Austin Metals : First Aircore Results Define 3 New Gold Prospects

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14 April 2022

FIRST AIRCORE RESULTS DEFINE GOLD MINERALISATION AT 3 NEW

PROSPECTS

Key Highlights

• • First aircore drilling results from the recent program designed to test for low level anomalous gold on targets identified from gravity work has returned excellent results.

• • Gold has been discovered in 3 new prospects in the Shadow area from the shallow reconnaissance drilling including:

  • o An 800 x 200m gold zone at the new Everlong Prospect, which remains open:

    • ▪ 6m at 1.2 g/t Au from 24m;

    • ▪ 30m at 0.2 g/t Au from 15m (incl. 6m at 0.4 g/t Au).

  • o The new Generator Prospect where limited drilling intersected:

    • ▪ 2m at 0.7 g/t Au from 40m (at end of hole).

• • The association of widespread gold-bearing quartz veining at Everlong with subtle gravity low breaks confirm the new targeting strategy is highly effective and will be also utilised in future drill programs.

• • The newly defined gold mineralisation is hosted in mafic and ultramafic host rocks for the first time on the Project that are very similar to host rocks at the Musgrave Minerals high grade Break of Day group of deposits and Lena deposits respectively.

• • Austin Metals now holds a unique opportunity to target under cover for these favourable host rock types for the very first time on the Project which are clearly shown to be gold bearing.

• • Hence a more expansive aircore program is planned to target the mafic and ultramafic rocks pending POW approval which has been submitted.

• • The balance of the new assay data from the aircore program at Mt Sandy, Brunswick Hill and Brians is pending and will be reported shortly.

Technical Director Leo Horn comments "At the commencement of 2022, Austin Metals has hit the ground running with a completely new exploration strategy which focuses on identifying structures in the new gravity data followed by systematically drill testing with shallow aircore to define low level gold anomalies in the surface weathered rock.

The discovery of ore-grade gold and significant widths of gold bearing quartz veins at the Everlong Prospect represents a game changer for the Austin Project and confirms that our new strategy is clearly highly effective. Another important outcome of these results is the discovery of gold hosted in mafic rocks for the first time by Austin Metals. This represents a significant opportunity given the large amount of mafic rocks on our tenements and the fact that these rocks host Musgrave Minerals high grade Break of Day group of Deposits, directly adjacent to Austin's ground.

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Given the multitude of other gravity targets across the very large ground package we are extremely excited to launch into a larger campaign of aircore testing of many more targets across the Project in order to prove the extensive hidden potential at Austin."

Austin Metals Limited (ASX: AYT,"Austin Metals", "the Company") is pleased to announce the completion of a major phase of aircore drilling where preliminary assays have been received at the Shadow Prospect Area within the Austin Gold Project in Western Australia.

Aircore Drilling at the Shadow Prospect Area

During the months of March of this year and also July 2021, Austin Metals completed a total of 193 shallow aircore holes for 5,168 metres at the Shadow target area (Table 1). The primary aim of the drilling was to define shallow, low-level anomalies >0.05 g/t Au in areas defined by:

• 1. Subtle gravity low 'breaks' identified in the ground gravity survey, particularly those in a similar orientation to the high-grade structures identified by Musgrave Minerals such as Starlight (See AYT announcement 14 March 2022).

• 2. Gold-in-soil geochemical anomalies identified from the ultrafine fraction soil survey as well as extensive gold nuggets observed by prospectors at surface (See AYT announcement 13 September 2021).

• 3. North-west trending structures identified in the airborne magnetic data (See AYT announcement 5 May 2021).

Figure 1: First vertical derivative gravity image at the Austin Gold project at the Shadow Area showing the highlight shallow aircore drilling results and interpreted gold-bearing structures.

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Everlong Prospect

The highlight new assay results have been returned at the newly discovered Everlong Prospect primarily as a direct result of targeting utilising the new gravity data. The aircore drilling has defined a zone of weathered mafic rocks with thick zones of intensive quartz veining (20-100%) that is 20-40m thick and extends for 60m and is open at depth to the southwest (Figure 2). Thick zones of quartz veining are all highly elevated in gold >0.05 g/t Au with internal higher grade intersections:

• • 6m at 1.2 g/t Au* from 24m in SAAC178;

• • 30m at 0.2 g/t Au* from 15m in SAAC179

  • o incl. 6m at 0.4 g/t Au*; and

• • 18m at 0.13 g/t Au* from 24m in SAAC180

The intensive zone of gold-bearing quartz veining at the Everlong Prospect is strongly associated with a subtle northwest-trending gravity low (Figure 1). This trend is strongly associated with elevated gold in the aircore holes with maximum gold assays in the range of 0.01 to 0.08 g/t Au that defines a trend 800m long and 200m wide and open to the northwest and southeast (Figure 1).

*All assays are 6m spear composite assays and final results for 1m composites are pending.

Figure 2: Interpreted cross section at the Everlong Prospect.

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It is interesting to note that mineralisation at Everlong is hosted in mafic rocks for the first time on the Austin Project. Most of the mineralisation at the Musgrave Minerals high-grade Beak of Day group of deposits and structures are all primarily hosted within various mafic rocks. It is clear that mafic rocks are likely to be the favourable host rock for gold deposits across the Austin Project. Importantly, mafic rocks have never before been the target host rock by previous explorers who have specifically focused only on the banded iron formations (BIF) units that generally outcrop as topographic highs throughout the district.

It is also important to note that the gold-bearing veins intersected in drilling at Everlong are very likely to be the in-situ bedrock source of the extensive gold nuggets identified at surface by prospectors over a large area of 750m by 300m (See AYT announcement 13 September 2021). The widespread distribution of nuggets, many still attached to quartz veins (Figure 3), indicates the bedrock source is likely to be of a similar length (i.e. >750m).

Figure 3: Photograph of several gold nuggets recovered from the shadow prospect area.

Generator Prospect

SAAC128 intersected ultramafic rocks at the base of hole from 15m to 42m end of hole beneath a volcanic dacite at surface. Gold mineralisation occurs withing the ultramafic rock in two intervals:

• • 2m at 0.74 g/t Au from 40m (at end of hole) in SAAC128; and

• • an upper zone of 4m at 0.1 g/t Au from 28 m.

Mineralisation at Generator is associated with a subtle northwest-trending gravity feature but potentially more importantly it is also located close to a regional scale northeast trending gravity low that extends for many kilometres and may represent a regional shear zone (Figure 1). It is interesting to note that the Musgrave Minerals bulk-tonnage Lena gold deposit is hosted by ultramafic rocks withing a major shear zone. In addition, gold mineralisation at Generator is wide open to the south, east and west (Figure 1).

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Breakout Prospect

Drillhole SAAC162 intersected a sequence of weather meta-sandstone with a 1m zone of intensive (15%) quartz veining from 41 to 42m then sporadic quartz veining to 46m at end of hole. A 4m composite assay at the end of hole returned:

• • 4m at 0.1 g/t Au from 32m in SAAC162

The prospect lies on a prominent gravity break feature that may extend many kilometres to the southeast and open to the northwest up to the property boundary toward the Musgrave Break of Day deposit (Figure 1).

Conclusions and Next Steps

Several important implications have been determined from the aircore programs:

• 1. Interpretation of subtle gravity breaks are an extremely important tool for exploration across the project since they may represent zone of significant gold-bearing quartz veining like that discovered at Everlong.

  Further aircore drilling to test a multitude of other gravity structures and targets at is planned by Austin Metals at Shadow and across the tenure. A gravity survey is also planned across the eastern Tuckabianna belt to enable the adoption of a similar exploration strategy.

• 2. Gold mineralisation on the Austin Project is clearly hosted in very similar favourable host rocks to those on the Musgrave Tenure such as mafic rocks at Everlong and ultramafic rocks at Generator. These poorly exposed rock types, that are almost all entirely covered by soil and scree of variable depth, have never been targeted by previous explorers due to the focus on well-outcropping BIF's that are known by surface prospectors to host gold in places. Austin plans to better map the mafic and ultramafic lithologies across the tenure and target these favourable host lithologies where they are intersected by potential cross-structures.

• 3. Mineralisation intersected at Everlong, Generator and Breakout represent the first breakthoughs in gold exploration in the Shadow Prospect Area for Austin Metals. All 3 prospects are exciting new targets in their own right for further follow up drilling at depth and along strike with aircore and RC drilling respectively.

• 4. Gold bearing veins at Everlong are very likely to be the bedrock source for the gold nuggets recovered at surface over a widespread area of 750m by 300m. The widespread distribution of nuggets indicates the bedrock source is likely to be of a similar size.

Assays are pending for the balance of aircore holes at Mt Sandy, Brunwick Hill and Brians and will be reported shortly.

This announcement has been authorised by the Board of Directors of Austin Metals Limited.

-ENDS-

Contact details

Sonu Cheema (Director and Company Secretary) Ph: [phone]

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