Mr. Koby Kushner reports

ATHENA DISCOVERS NEW HIGH-GRADE GOLD SHOWINGS AND SUBMITS DRILL PERMITS FOR LAIRD LAKE PROJECT IN ONTARIO'S RED LAKE GOLD CAMP

Athena Gold Corp. has released final results from its 2025 prospecting program at the flagship Laird Lake gold project, located in Ontario's world-class Red Lake gold district. The latest results suggest a potentially significant surface gold discovery at the new Rigby showing, returning up to 20.8 grams per tonne gold along a mineralized structure traced for over 40 metres and open in both directions. The discovery was generated through systematic follow-up of anomalous gold-in-till results reported earlier this year (see press release dated Sept. 4, 2025).

Additional prospecting at the Nemo and Hugo geochemical targets returned anomalous gold in altered and pyrite-mineralized volcanic outcrops and subcrops, confirming widespread potential across the property.

"We are pleased to see our continued exploration efforts at Laird bear fruit, with new high-grade gold occurrences found within only 100 m of the road, with prolific head frames in Red Lake in plain sight. The earlier results from the till program have helped guided us here. With a solid mix of geochemical and geophysical targets, we've begun discussions with several local drill contractors to prepare for our maiden drill program, expected to take place in early 2026," said Koby Kushner, chief executive officer of Athena.

Rigby discovery

The Rigby showing is a new surface gold discovery identified by following up anomalous gold-in-till results completed earlier this year (see news release dated Sept. 4, 2025). Preliminary field work has successfully traced the mineralization over greater than 40 metres of strike length and remains open in both directions. A total of 12 samples were collected from the showing over the traced strike length with eight samples returning greater than one g/t Au, five samples returning greater than 10 g/t Au, with a maximum value of 20.8 g/t Au. The mineralization is hosted within an approximately one m wide, sheared mafic volcanic rock with highly deformed quartz veins. The highest gold values were collected from the quartz-pyrite veins, however the sheared host rock also contained low grade gold values (up to 0.23 g/t Au). Follow-up work will consist of tracing the mineralization along strike to determine the full extent of mineralization and potential channel sampling.

Discussion on drill program

Athena has submitted a permit to drill the Laird Lake project scheduled to begin in Q1 2026. An approximately 5,000 m program will be designed to test a number of highly compelling geophysical and geological targets. Athena has completed an in-depth review of historical data and supplemented with new field observations to reinterpret the controls on mineralization. Athena has identified two main controls on mineralization at Laird Lake referred to as Generation 1 and 2. Generation 1 is dominantly in an east-west orientation and generally observed as a replacement-style mineralization characterized by the presence of pyrite, arsenopyrite and tourmaline. Generation 2 is characterized by a northeast orientation and locally cutting the first generation. Mineralization is largely hosted within quartz-pyrite-chalcopyrite veins and able to return high-grade gold values up to 373 g/t Au (see press release dated Dec. 4, 2024).

The winter drill program will leverage the historical SkyTEM magnetic and electromagnetic (EM) data. These data have been instrumental in mapping out the various structures which to date host all the known gold occurrences. The EM data has outlined a series of conductive bodies (targets G1 to G6) which correspond to a confluence of interpreted structures and represents high-priority drill targets. Additionally, these conductive anomalies have the potential to host critical minerals, particularly for copper, nickel and/or platinum group elements. As a result, future analytical results testing these conductors will also assay for these metals in addition to their pathfinders. The geophysical anomalies are being reprocessed to refine the targets prior to drilling.

QA/QC (quality assurance/quality control)

All collected field samples were flagged with flagging tape and marked with sample ID, and location data were collected with a GPS device. Postfield collection, samples were transported to Agat Labs Thunder Bay for preparation and analysis. All samples were dried to 60 degrees Celsius to reduce loss of volatile mercury and arsenic, passed through a two-millimetre sieve and split to 250 g. Splits were pulverized to 85 per cent passing 75 micrometres. Subsets of 25 g underwent aqua regia ICP-OES and MS digestion and analysis. Fifty g subsets underwent FA-AAS. Overlimit Au samples (greater than 10 g/t) underwent an additional 50 g gravimetric analysis by fire assay fusion.

The technical information presented in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Benjamin Kuzmich, PGeo, vice-president of exploration for Athena Gold, and the qualified person for exploration at the Laird Lake project, as defined by National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Athena Gold Corp.

Athena Gold is engaged in the business of mineral exploration and the acquisition of mineral property assets. Its objective is to locate and develop economic precious and base metal properties of merit and to conduct additional exploration drilling and studies on its projects across North America. Athena Gold's Laird Lake project is situated in the Red Lake gold district of Ontario, covering over 7,000 hectares along more than 10 kilometre of the Balmer-Confederation assemblage contact, where recent surface sampling results returned ups to 373 grams per tonne Au. This underexplored area is road accessible, located about 10 km west of West Red Lake Gold's Madsen mine and 34 km northwest of Kinross Gold's Great Bear project. Meanwhile, its Excelsior Springs project is located in the prolific Walker Lane trend in Nevada, where it is currently under an earn-in option with Mammoth Minerals Ltd. (formerly, Firetail Resources Ltd.). Excelsior Springs spans over 2,500 hectares and covers at least three historic mines. Athena Gold also holds a 100-per-cent interest in its Oneman Lake Au-VMS (gold-volcanogenic massive sulphide) project in Ontario.

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