Verde Chico Project (Sunstone acquiring up to 100%) Sunstone signed a Staged Acquisition Agreement on 23 September 2022 to acquire up to 100% of the Verde Chico Project, located to the west of Sunstone’s El Palmar gold-copper porphyry discovery in northern Ecuador, from the Verde Chico Group. As per the terms of the agreement in Sunstone’s ASX Announcement dated 21 June 2022, a total of US$50,000 has been paid to date, with a further US$50,000 payment expected to occur shortly on transfer of the concession being registered under Compania Minera Verde Chico MINVERDECHICO CIA LTDA (“MinVCH”). Sunstone can, at any time, decide not to proceed with the acquisition and return any shares and technical information to the Verde Chico Group. The Verde Chico project was explored by the Rio Tinto group (then called RTZ) in 1992-1995, and by Canadian junior Balaclava Mines in 1998. No exploration has been undertaken on the land since 1998. The historical exploration identified a 1.1kmlong gold-in-soil anomaly that is open to the north and south, and which includes several high-grade gold-bearing veins at surface and wide lower grade zones of gold mineralisation in some drill holes. A total of 12 trenches for 683m were opened and sampled following mineralised structures. A total of 28 drill holes for 4,436m were drilled by RTZ and Balaclava. Historical exploration comprised regional stream sediment sampling, soil sampling, limited geophysics (CSAMT), trench sampling, and diamond drilling. The soil sampling by Rio Tinto which defined the >1.1km long gold-in-soil anomaly is coincident with a CSAMT resistivity anomaly. This area was drilled at several locations and returned significant intervals of gold mineralisation including 68.5m at 1.05g/t gold from surface in hole RVC-08, including 1m at 11.3g/t gold from 40.5m. Overview Operating Review continued 11 Sunstone Metals Limited Annual Report 2023
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