Mexico's Cinco de Mayo Project to Vote on Lifting 14-Year Mining Ban on September 20

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 10, Apollo Silver announced that the Ejido Benito Juárez community in Buenaventura, Chihuahua, Mexico, has scheduled a community assembly for September 20, at which members will vote on whether to lift the mineral exploration and development ban imposed on the relevant lands since 2012, and will simultaneously vote on whether to accept a long-term project access agreement. The Cinco de Mayo Project is located within the area covered by this ban and is currently held by Apollo Silver through exploration, acquisition of interests, and option agreements.

The Cinco de Mayo Project comprises 29 mining concessions covering a total area of more than 25,000 hectares, located in north-central Chihuahua, approximately 190 kilometers from Chihuahua City. The project's core asset is the Upper Manto carbonate replacement lead-zinc-silver-gold deposit, with a historical inferred resource of approximately 12.45 million tonnes at a silver-equivalent grade of approximately 385 g/t; approximately 4 kilometers to the west of the project lies the Pozo Seco molybdenum-gold deposit. The above resource estimates are historical resource estimates and have not yet been updated by Apollo Silver to current mineral resources.

The project has been subject to surface access restrictions since November 2012. Apollo Silver previously signed a project agreement with Pan American Silver and its subsidiary Minera Pozo Seco. Under the existing arrangements, for Apollo to acquire a 100% indirect interest in the project, it must first obtain community access and related permits required to enter the project area and conduct mining activities, and subsequently complete no less than 20,000 meters of exploration drilling within five years. Upon exercising the option, Apollo must also issue to the original holders shares equivalent to 19.9% of the then-issued shares in accordance with the agreement; the relevant mining concessions also carry a 2.5% net smelter return royalty.

Since 2025, Apollo Silver has continued negotiations with Ejido Benito Juárez regarding the restoration of project access. The proposal announced in December 2025 proposed establishing a long-term access framework with a 30-year term, with annual payments to the community during project exploration, development, and future mining, totaling approximately US$50 million over the term of the agreement, with an extension option. The proposal also covers local employment, training, and local procurement arrangements for food, fuel, transportation, materials, and accommodation.

Under the arrangements at that time, Apollo originally planned to hold the community assembly vote to lift the ban in early 2026, but the relevant vote was not completed at the originally planned time. The assembly now confirmed for September 20 represents a new substantive milestone in the project's community access process. The matters to be voted on include lifting the mineral exploration and development ban and approving the long-term access agreement; until the voting results are determined, Apollo still cannot resume on-site drilling at the project.

The focus of the project's subsequent exploration is the Upper Manto deposit. Apollo plans to conduct drilling after obtaining on-site access to verify and update the historical resource estimates, and to continue testing high-grade mineralization extensions outside the existing resource boundaries, such as the Pegaso Zone. According to the company's project materials, all future on-site work, including the drilling required to update the Upper Manto historical resource estimates to current resources, is contingent upon first obtaining local community access.