Final Results For Crash Zone Drill Program At Carlin-East Gold Project

VANCOUVER - Ridgeline Minerals Corp. reported final results for the Crash Zone drill program at the Company's 100% owned Carlin-East Gold Project. The project is centrally located in the north Carlin Trend. The 2021 drill program encountered challenging drilling conditions throughout the program and as a result, completed one out of the three planned drill holes to target depth.

CE21-003 drilled to a depth of 1,254 meters ("m") and was the only core-hole of the planned three-hole (3,000m) program to reach a minimum target depth of 1,000m or greater. The hole did not intersect significant gold values or the intended Lower Plate carbonate rock package that hosts gold mineralization at multiple open-pit and underground mines on the north Carlin Trend. CE21-003 is interpreted to have drilled the deeper, down-dropped (hanging-wall) side of a major NW fault Zone resulting in the hole drilling an over-thickened, strongly sheared section of Upper Plate Vinini formation. Drilling intersected greenstone and limestone marker beds of the Lower Vinini formation as well as narrow zones (1-10m) of strongly sheared and hydrothermally altered intervals of Vinini mudstone.

Ridgeline geologists interpret these stratigraphic marker beds as an indication that CE21-003 was nearing the Roberts Mountain Thrust ("RMT") contact (The RMT marks the transition between Upper and Lower Plate rocks) prior to termination of the drill hole. Future drilling will target shallower (900 to 1,100m) Lower Plate host rocks in the adjacent fault block directly to the south of CE21-003, where marker beds of the middle Vinini formation have been intersected at substantially shallower depths in both CE21-004 and CE21-005, which are cased and ready for re-entry at a future date.

Due to the depth of drilling required to hit target rocks (1,000+ meters) the company was unable to utilize its strategic reverse circulation ("RC") drilling contract beyond depths of 400-500m. A third-party diamond core company was contracted to complete the "core-tails" to target depths. Challenging drilling conditions in both CE21-003 and CE21-005 led to inadequate daily drill production, culminating in a lost hole in CE21-005 which further contributed to increases in drilling costs that made continuing the program untenable for the Company. As a result, the company terminated the remainder of the program and left both CE21-004 and CE21-005 cased and ready for re-entry at a time when the Company can negotiate a more equitable drilling contract.

Chad Peters, President, CEO & Director, said, "This was a challenging drill program for our team and unfortunately we did not achieve our primary objective of intersecting Lower Plate host rocks at the Crash Zone. Only one-of-three planned holes reached target depths indicating the Crash Zone target has not been adequately tested and we believe there is still potential for a discovery to be made at Carlin-East. Deep drilling is always a challenge in Nevada and demand for drilling services is the highest I've seen in my ten years working in the state. In the case of Carlin-East, it's not in the Company or our shareholders best interest to continue drilling 1,000+ meter holes until we can secure a more equitable core drilling contract once the demand for drill rigs has cooled. Our land position in the North Carlin Trend remains the largest of any company aside from Nevada Gold Mines and we will continue to strategically advance both Carlin-East and our neighboring Bell Creek project forward in 2022."