HighGold Mining Inc. to provide an update on its 2023 exploration and development program including final drill results at the Johnson Tract polymetallic Gold Project in Southcentral Alaska, USA. The Project hosts the high-grade JT Deposit with an Indicated Resource of 1.05 Moz at 9.39 g/t gold equivalent with average true thickness of 40m. Following completion of the spin-out of Onyx Gold Corp.

this summer, HighGold squarely focused on unlocking value at the high-grade JT Deposit. In parallel with exploration drilling to expand existing deposits and target new prospects, the Company launched on a major program of advanced exploration and de-risking activities to support the evaluation of a potential high-grade, low-impact, underground mine. HighGold has begun preliminary scoping work to evaluate conceptual direct-shipping-ore ("DSO") scenarios.

This includes studies and investigations into potential mining methods, mine designs, and the logistics and infrastructure required for shipping mineralized material to an existing, off-site milling facility. The Project's location near tidewater offers the potential for DSO via bulk marine transport (the lowest cost form of bulk shipping) either direct to Asia or to existing coastal mills at mines in Alaska and British Columbia. Advantages of a DSO mine over a conventional mine include project simplicity, lower CAPEX and execution risk, and potential for an expedited timeline to production.

A DSO mine at Johnson Tract would also have the attractive environmental benefits of a small surface footprint and minimal long-term management and closure concerns. Under such a scenario, development rock (waste-rock) would likely be integrated into the mining plan as backfill for permanent underground storage within the mine, and tailings would be stored at a pre-existing off-site facility, resulting in no on-site tailings. DSO mining, although not common in North America, is used throughout the world as the margins and IRRs of a DSO Mine can be more attractive than in a conventional scenario.

In Alaska, a DSO mining joint venture agreement is in place between Kinross Gold and Contango Ore, in which ore from the Mahn Choh deposit (proven and probable reserves of 998koz at 7.88 g/t gold) will be trucked 240 miles (380 km) for off-site processing at Kinross Gold's Fort Knox mine. A key component of de-risking the Project is the development of an underground exploration ramp to the JT Deposit. The exploration ramp will provide a platform to conduct cost-effective tightly spaced definition drilling in the highest-grade portions of the known deposit to support future engineering and economic studies.

The 1,800m long ramp, which is parallel to and slightly outboard of the trend of mineralization, will also provide access to efficiently test multiple deep exploration targets. In support of this, the Company successfully completed a comprehensive field program from July to October 2023 consisting of hydrogeological test work, engineering, and numerous environmental and cultural studies. Over the coming months, the data from these studies will be incorporated into the project design and form the basis of the exploration ramp permitting that is planned to commence in early 2024.

In connection with the exploration ramp plan, a Section 404 permit application was submitted earlier this year to the US Army Corps of Engineers for a 2.6-mile (4 km) portal access road and expanded airstrip. This process is tracking well, with no significant deficiencies identified to date. The final drill results from the 2023 drill program are reported herein.

A total of 33 drill holes for 7,648 meters were completed, including 27 exploration holes (6,254m) and 6 geotechnical holes (1,394m). The exploration drilling targeted the main JT Deposit (2 holes) and the Ellis Zone (12 holes), as well as several new, previously undrilled prospects and targets at East DC Prospect (8 holes), Double Glacier (3 holes), and South Valley (2 holes). The Company completed six (6) drill holes to carry out hydrogeological and geotechnical studies along the alignment of the proposed 1800m long underground exploration ramp, which is designed to be developed within unmineralized rock units in the hanging wall to the JT Deposit.

One of the drill holes (GT23-004) was extended through the JT Deposit as an infill hole and to characterize ground and water conditions for future mine modeling. GT23-004 intersected typical JT-style Au-Cu-Zn mineralization and returned: 56.6 meters at 7.8 g/t AuEq (4.87 g/t Au, 0.61% Cu, 3.5% Zn), including 33.60 m at 12.1 g/t AuEq, (7.93 g/t Au, 0.9% Cu, 4.8% Zn), and including 4.90 m at 34.9 g/t AuEq (33.03 g/t Au, 1.2% Cu, 0.6% Zn). Separate from the geotechnical drilling, two (2) exploration holes stepped out 100 to 200 meters south of the JT Deposit for potential extensions along strike.

These holes intersected broad zones of strong alteration with local silver-lead-zinc mineralization, including: 6.0 meters at 76 g/t Ag, 0.4% Pb, 1.2% Zn in drill hole JT23-153 Ellis Zone and DC Prospect Targets. The DC Prospect, located four kilometers northeast of the +1Moz AuEq JT Deposit, includes the high-grade Ellis Zone discovery and numerous other mineralized showings within a series of large gossan alteration zones extending over a 1.5 km x 3.0 km area. Drilling in 2023 included 50 to 100m step-outs on the Ellis Zone to sketch-in resource potential and first-time tests of new targets between the Ellis Zone and East DC Prospect areas.

Drilling in 2023 has now defined two distinct and overlapping styles of mineralization at the Ellis Zone; a steep-dipping, structurally-controlled high-grade quartz vein and sulphide breccia zone and a zone of shallow-dipping, broad, lower-grade potentially stratigraphically-controlled mineralization with VMS-style characteristics. The current interpretation is of a broad zone of stringer-style mineralization with local structurally controlled high-grade shoots. Mineralization has now been intersected over a length of 200 m and to a depth of 225 m. Narrow high to bonanza-grade and broad low-grade mineralization have been intersected in 2023 step-out drilling at Ellis Zone, including: 2.2 m at 57.0 g/t AuEq (49.9 g/t Au, 25 g/t Ag, 1.5% Cu, 8.4% Zn) previously reported in hole DC23-070, including 1.1 m at 80.5 g/t AuEq, (71.4 g/t Au, 29.7 g/t Ag, 1.5% Cu, 11.7% Zn) 1.4 m at 11.6 g/t AuEq (4.51 g/t Au, 16 g/t Ag, 1.9% Cu, 1.1% Pb, 7.0% Zn) in hole DC23-071, 47.1 m at 0.7 g/t AuEq (0.29 g/t Au, 0.5% Zn) in hole DC23-087, 1.5 m at 163 g/t Ag and 4% Zn in hole DC23-088, 64.1 m at 0.7 g/t AuEq (0.31 g/t Au, 0.7% Zn) in hole DC23-088, including 32.4 m at 1.0 g/t AuEq (0.53 g/t Au, 0.8% Zn).