Shallow High-Grade Oxide Gold Discovery Extended With with Multiple Intercepts

VACAVILLE, CA - John Power, President, and CEO of Athena Gold Corporation, said, "2022 proved to be a great year for Athena with our discovery hole DB-23 and follow-up drilling confirming the impressive, near surface gold mineralization both east and west of the DB-23 intercepts. At Excelsior Springs Project located approximately 45 miles southwest of Goldfield in Esmeralda County, Nevada, this new discovery has been named the "Western Slope" after one of the historic claim names for this area and remains open up and down dip and along potential strike length extensions of at least 130 meters to the west and 300 meters to the east.

Our new high-grade drill holes together with the drill holes without significant mineralization help us better understand the strike and dip at the Western Slope Zone. Now that we better understand the strike and dip, we have high expectations for our 2023 drill program that is planned for early spring. We look forward to getting back on the ground and expanding the footprint of high-grade oxide gold mineralization.

I would like to extend our sincerest appreciation to our consulting technical team of Dave Beling, P.E., and geologists Ken Brook and Don Strachan who collectively have over 150 years of mining and exploration experience. These individuals have all contributed greatly to one of the shallowest and highest-grade gold discoveries in Nevada during 2022 by a junior mining company."

At Excelsior Springs, the Athena technical team is seeing structurally controlled zones which host granodiorite to rhyolite dikes along with quartz veins and breccia zones. At the Western Slope zone, there are two zones of gold mineralization in the three discovery holes hosted by altered, calcareous siltstones which are cut by quartz veins and zones of quartz-calcite-cemented hydrothermal breccias. The lower portions of the holes encountered clay-sericite-altered intermediate to felsic composition intrusive rocks. Athena's technical team also believes the precious and base metals were initially deposited as sulfides and subsequently oxidized by descending meteoric or surface waters. The Western Slope zone remains open at-depth, untested up-and-down dip and along potential strike length extensions of at least 130 meters to the west and at least 300 meters to the east.