Mercado Minerals Hits 675 g/t Silver-Equivalent at El Pilar Vein, MERC.CSE Surges 16.7% on 4.15M Shares

Mercado Minerals Ltd. (CSE: MERC) is trading at $0.09 CAD on July 30, 2026 — up 16.7% on 4.15 million shares — after the company released inaugural diamond drill results from its Copalito Project in Sinaloa, Mexico, on July 28, 2026.

The headline number: 675 g/t silver-equivalent over 0.80 metres, from hole COP-26-019, starting at 119.35 metres depth. That interval breaks down to 9 g/t silver, 5.37 g/t gold, 1.65% lead, and 10.05% zinc. It sits within a wider 3.40 metre interval grading 403 g/t silver-equivalent — 11 g/t silver, 3.53 g/t gold, 1.45% lead, and 4.41% zinc — from 118.00 metres, per the company's July 28, 2026 news release on Newsfilecorp.

A second step-out hole, COP-26-018, intersected 4.05 metres of 9 g/t silver, 1.86 g/t gold, 1.19% lead, and 4.08% zinc from 117.40 metres, including a 0.65 metre core grading 635 g/t silver-equivalent. The company describes these as the two best mineralized intercepts at the El Pilar Vein target to date.

The El Pilar Vein has now been defined by drilling over a strike length of 1,250 metres. The higher-grade zone within it measures approximately 400 metres in strike length by 200 metres down the dip plane of the vein, according to the July 28 release.

The Copalito program is an inaugural 3,000 metre diamond drill program. Drilling also tested El Agua and 5 Señores targets within the project.

CEO and Director Daniel Rodriguez commented in the release: "We are pleased and encouraged by the results from our inaugural diamond drill program at Copalito. We successfully expanded on known areas of mineralization along strike and at depth at El Agua, 5 Señores, and El Pilar."

Mercado positions itself as a silver-focused exploration company in Mexico's Western Silver Belt, part of the Sierra Madre Occidental mining district, operating across more than 3,000 hectares. As of March 2026, the company reported 75.91 million shares outstanding and a market cap of CA$18.979 million, per data from Simply Wall St.

No cash position or current liabilities figures were available in sourced materials as of July 30, 2026.

No named peer comparisons with verified drill results or financings appeared in sourced materials for this report.

What's next, per the July 28 release: Mercado has completed its inaugural 3,000 metre program at Copalito. Further details on remaining drill results from El Agua and 5 Señores have not yet been disclosed in sourced materials available as of July 30, 2026.