Mr. Koby Kushner reports

ATHENA REPORTS ENCOURAGING VISUAL RESULTS FROM FIRST HOLE COMPLETED AT LAIRD LAKE

Athena Gold Corp. has provided an exploration update from its continuing maiden drilling campaign at its flagship Laird Lake project in Ontario's world-class Red Lake gold district. The fully financed diamond drilling program commenced earlier this month (see company press release dated April 2, 2026), with the first hole targeting the G1 geophysical anomaly on the western portion of the project. The hole was successfully drilled to its target depth of 336 metres, intersecting broad zones of prospective sulphide mineralization.

"Encouraging visual results this early in our maiden drill program at Laird are incredibly exciting. The presence of sulphide minerals within banded iron formation, at the heart of the G1 anomaly, is the right step towards a new discovery in Red Lake," said Koby Kushner, chief executive officer of Athena. "Additional results from other never-before-tested targets are eagerly anticipated. To accelerate the next phase of exploration, the initial rig is being replaced with a larger drill at Laird Lake, allowing for a more aggressive test of deeper geophysical anomalies."

Mineralized banded iron formation (BIF) at G1

Core logging from the continuing drill program has successfully identified a shallow, broad approximate 179-metre-wide (108 to 287 m; true width is unknown) package of variably mineralized BIF and mafic volcanic rocks within the Balmer formation. Zones of increased pyrrhotite-pyrite-chalcopyrite mineralization are generally associated with higher degrees of silica-diopside-garnet-biotite alteration and intense folding. In the Red Lake camp, structurally complex, sulphide-replaced BIFs are historically known to be host rocks for high-grade gold deposits, such as the Fork deposit at West Red Lake Gold's Madsen mine, located approximately 10 km east of Laird Lake. At the Fork deposit, gold mineralization occurs in deformed quartz-sulphide veins and local replacement-style disseminations within strongly altered iron formation, mafic and ultramafic rocks, with accessory pyrrhotite, pyrite, and chalcopyrite in vein selvedges and alteration envelopes (National Instrument 43-101 technical report and prefeasibility study for the Madsen mine, Ontario, Canada, effective Jan. 7, 2025). At Laird Lake, intersecting this sulphide mineralized BIF target exactly where historical SkyTEM magnetic and electromagnetic (EM) data predicted provides a strong validation of the company's geological model. Core from the initial hole is currently being prepared for assaying.

The G1 anomaly has never been drilled and there are no historically documented gold occurrences or significant work filed in the area. However, during the 2025 field program, Athena located a series of long (locally greater than 100 m) undocumented historical trenches throughout the area and reconnaissance sampling returned elevated gold within BIF (0.7 gram per tonne Au). Athena believes that the G1 area represents a new target area for the project, with LL-26-001 being the first drill hole to test it. The reinterpreted SkyTEM data suggests the targeted conductor has a strike length of approximately 1,700 m and remains open along strike and at depth.

Drill program discussion

The larger drill rig being brought to site will be testing the deeper, high-priority targets planned on the east side of Laird Lake which include:

• Balmer assemblage: 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: Disseminated mineralization within the Confederation rocks, highlighted by the newly discovered Rigby showing identified during this past summer's field program.

Qualified persons 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. Mineralization on nearby or adjacent projects is not necessarily indicative of mineralization at Laird Lake.

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 more than 7,000 hectares along more than 10 km of the Balmer-Confederation assemblage contact, where recent surface sampling results returned up 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. Also in Northwestern Ontario is Athena's Forester project, a 4,900-hectare land package located less than 30 km 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. Athena also holds a 100-per-cent interest in its Oneman Lake Au-VMS project, located approximately 60 km north of Kenora, Ont. 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 more than 2,500 hectares and includes at least three historic mines.

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