Laird Lake Project Upcoming Exploration Program To Collect 2,000 Samples

VACAVILLE, CA - Athena Gold Corporation reported on its upcoming exploration program at its recently acquired Laird Lake project, located in Ontario's prolific Red Lake Gold District. The Laird Lake project, spanning 4,158 hectares and covering over 10 km of Balmer-Confederation Assemblage contact, represents an underexplored portion of the camp. The project is road-accessible and lies approximately 10 km west of West Red Lake Gold Mines' flagship Madsen mine, and 34 km northwest of Kinross Gold's Great Bear project.

Starting May 2025, the Company plans to collect approximately 2,000 till samples over its Laird Lake project. The program will range from 100 m x 100 m grid spacing within the Balmer and Confederation assemblages and expand to 200 m x 200 m within the surrounding felsic intrusive bodies. With the results from this upcoming program, Athena hopes to outline zones of new mineralization within the Laird Lake project, where recent grab samples returned up to 373 g/t Au. Athena is aiming to use the same sampling methodology used at West Red Lake Gold's nearby Madsen project, which successfully confirmed existing mineralization and outlined potential new zones. The Company expects to have the final results from the program in mid-summer, which will guide follow-up field work focused on de-risking the Company's maiden drill program at Laird Lake.

"The proposed till survey is an important de-risking exercise for the Laird Lake project. Our philosophy is never to rush into a drill program; we want to do all our homework first and maximize our chances of knocking it out of the park the first go-around. This will be an extensive, tightly-spaced survey, and we expect supplementing the results with our existing dataset, which includes LiDAR, detailed mapping, magnetics, and EM, will help to better define priority drill targets," said Koby Kushner, CEO.

Also, the Company recently completed a regional prospecting and mapping program over its 100%-owned Excelsior Springs Au-Ag project in Nevada, where initial results returned surface grab samples up to 6,630 g/t Ag. All results from the program have since been received and analyzed. The Company is highly encouraged by the regional prospectivity, and on the back of these results, it has mobilized staking activities to expand its land holdings near its Excelsior Springs project. The Company plans to release additional results from the program after staking activities have been completed. The Company has received third-party interest regarding potential joint venture partnerships and earn-in agreements across its Nevada portfolio.