Ms. Tara Christie reports

BANYAN GOLD COMMENCES FULLY FUNDED 40,000+ METRE DIAMOND DRILL PROGRAM AT AURMAC PROJECT, YUKON

Banyan Gold Corp. has commenced the 2026 diamond drilling and exploration program at its AurMac project in the Tombstone gold belt, Yukon. The fully financed 40,000-metre campaign will include:

• Four drills at AurMac focused on project advancement work and exploration drilling aimed at expanding the mineralized envelope of Airstrip and Powerline, following up on high-grade gold and high-grade silver zones.
• Exploration drilling on Banyan's largely unexplored regional projects at AurMac and Nitra, with a primary focus on discovery of additional expressions of reduced intrusion-related gold systems (RIRGs) with testing of geophysical and geochemical targets from both the company's seasoned geologists and artificial-intelligence-guided analysis of all geological data.

"We're excited to kick off the 2026 exploration season with strong momentum and a clear road map for value creation and discovery," said Duncan Mackay, vice-president of exploration. "The success of our 2025 results laid a solid foundation for this year's drilling, which focuses on further defining higher-grade mineralized domains at Airstrip and Powerline. Both deposits remain open in all directions, exhibiting significant potential for expansion. By integrating geophysical data sets with compelling soil geochemical anomalies across our largely untested 720-square-kilometre land package, we see significant opportunities for new discoveries, particularly on the 10 targets we have identified that have never been drilled on our Nitra and broader AurMac property."

2026 exploration plans

Airstrip and Powerline

Approximately 80 per cent of the 2026 drill budget will be allocated to project advancement at Airstrip and Powerline which host an indicated mineral resource of 2,274,000 (M) ounces (oz) of gold (Au) (112.5 M tonnes at 0.63 gram per tonne) and an inferred mineral resource of 5.453 Moz of Au (280.6 M tonnes at 0.60 g/t) using a $2,050 (U.S.) gold price (as defined in the Canadian Institute of Mining Definition Standards for Mineral Resources & Mineral Reserves incorporated by reference into National Instrument 43-101; see news release dated Aug. 20, 2025). Diamond drilling will also test potential for expansion of the known mineralized system at both deposits along strike and down-dip of known mineralized domains.

AurMac and Nitra

Regional targets have also been identified using new geophysical surveys in combination with soil sampling anomalies. Approximately 20 per cent of the drill program will be testing RIRGs potential at these high-priority targets. Over 95 per cent of AurMac and Nitra has not been tested by drilling to date; the majority of exploration is limited to surficial geochemical work and airborne geophysical surveys. The western portion of Nitra is approximately 20 kilometres southeast of Sitka Gold's RC gold project, within the prolific Tombstone gold belt which hosts the Brewery Creek deposit, Snowline Gold's Valley project, prospector Metal's ML project, the Eagle mine and the Fort Knox mine.

Drilling will be complemented by surface sampling, geophysical surveys, continuing metallurgical work, geotechnical work and environmental surveys, along with scoping and engineering studies required for a preliminary economic assessment of the project in Q4 2026.

Upcoming events

• Florida Roadshow, -- Boca Raton, Miami, Feb. 19 to Feb. 20;
• BMO 35rd Global Metals, Mining & Critical Minerals Conference, Hollywood, Fla., Feb. 22 to Feb. 25;
• Metals Investor Forum Toronto, Feb. 27 to Feb. 28:
  • Corporate presentation: Feb. 27, 6 p.m. ET.
• Yukon in Global Focus: From Rocks to Riches Breakfast -- Fireside Chat -- Toronto, March 2, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. ET:
  • 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. ET.
• PDAC, Toronto, March 1 to March 4:
  • Exhibitor Booth No. 2213, March 1 to March 2;
  • 1x1 Meetings, Level 300, March 1 to March 3.
• SMI Zurich, Switzerland, March 18 to March 19;
• Italy Roadshow -- Milan, Rome, March 23 to March 27.

Qualified persons

Duncan Mackay, MSc, PGeo, is a qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release in respect of all disclosure other than the MRE. Mr. Mackay is vice-president, exploration, for Banyan and has verified the data disclosed in this news release, including the sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information.

About Banyan

Banyan's primary asset, the AurMac project is located in the traditional territory of First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun, in Canada's Yukon Territory. The current mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the AurMac project has an effective date of June 28, 2025, and comprises an indicated mineral resource of 2.274 million ounces of gold (Au) (112.5 million tonnes at 0.63 gram per tonne) and an inferred mineral resource of 5,453,000 oz of Au (280.6 M tonnes at 0.60 g/t) (as defined in the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Definition Standards for Mineral Resources & Mineral Reserves incorporated by reference into National Instrument 43-101). The 303-square-kilometre (square km) AurMac project lies 40 kilometres from Mayo, Yukon. The AurMac project is transected by the main Yukon highway and benefits from a three-phase powerline, existing power station and cell phone coverage.

In addition to the AurMac project, the company holds the Hyland gold project, located 70 km northeast of Watson Lake, Yukon, along the southeast end of the Tintina gold belt (the Hyland project) in the traditional territory of the Kaska Nations, closest to the Liard First Nation and Daylu Dena Council. The Hyland project represents a sediment hosted, structurally controlled, intrusion-related gold deposit, within a large land package (over 125 square km), accessible by a network of existing gravel access roads. The updated MRE comprises an indicated mineral resource of 337,000 ounces (oz) of gold (Au) and 2.63 million (M) oz of silver (Ag) (11.3 M tonnes of ore at 0.93 g/t Au and 7.27 g/t Ag), and an inferred mineral resource of 118,000 oz of Au and 0.86 Moz Ag (3.9 M tonnes of ore at 0.95 g/t Au and 6.94 g/t Ag) (as defined in the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Definition Standards for Mineral Resources & Mineral Reserves incorporated by reference into NI 43-101) effective Sept. 1, 2025, and with technical report filed on SEDAR+ on Oct. 27, 2025.

Banyan also holds the Nitra gold project, a grassroots exploration project located in the Mayo mining district, approximately 10 kilometres west of the AurMac gold property. The Nitra property lies in the northern part of the Selwyn basin and is underlain by metaclastic rocks of the Late proterozoic Yusezyu formation of the Hyland Group, similar to lithologies hosting portions of the AurMac project. Middle Cretaceous Tombstone Plutonic suite intrusions occur along the property including the Morrison Creek and Minto Creek stocks. The property is 100 per cent owned and operated by Banyan and covers approximately 313.9 square km. The property is accessible by road along the Silver Trail Highway, South McQuesten Road and four-by-four roads.

Banyan trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol BYN and is quoted on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol BYAGF.

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