Shallow Oxide Gold Discovery Extended At Excelsior Springs Project

VACAVILLE, CA - Athena Gold Corporation reported on the Phase 3 drilling program at the 4,000 acre Excelsior Springs Gold Project, located in Esmeralda County, Nevada. A total of nine RC drill holes were completed in the Phase 3 program for a total of 1,140 meters in the Western Slope Zone (WSZ); gold mineralization was extended both east and west. The purpose of the Company's Phase 3 drilling program was to expand the mineralization footprint and better understand the mineralization trend at the WSZ, which is the one of the newest grassroots discoveries in the prestigious Walker Lane Trend in Nevada.

John Power, President & CEO, said, "We are pleased with the continued progress and evolution of our new Western Slope Zone. We have drilled 18 RC holes for a total of 2,052 meters in the WSZ over 2022 and 2023 with excellent results. Our immediate focus is to further expand the WSZ zone and identify the source of its mineralizing fluids. This combined with the follow-up exploration opportunity at GE-14, which has an IRG geochemical signature, provide the Company with multiple high-leverage drill targets going forward."

DH 23-03 intersected 1.02 g/t Au and 8.2 g/t Ag over 51.8 meters, starting at 29.0 meters. This lengthy intercept extended the Western Slope Zone about 23 m eastward at similar depths to the two intercepts reported from RC hole 22-02. The mineralization was well distributed throughout the interval. DH 23-01 intersected 2.18 g/t Au and 1.9 g/t Ag over 6.1 meters, starting at 74.7 meters. This intercept included 1.52 m (5 feet) of 6.6 g/t Au, extending the WSZ approximately 15 m east of the deepest interval reported in RC drill hole 22-01. The holes drilled in 2022 yielded the best gold grades in the history of the Property, with over 100 RC drill holes completed over the past 50 years. True widths of the drill hole intercepts are not known.

Future exploration will focus on drilling the holes proposed by Caracle Creek/Atticus to continue to delineate and expand the WSZ. In addition, future exploration will aim to uncover new zones of mineralization starting with the area around historical drill hole GE-14. The area around GE-14 has a much different geochemical signature than the WSZ.

Drill hole GE-14 is in an area about 325 m east of WSZ and returned 24.4 meters of 1.09 g/t Au starting at only 7.6 meters depth; this hole also had anomalous arsenic, antimony, bismuth, molybdenum, mercury, and tellurium. GE-14 is proximal to a mapped fault named the South Ridge Thrust Fault (SRTF) which extends all the way to an IP anomaly in the southwest area of the Property. The SRTF appears to be similar to a traditional Intrusion Related Gold (IRG) system with elevated arsenic, bismuth and other key pathfinder elements associated with gold mineralization.

This IRG target was further confirmed by more recent outcrop sampling by Athena's technical team at Contact Gulch, a surface exposure of the SRTF which returned almost 1 g/t Au and significantly elevated arsenic, bismuth, copper, and molybdenum concentrations. Elevated concentrations of these minerals are interpreted to be hydrothermally derived from a magmatic source. The Company has a high level of confidence in the gold exploration opportunity in the area around GE-14.

Athena also recently collected surface samples from the historic high-grade gold occurrence commonly referred to as the Lida Bell mine which is located on new claims staked by Athena in the fall of 2022 to expand our land package to approximately 4,000 acres at Excelsior Springs.