Ascot Resources Ltd. announced that the 2022 exploration drilling program has started at its Premier Gold Project, located on Nisga'a Nation Treaty Lands in the prolific Golden Triangle of northwestern British Columbia. The Spring snow melt has enabled drilling to start almost one month earlier than last year. The 2022 exploration drilling program will comprise approximately 18,000 metres and will be equally split between exploration and in-fill holes.

Exploration drilling will be largely concentrated on the Sebakwe and Day Zones and in-fill drilling will focus exclusively on the Big Missouri deposit. Drilling will initially be conducted from surface but is anticipated to shift to underground drill stations as development enables access and will allow for shorter drill holes and more precise targeting. The Company experienced extraordinary assay lab turnaround delays last year, but turnaround times are anticipated to be much shorter this year as a new third party assay lab is being set up in the town of Stewart.

Ascot has signed a priority service contract with this new assay lab to enable faster turnaround. Sebakwe Zone: at the end of the 2021 exploration drilling season, two holes were drilled from surface at the Sebakwe Zone. The first of these holes (P21-2385) intercepted 36.17 g/t Au and 20.6 g/t Ag over 7.10 metres, including coarse visible gold, from a depth of 368.3 metres.

The new gold intercepts, in addition to sparse historical drilling, seem to indicate the possible existence of a third arcuate structure similar to the Premier and Northern Light structures immediately to the south. The high-grade intercepts are located at a similar elevation to the Premier mill building and only 600 metres to the east. Initially, a total of 10 holes for approximately 4,000 metres of drilling are planned from last year's pad.

Holes are planned to step out around the high-grade intercepts from holes P21-2385 and P21-2386 and will target an area of approximately 50 metres of strike length and 50 metres of vertical extent. Additional holes will be planned if mineralization is encountered consistently. Day Zone: The Day Zone was expanded in the 2021 drill program.

The first hole, P21-2331, intercepted high-grade gold mineralization 400 metres to the south of the previous year's drill holes. Another drill hole, P21-2384, intercepted 58.60 g/t Au and 24.8 g/t Ag over 1.90 metres from a depth of 35 metres in an area where Ascot is internally evaluating preliminary stope shapes for potential extraction early in the mine life at Big Missouri. With only 32 drill holes so far, Ascot has already outlined a number of high-grade areas across a known strike length of 550 metres, with mineralization open to the north and south.

A total of 24 holes drilled from four surface pads comprising approximately 2,000 metres are planned at the Day Zone this year.