Mr. Koby Kushner reports

ATHENA GOLD MOBILIZES FOR MAIDEN DRILL PROGRAM AT LAIRD LAKE PROJECT

Drilling contractors and heavy equipment have successfully mobilized to Athena Gold Corp.'s flagship Laird Lake project, located in Ontario's world-class Red Lake gold district, with drilling expected to begin imminently.

The mobilization marks the official commencement of a fully financed, approximately 5,000-metre, approximately 10-hole diamond drill program. The drill campaign is specifically designed to test high-priority geophysical anomalies as well as showings within or nearby the previously identified geochemical anomalies.

"Getting the drill turning at Laird Lake is a pivotal moment for our team," said Koby Kushner, chief executive officer of Athena. "The fully funded program follows almost two years of extensive data collection, including surface grab sampling, mapping, till geochemistry and geophysical interpretation. We are finally taking our first shots on net, starting with these high-conviction targets, with the goal of making the next grassroots discovery in Red Lake."

Drill program discussion

The maiden drill program will leverage geochemical data, structural mapping and historical SkyTEM magnetic and electromagnetic (EM) data to target newly interpreted controls on mineralization. Recent reprocessing of the SkyTEM data has identified multikilometre-long, stacked zones of low to medium conductance that correspond to magnetic breaks, interpreted to represent potential sulphide-rich areas.

This approximately 5,000-metre campaign will test a diverse set of targets, specifically focusing on:

• Banded iron formation (BIF): testing a never-before-drilled BIF-hosted target transected by major faults;
• Balmer assemblage: targeting high-priority anomalies situated within the prospective mafic and ultramafic assemblage that is the dominant host to the gold deposits in the district;
• Confederation assemblage: testing for disseminated mineralization within the Confederation rocks, highlighted by the newly discovered Rigby showing identified during this past summer's field program.

Because these conductive bodies correspond to a confluence of interpreted structures, they not only represent high-priority gold targets but also possess strong potential to host critical minerals. Given the geological setting -- particularly the presence of mafic and ultramafic rocks -- the company plans to assay future drill core for copper, nickel and platinum group elements alongside traditional gold pathfinders.

Corporate update

The company is pleased to announce that, further to its press release dated March 27, 2026, it has completed the consolidation of its common shares on the basis of every 9.9 preconsolidation common shares for every one postconsolidation common share.

The common shares commenced trading on a postconsolidation basis on the Canadian Securities Exchange at market open today, April 2, 2026. The company's new Cusip number is 04684R204 and the new ISIN (international securities identification number) is CA04684R2046.

The company now has 35,820,061 common shares issued and outstanding, and all outstanding warrants and incentive stock options have been adjusted accordingly.

Qualified person statement

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 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's Laird Lake project is situated in the Red Lake gold district of Ontario, covering over 7,000 hectares along more than 10 kilometres of the Balmer-Confederation Assemblage contact, where recent surface sampling results returned up to 373 grams per tonne gold. This underexplored area is road accessible, located about 10 kilometres west of West Red Lake Gold's Madsen mine and 34 kilometres northwest of Kinross Gold's Great Bear project. Also in Northwestern Ontario is Athena's proposed acquisition of the Forester project, a 4,900-hectare land package located less than 30 kilometres southeast of Orla Mining's Musselwhite gold mine, with historical drill intercepts showing strong potential for both high-grade, narrow-vein and low-grade, bulk-tonnage gold mineralization. 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.). The Excelsior Springs project spans over 2,500 hectares and covers at least three historic mines. Athena also holds 100-per-cent interest in its Oneman Lake gold/volcanogenic massive sulphide project in Ontario.

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