Mercado Minerals expands Copalito drill program, identifies new Renata vein

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 19, 2026) - Mercado Minerals Ltd. (CSE: MERC) (OTCQB: MRMNF) (" Mercado " or the " Company ") is pleased to announce the completion of its inaugural diamond drill program at the Copalito Project (" Copalito " or the " Project ") in Sinaloa, Mexico. The 25-hole program) successfully confirmed and expanded mineralization on the Project's three principal veins — 5 Señores, El Agua and El Pilar — and delivered initial drill tests of several newly discovered and previously undrilled vein structures, which are summarized in this news release. The company also wishes to highlight the comprehensive concurrent surface exploration program, which successfully identified and delineated extensions to four veins (El Medio, SE 5 Senores, La Cobriza Norte and SE El Pilar) and discovered two new significant veins: El Pilar Sur and La Renata.

Diamond Drill Program Highlights

A 25-hole, inaugural diamond drill program (COP-26-001 to COP-26-025) was completed across seven vein structures : 5 Señores, SE 5 Senores, El Agua, El Pilar, El Pilar Sur, El Medio and Chente.

Work in 2026 has advanced the Copalito Project from 6 principal veins with 8 kilometres of cumulative vein strike length to 8 principal veins with 11 kilometres of cumulative vein strike length. Highlights from this drilling include:

El Pilar Vein — Diamond drilling has now defined the vein over 1,250 metres of strike, with a higher-grade area of approximately 400 metres strike by 200 metres down-dip, and remains open in all directions. Step-out drilling returned the two best intercepts on the vein to date:

COP-26-019 intersected 3.40 metres of 11 g/t silver, 3.53 g/t gold, 1.45% lead, and 4.41% zinc (403 g/t silver equivalent 1 ) from 118 metres, including 0.80 metres of 9 g/t silver, 5.37 g/t gold, 1.65% lead, and 10.05% zinc (675 g/t silve