Montreal, Quebec, May 15, 2024 - Aya Gold & Silver Inc. (TSX: AYA, OTCQX: AYASF) (“Aya” or the “Corporation”) is pleased to announce interim financial and operational results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024. All amounts are in US dollars, unless otherwise stated.

Q1-2024 Highlights
Operational and Financial:
Silver production of 366,362 ounces (“oz”), a result of mining lower grade ore in upper benches of the open pit and underground stope extensions, in addition to underground sequencing.
Ore processed increased to 81,331 tonnes (“t”) in Q1-2024, a 12% increase compared to Q1-2023.
106,880t of ore mined in the quarter for an average of 1,175 tonnes per day (“tpd”).
Revenue of $5.1 million, a 51% decrease from Q1-2023, a result of a temporary increase in silver concentrate inventory and processing lower-grade ore.
Held 157,457oz of silver in concentrate inventory with an approximate fair value of $3.5 million as at March 31, 2024.
Cost per silver ounce sold of $20.31 in Q1-2024 ([1]).
Closed a bought-deal public financing for gross proceeds of approximately $57.3 million.
Received a third tranche of the EBRD loan, worth $25 million, for a total of $85 million to date.
Robust financial position with $111 million of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash as at March 31, 2024, compared to $70.3 million as at December 31, 2023 ([2]).
2024 guidance remains unchanged.
Expansion, Development and Exploration:
Advanced expansion of Zgounder Mine to 89% completion and on schedule for Q2-2024 commissioning.
Conducted 8,710 meters (“m”) of diamond drill hole (“DDH”) drilling at Zgounder.
Completed 2,998m of DDH on Zgounder Regional.
Continued development of Boumadine through 15,027m of DDH drilling and acquisition of six permits.
Launched electromagnetic airborne geophysics surveys on the Boumadine and Tirzzit properties using Expert Geophysics's MobileMT technology.
Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”):
Advanced construction of the Zgounder 90-kilometer (“km”) transmission line towards implementation of the renewable-energy power purchase agreement.
Provided 2,946 hours of health and safety training during the quarter and launched a new “safety dialogue” program.
Recent Developments:
On April 16, 2024, the Corporation announced an updated NI 43-101-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate for its Boumadine project that incorporates drilling from 2018 to 2023.
Indicated Mineral Resources of 2.0Mt at 113 g/t Ag, 2.51 g/t Au, 4.32% Zn and 1.07% Pb containing an estimated 7.4 Moz of Ag, 165 koz of Au, 88 kt of Zn and 22 kt of Pb.
Inferred Mineral Resources of 23.6 Mt at 85g/t Ag, 2.62 g/t Au, 2.32% Zn and 0.84% Pb containing an estimated 64.7 Moz of Ag, 1.98 Moz of Au, 546 kt of Zn and 198 kt of Pb.
([1]) The Corporation reports non-GAAP measures, including cash costs per silver ounce and available liquidity, which are widely used in the mining industry as a benchmark for performance, but do not have a standardized meaning and the methods used by the Corporation to calculate such measures may differ from methods used by other companies with similar descriptions. See “Non-GAAP Measures” on page 23 of the Corporation’s Q1-2024 MD&A for a reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP measures.

([2]) Non-GAAP Measures, consisting of cash and cash equivalents of $90.5 million and restricted cash of $20.5 million (December 31, 2023, balances of $49.8 million and $20.5 million respectively).

“We started 2024 with a strong performance that provides us with runway to execute on our growth strategy objectives and guidance this year,” said Benoit La Salle, President & CEO. “We made significant progress at Zgounder in the quarter. The expansion is 89% complete, on budget and on schedule to start commissioning in Q2. At our operations, we built inventory from mining lower grade ore from the open pit to access higher grade zones in addition to mining lower grade, underground stope extensions that were identified outside of our modeled resource. Zgounder also returned high-grade drill results at the granite contact, which continues to be a source for mineralization.

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