5-day field visit during the Program to investigate the overlapping conductive and magnetic anomalies and differentiated olivine gabbros in the area.

Porphyry Targets

A thorough surface mapping program along the entire Hawilson Monzonite (approximately 7.5 km) is underway (Click here to view Au-Cu Map). This work will vector into the high-grade potassic zones that are now better understood as a result of the recent 3D GIS geological modeling. In particular, the work has revealed that the porphyry system is wide open to the east and southeast and is, apparently, the source of high-grade gold (14 g/t Au in rocks) and the historic placer gold operation in the nearby Fewright Creek (Minfile 104B 223). Field work at the 4 km long Cliff-Nina porphyry corridor will focus on the lateral extension of gold-rich veins, hydrothermal breccias and deeper potassic cores.

Work at the Nina porphyry copper-gold system, a new discovery made during the 2018 drilling campaign, will focus on a 200m x 200m zone of irregular quartz veins and sulphide lenses to the north. This area is being followed up for VMS and/or epithermal gold-silver mineralization potential.

The King East target is an extensive (2 km x 2 km) zone of North-South trending normal faults, magnetic and resistivity anomalies coincident with a strong copper-gold-moly geochemical signature in rocks and soil. The Program will include field traverses to establish the correlation of the available datasets. The team is expected to then establish a location for the first ever drill hole on this prospect.

Metallis President and CEO, Fiore Aliperti commented "This year promises to be a pivotal year for both the Kirkham Property and the Metallis team. All the data analysis from last year's work has been completed. We are now armed with greater knowledge and now's the time to take that data with our boots on the ground and identify this summer's drill targets to carry us forward." He went on to add "The success of the Golden Triangle in 2019 will be discovery driven - we plan to have Metallis front and center."

Corporate Update

The Company is pleased to provide details on recent corporate activities. The Company announces that all resolutions were passed at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders held on Wednesday, June 26, 2019, in Vancouver, British Columbia. As of June 28, 2019, all remaining $0.35 warrants were exercised bringing in a total of $130,550 of which $96,000 was exercised by Insiders of the Company. The Company has now moved its office to Suite 604, 850 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, V6C 1E1. Additionally, Sameen Oates has transitioned from Corporate Secretary to a new position of Office Manager with her corporate secretarial duties now being managed by the CFO.  

Qualified Person

Technical aspects of this news release have been reviewed and approved by David Dupre, P.Geo., designated as a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101.

About the Kirkham Property

The 106 sq. km Kirkham Property is located about 65 km north of Stewart, B.C., in the heart of the Golden Triangle's prolific Eskay Camp.  The northern border of Kirkham is contiguous to Garibaldi Resources' E&L Nickel Mountain Project.  The northeast corner of Kirkham is within 12 km of the Eskay Creek mine while the eastern border is within 15 - 20 km of Seabridge Gold's KSM deposits and Pretium Resources' Brucejack mine.

About Metallis

Metallis Resources Inc. is a Vancouver-based company focused on the exploration of gold, copper, nickel and silver at its 100%-owned Kirkham Property situated in northwest British Columbia's Golden Triangle.  Metallis trades under the symbol MTS on the TSX Venture Exchange and currently has 33,369,079 shares issued and outstanding.

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

/s/ "Fiore Aliperti"
Chief Executive Officer, President and Director

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This Press Release may contain statements which constitute 'forward-looking' statements, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company, its directors, or its officers with respect to the future business activities and operating performance of the Company. The words "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, or its management, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future business activities or performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that the Company's future business activities may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Such risks, uncertainties and factors are described in the periodic filings with the Canadian securities' regulatory authorities, including quarterly and annual Management's Discussion and Analysis, which may be viewed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements.

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SOURCE Metallis Resources Inc.

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