The Board of Hillgrove Resources Ltd. announced that, as part of the ongoing underground mine development at Kanmantoo, they have updated the magnitude of the opportunity for near-mine growth in the down dip and along strike continuation of the numerous copper systems as evidenced by the successes of their recent extensional drilling3. Hillgrove's recent drilling at Emily Star and at North Kavanagh3. has confirmed the location of Cu-Au mineralisation proximal to the existing UG mine plan and as anticipated in previous Exploration Target compilations (23/02/2021).

The success of the previous Exploration Target to identify Cu-Au mineralisation has given Hillgrove the confidence to continue to identify future UG copper resources with the objective to expand the Company's copper production profile and mine life. As a result, Hillgrove has recently secured a drill rig to continue to explore the Exploration Target. The drilling will target mine life extensions down dip of the existing mine design at Nugent and Kavanagh and will also target the.

strike extensions and parallel Cu-Au lodes with the aim to increase annual copper production. Hillgrove has approximated an Exploration Target at the Kanmantoo Copper Mine of between ten and twenty million tonnes with a target grade of between 0.9% and 1.3% Cu and 0.1 g/t to 0.3 g/t Au. The Exploration Target herein replaces the Company's previous Exploration Target releases and does not include the 2022 Mineral Resource Estimates (MRE's) at Nugent and Kavagh.

Included in this release is an approximate of the Exploration Target at Stella (drill results in ASX release 26 August 2021) and at South Kanmantoo. Mineralisation has been affirmed at both targets by Hillgrove's exploration drilling. Both targets are located on an Exploration Licence (EL6526) held 100% by Hillgrove and within 500 metres of the Kanmantoo Mine Lease.

The previously reported drill results include: Stella: 3m @ 2.76% Cu, 3.53 g/t Au from 343m depth (SLDD001), including, 0.6m @ 10.1% Cu, 16.86 g/t Au from 344m depth, 6.56m @ 0.77% Cu, 0.84 g/t Au from 173m depth (KAN01), and 0.9m @ 0.18% Cu, 9.28 g/t Au from 156.4m depth. South Kanmantoo: 5m @ 2.5% Cu, 0.8 g/t Au from 13m depth (KTRC742), 17m @ 0.95% Cu, 0.35 g/t Au from 48m depth (KTRC757), 5m @ 2.95% Cu, 0.36 g/t Au from 24m depth (KTRC759). Over the region of the Kanmantoo Copper Mine that falls outside of the current final pit design, nine potential higher-grade Cu-Au target zones have been identified which will be the focus for future exploration efforts.

The identification and location of the target zones is predominantly based upon depth and strike extensions of copper- gold zones that have been mined within the open pit or intersected by diamond drilling undertaken by Hillgrove. An analysis of the large drill hole database of the Company, in conjunction with the open pit production data and geologic knowledge gained from mining of over 300 vertical metres of the main orebodies at Kanmantoo, and the exploration drilling undertaken by Hillgrove over the past 15 years down to a depth of 800 metres below surface shows that several higher-grade copper-gold zones do extend to depth beneath or along strike from the Giant, Nugent and Emily Star open pits. The analysis of the drill hole database also shows there is a lack of drilling below and along strike of the open pits to assess these higher-grade zones (Figure 1).

Outside of these open pits the average depth of drilling is <120m below surface. The copper and gold grade profiles for the Exploration Target have been defined based upon average grades of exploration diamond drilling within the target copper-gold zones, or the average grade of the appropriate MRE for the relevant zone. The Nugent and Kavanagh targets have been updated to account for the recent Hillgrove drilling and the 2022 MRE's. The West Kavanagh, Central Kavanagh, East Kavanagh, and Spitfire targets have been combined as "Kavanagh".

The importance of the existing infrastructure at the Kanmantoo Copper Mine cannot be over-emphasised in assessing the economic materiality of this Exploration Target. In particular: The existing copper-gold processing plant at Kanmantoo that operates at a very efficient $8.00/tonne milled at full capacity. The risks associated with understanding copper and gold recovery and processing costs have been largely mitigated through the past 8 years of operation on the same ore types, The in-pit haul road that extends from surface to over 350 metres below surface enables access to a majority of the Exploration Target without the need for extensive capital and time invested in underground decline advance and ventilation costs, The extensive geotechnical database resulting from open pit mining since 2011, The existing fully constructed and permitted Tailings Storage Facility, and The existing granted Mining Lease and Environmental Permits.

Drill testing of the Exploration Target is expected to commence in late March 2023. The initial objective of the drilling will be to target both mine life extension opportunities down dip of the existing mine design, and additional lodes which may enable increased annual production.