NGEx Minerals Ltd. announced that drilling has commenced at the Valle Ancho copper-gold project in Catamarca Province, Argentina (the Valle Ancho Project), where the Company has an option to earn a 100% interest from the government of the Province of Catamarca. The drill program is expected to total up to 3,000 metres of diamond drilling on several high-potential gold and copper-gold targets.  An airborne magnetic survey covering the entire land position was completed in late 2021 and IP-Resitivity geophysical surveys are ongoing at individual targets.  The Valle Ancho Project consists of two Exploration and Mining Reserve Areas held by the Province of Catamarca that cover approximately 1,000 km2 of highly prospective and underexplored ground on the Argentinian side of the Maricunga Gold Belt. More than 100 million ounces of gold have been discovered on the Chilean side of the border whereas the Argentinian side has seen much less exploration despite having similar geology.

The project area was initially explored in the 1990's resulting in the identification of several interesting gold and copper-gold targets. Despite the encouraging results obtained by earlier explorers the area was not available for exploration for most of the last 20 years. The main targets lie along a major northwest trending structural corridor called the Valle Ancho Lineament.

Many of the major deposits in the Andes are spatially related to similar northwest trending lineaments. The Company carried out an initial field program at the Valle Ancho Project during the 2019/2020 Southern Hemisphere Summer. The exploration program focused on review and compilation of historical data, analysis of satellite imagery, field examination, geochemical sampling and mapping of existing prospects to identify, develop and prioritize targets for further evaluation.  The program was cut short by the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic but was still successful in defining several priority targets for drill testing and discovering new zones of gold-silver mineralization which were unrecognized by previous explorers.

In December 2021, the Company completed both an airborne magnetic survey that was cut short by the pandemic and bad weather in 2020 and targeted IP (Induced Polarization) geophysical surveys in order to refine drill targeting.