Mercado Minerals Completes Historic Drill Core Re-Sampling and Re-Assaying Program at the Copalito Project

Vancouver, BC, April 14, 2026 – Mercado Minerals Ltd. (CSE: MERC, OTCQB: MRMNF) ("Mercado" or the "Company") is pleased to report assay results from core re-sampling of historic diamond drill holes at the Copalito project. The Company is happy to report that, in general, there is excellent agreement between the re-assay drill composite intercepts and previous drill composite intercepts as reported by a previous operator.

Significant Comparable Drill Intercepts:

Daniel Rodriguez, CEO and Director, commented: “We were very fortunate to be able to acquire such a complete data set for the exploration work completed at Copalito. We could tell that it was very well collected and conducted with industry best standards for mineral exploration. What we had to do was prove it, and I’m happy to say that we see very good agreement between the historic drill hole analyses and our new re-assays of identical sample intervals.”

Mercado inherited an extensive, high quality dataset including assay information for 81 diamond drill holes, extensive mapping and rock sampling data for the Copalito project, which has allowed the Company to undertake exploration and drill targeting programs prior to the launch of its inaugural exploration drilling program, which began on March 10, 2026.

The dataset included PDF Certificates for the analytical results that Mercado personnel audited for accuracy against its accompanying digital databases. As a final audit of the accuracy and reproducibility of the diamond drill data, the Company embarked on a re-sampling program for 12 of the 81 historic diamond drill holes.  The re-sampling allowed the Mercado technical team to review the 6 principal mineralized veins that were targeted by previous drill campaigns, and gain insights on potential mineralization controls that may define higher grade areas of the veins.  A complete table of re-assay composite results are presented in Table 1. 

Table 1

Overall, results show strong agreement with previous drill hole results. Given the inherent variability of mineralization in Low to Intermediate sulphidation epithermal deposits, and the variability of precious metals mineralization in general, some of the agreement between the results is highly encouraging. Where the Company does see some significant disagreement between the historic drill composites and the re-assay drill composites, it is attributed to this inherent variability in the mineralization itself. It also directly correlates to individual sample intervals where there was mineralized core missing that had been taken as specimen samples.

In conjunction with the drill core re-assay campaign, assay data collected during previous drilling campaigns by Kootenay Silver Inc. in 2020 and 2021 were reviewed to independently validate the results.  Upon receiving the 2026 re-sampling assays and comparing against previous results, Mercado has concluded that the existing drill assay dataset can be treated as reliable data. 

Core Sampling Procedures

The 2026 drill core re-assay program consisted of re-sampling select sample intervals from the acquired dataset to corroborate the reliability of the existing assay data.  Core samples were selected based on historical sample intervals to ensure consistency with the previous drill data, and a unique sample tag number was placed alongside the existing sample tag.  Where samples were taken, the remaining half drill core was sawn in into quarters, with one quarter being sent for analysis with a new unique sample number and the remaining quarter kept in the core box. In cases where there was only quarter core present in the core box, the entire remaining quarter was taken for sampling with documentation left in the core box. On rare occasions, sub intervals of mineralization were missing from the core box that were taken display specimen samples, but these areas were well documented.

Quality Assurance/Quality Control and Chain of Custody

Standard reference materials and blanks were inserted by Mercado personnel at regular intervals into the sample stream. Drill core was sawn and bagged, with bagged samples being grouped into rice bags and secured by a locking security tag with a unique security tag identification number.  Sample batches were transported from the logging site in Copalito to a secured courier transport service vehicle provided by ALS Laboratories.  The samples were delivered by ALS secured courier to their laboratory in Hermosillo for analysis.

Samples were crushed by ALS to over 70 per cent passing below two millimetres and split using a riffle splitter. Sample splits were then pulverized to over 85 per cent passing below 75 microns. Gold determinations were completed by fire assay with an atomic absorption (AA) finish on a 30 g subsample of the prepared pulp (Au-AA23). Any sample returning over 10 g/t gold was re-analyzed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish on a 50 g subsample (Au-GRA21). In addition, a 34-element analysis was performed on a 0.25 g subsample of the prepared pulps by a four acid digestion followed by an inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) finish (ME-ICP1).

Qualified Person

The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 (Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects) and was reviewed and approved by Kelson Willms, P.Geo., of Archer, Cathro & Associates (1981) Limited.  Mr. Willms is a Qualified Person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101

About Mercado Minerals Ltd.

Mercado Minerals Ltd. (CSE: MERC, OTCQB: MRMNF) is a silver-focused exploration company targeting the next world-class discovery in Mexico’s emerging Western Silver Belt, part of the prolific Sierra Madre Occidental mining district. With a proven team boasting extensive experience in Mexican exploration, Mercado is actively advancing multiple projects across more than 3,000 hectares. The Company is committed to creating shareholder value through disciplined exploration, strategic growth, and discovery-driven results.

For further information, contact:

Daniel Rodriguez

CEO & Director

Phone: (604) 353-4080

Email: drodriguez@mercadominerals.com

John Fraser

VP Business Development & Director

Phone: (604) 838-7677

Email: jfraser@mercadominerals.com

Forward-Looking Statement (Safe Harbor Statement):

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The use of any of the words "anticipate," "plan," "continue," "expect," "estimate," "objective," "may," "will," "project," "should," "predict," "potential" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In particular, this press release contains forward-looking statements concerning the Company’s exploration plans and the intended use of proceeds from the Offering.  Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements because the Company cannot provide assurance that they will prove correct. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release, and, except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements.

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