Blue Jay Gold hits 67% antimony concentrate at 94% recovery from Becker-Cochran
~ Adding a Second Metal Endowment at the Steller Project~
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blue Jay Gold Corp. (TSXV: JAY) (OTCQB: JAYGF) (FSE: JAY) (“Blue Jay” or the “Company”), today reported results from the metallurgical test program on mineralization from the Becker-Cochran antimony occurrence at its Steller Gold Project (“Steller” or the “Project”) in southern Yukon. Our maiden test work at ALS Metallurgical Laboratories in Kamloops, British Columbia delivered a flowsheet design producing a 67% antimony (“Sb”) concentrate at a 94% recovery. Roughly 50 kg of the concentrate is now being converted into finished antimony products by three North American processing groups who are looking to secure access to long-term supply, with first products expected in the coming weeks. Our test does not end at the concentrate. It continues until the material exists as a finished antimony product.
The material was placed with three groups rather than one by design. Each uses different processing approaches as high-grade concentrate is compatible with more than one downstream route. Our approach affords Blue Jay the pathway best suited to our material and ours interests.
Highlights
- 67% antimony concentrate was produced at a 94% Sb recovery.
- Concentrate grade well exceeds the 60% Sb premium product threshold. Pure stibnite is approximately 71.7% antimony, so 67% Sb approaches mineralogical purity.
- Three North American antimony processing groups will convert the concentrate into a range of downstream metal products, each using different processing approaches. First results are expected in the coming weeks.
- Test work was performed on material the Company collected and submitted, under documented chain of custody and modern quality assurance and quality controls.
- Material will move from site to finished metal product within a single exploration season.
- Drilling continues on high-grade gold targets with results expected to continue into 2027
"When we ran our due diligence after acquiring the Project, the antimony prospect was sitting in the historical record in plain sight, and nobody had touched it for sixty years," said Geordie Mark, CEO of Blue Jay Gold. "Modern conventional processing comfortably outperformed what was achieved in the 1960s, but a flotation number is where most companies at our stage stop and then ask investors to imagine the rest. We are not doing that. The concentrate is now with three North American processing groups who will convert it into a range of finished antimony products, and we expect the first of those within weeks. That means this material will have gone from rock in the ground to finished metal inside a single exploration season. Linking the mine site to metal production is where value is created in critical minerals, and we saw no reason to wait years to find out whether this material can make that trip."
"What we learn about the antimony also tells us something about the Project as a whole. One land package holds a past-producing gold mine, two further gold-silver deposits in different styles, and now produces a premium-grade antimony concentrate from a separate mineralized field whose footprint extends kilometres to the east. Those are different metals, deposited in different parts of the same system. To be clear, gold and silver are where our rigs and our budget are focused, and that has not changed by a single metre of drilling. But this is our maiden exploration year, and the point of a maiden year is to find out what you actually own. The antimony work was a small part of this year's budget, and it has told us a great deal. It is another piece of evidence that Steller is a geological district rather than a single deposit."
Table 1: Becker-Cochran Composite 1 (Concentrate): Cumulative Metal Balance
| Cumulative | Cum. Weight | Assay - (%) | Recovery/Distribution (%) | |||||
| Product | % | grams | Sb | Fe | S | Sb | Fe | S |
Bulk Conc.: Product 1 | 24.0 | 481.8 | 66.9 | 0.5 | 27.5 | 93.9 | 12.0 | 89.2 |
Cleaner 2 Conc. | 24.6 | 492.9 | 65.9 | 0.5 | 27.1 | 94.7 | 13.4 | 89.9 |
| Cleaner 1 Conc. | 25.9 | 519.3 | 63.2 | 0.6 | 26.0 | 95.6 | 17.9 | 90.9 |
| Rougher Conc. | 32.3 | 648.8 | 51.4 | 1.3 | 21.4 | 97.2 | 45.6 | 93.4 |
Rougher Tail | 67.7 | 1358.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 2.8 | 54.4 | 6.6 |
| Recalculated Feed | 100.0 | 2007.5 | 17.1 | 0.92 | 7.4 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
Notes to Table 1: Products are reported cumulatively; each row includes all products above it. Weight % is the share of the original feed reporting to that product, Assay % is that product's grade, and Recovery % is the share of the metal in the feed that it contains. Successive rows add lower-grade material, raising antimony recovery while diluting concentrate grade. The Company reports Product 1, 66.9% Sb at 93.9% recovery, as the representative result. Based on a single flotation test on a 2,007.5 g composite grading 17.1% Sb. Initial liberation analysis showed that stibnite and gangue minerals are excellent at 88% and 93% respectively. Mineral deportment studies have not been completed with Hg in concentrate aliquot up 1,100 ppm. Flotation optimization work is expected to commence shortly. No variability studies have been completed, and we note that the results are not necessarily representative of the occurrence as a whole.
Next Steps at Becker-Cochrane
First antimony metal products from the three processing groups are expected in the coming weeks. Assays remain pending from the ten-hole drill program at Becker-Cochran announced on August 31, 2026, which is testing the down-dip continuation of the mineralized shear zone below the historical workings. Should drilling confirm continuity at depth, the Company intends to advance to variability and locked cycle test work on drill core composites.
What Was Tested
The program was carried out on a composite of >400 kg of stibnite-bearing mineralization collected by Company personnel at a single trench at Becker-Cochran. The test sequence comprised head assays, mineralogical characterization, grind establishment, rougher and cleaner flotation, and final concentrate characterization.
The sample was collected from the surface expression of the stibnite-rich quartz vein systems that host mineralization in the underground workings at depth. These veins represent one on several east-west trending veins sets that occur on Becker, forming a trend extending west past the Goddell Gully Au deposit. Consequently, our work reflects only a small fraction of the system.
Reading the Result
Concentrate grade and recovery are most meaningful together, and in context with the flowsheet that produced them. Recovery measures how much of the antimony in the rock reports to the product. At 93.9%, almost none was lost to the tailings. Grade measures the quality of that product and determines what a processor will pay for it. Premium product specifications generally begin at 60% Sb, with value adjusted for other elements present and for processing factors. At 66.9% Sb, against a maximum possible 71.7% for pure stibnite, the concentrate is close to a pure mineral product. The flowsheet that produced it is conventional and uses standard reagents. Work at this stage does not constitute an offtake arrangement, or any type of commercial negotiation.
Why the Historical Work Needed to be Revisited
Bulk sampling and flotation testing were carried out on this occurrence in 1965. An approximately 8-ton sample was split between the federal Mineral Processing Division in Ottawa and Britton Laboratories Limited in Vancouver. The Ottawa work reported recovery of 92.8% of the contained antimony, and concentrates exceeding 62% antimony were produced. Underground development stopped shortly afterward when the antimony price fell.1
Those results are historical in nature. They were produced sixty years ago, to procedures and quality controls that cannot be verified today, on material the Company did not collect. A Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to verify them, the Company is not treating them as current, and they should not be relied upon. They were, however, sufficient reason to test the material again to a modern standard.
(1) Further detail regarding the Becker-Cochran occurrence, including its discovery, historical exploration, development and sampling, and regarding the Steller Gold Project and its current Mineral Resource Estimate, is set out in the technical report entitled “Technical Report and Updated Mineral Resource Estimate of the Steller Gold Project, Whitehorse Mining District, Yukon Territory, Canada,” prepared for the Company by P&E Mining Consultants Inc. with an effective date of October 31, 2025, available under the Company’s profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. The historical metallurgical results quoted above are drawn from reports prepared for or on behalf of Yukon Antimony Corporation Ltd. between 1964 and 1966, including the concentration report of the Mineral Processing Division, Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, dated July 6, 1965. https://data.geology.gov.yk.ca/assessment-report/202 https://data.geology.gov.yk.ca/mineral-occurrence/12812 https://data.geology.gov.yk.ca/assessment-report/3639
A District, Not a Single Deposit
The Steller Gold Project covers approximately 170 square kilometres and is accessible year-round by an 84-kilometre road from Whitehorse. It hosts the past-producing Mt. Skukum gold mine, the Skukum Creek and Goddell Gully gold-silver deposits, a 270 tonne per day process plant, and kilometres of underground development. Becker-Cochran lies within an antimony anomaly approximately 8 kilometres wide on the eastern side of the property.
The gold, silver and antimony mineralization across the property is interpreted to have formed during the same period of Eocene magmatic-epithermal activity, at different levels and temperatures within one extensive system. That interpretation is the basis for the Company's view that Steller can host several deposits of different styles carrying different metals. Antimony mineralization at Becker-Cochran forms no part of the current Mineral Resource Estimate, and the Company's 2026 program remains directed at the gold and silver resources at Skukum Creek and Mt. Skukum.
Metallurgical Test Work and Antimony Concentrate Results
Bench-scale flotation tests were completed at ALS Metallurgy Kamloops with the >400 kg sample provided from the Becker-Cochran antimony occurrence located in the Yukon Territory, Canada. The material was selected from an east-southeast trending stibnite-bearing quartz vein that is interpreted to reflect the vein exposed in underground workings accessed from multiple adits immediate below.
With a primary grind sizing near 140µm K80 and using lead nitrate as the stibnite activator and SIPX as the stibnite collector, excellent metallurgical performance was achieved with 95% antimony recovery to a stibnite concentrate which measured close to 66% antimony using rougher flotation followed by regrinding and two cleaner stages. This led to a final stage antimony concentrate grading 66.9% Sb. Antimony recovery to the final cleaner concentrate was 93.9%. These results are based on laboratory-scale rougher-cleaner testing and are preliminary in nature; they do not represent a feasibility-level process design or a commercial product specification.
Quality Assurance / Quality Control
The bulk sample used in this program were selected and prepared under the supervision of Freeman Smith. The ALS laboratory maintained its own internal QA/QC procedures to deliver these initial outcomes. QA/QC results were reviewed by Freeman Smith, and no material issues were identified that would affect the interpretation of the reported results.
Qualified Person
The scientific and technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Freeman Smith, P.Geo., VP Exploration of Blue Jay Gold Corp., who is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.
About Blue Jay Gold Corp.
Blue Jay Gold Corp. is a Canadian gold exploration company focused on growing and discovering resources within established gold producing regions in Canada. The Company’s flagship asset is the 100%-owned Steller Gold Project in southern Yukon, an infrastructure-supported, past-producing mine with significant exploration upside and clear near-term catalysts. Blue Jay has also built a portfolio of projects in Ontario. With strategically located assets and a leadership team experienced in geology and capital markets, Blue Jay will advance disciplined, modern exploration programs focused on target definition, resource growth, and new discoveries in known gold-mineralized regions. For more information, please visit: www.bluejaygoldcorp.com.
ON BEHALF OF BLUE JAY GOLD CORP.
signed “Geordie Mark”
Geordie Mark, CEO
For additional information contact:
BLUE JAY GOLD CORP.
| Geordie Mark CEO Blue Jay Gold Corp. info@bluejaygoldcorp.com Phone: (604) 235-4059 | Eric Negraeff Investor Relations Blue Jay Gold Corp. eric@bluejaygoldcorp.com Phone: (604) 235-4059 |
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release contain forward-looking information. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. In addition, the forward-looking statements require management to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. There is significant risk that the forward-looking statements will not prove to be accurate, that the management's assumptions may not be correct and that actual results may differ materially from such forward-looking statements. These statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology (e.g., "expect"," estimates", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "plans"). Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may include, but are not limited to, the results of drilling at the Becker-Cochran occurrence, the timing and scope of the rest of the Company’s exploration program, and future business plans of the Company. Such information involves known and unknown risks, including the receipt of regulatory approval, the results of future financing and exploration activities, the interpretation of exploration results and other geological data, or unanticipated costs and expenses and other risks identified by Blue Jay in its public securities filings that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by applicable securities laws and regulation, Blue Jay disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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