Mr. Zayn Kalyan reports

SCORPIO GOLD ANNOUNCES SONIC DRILLING AND METALLURGICAL PROGRAM TO EVALUATE REPROCESSING OPPORTUNITY AT MANHATTAN

Scorpio Gold Corp. has engaged SLR International Corp., a leading global mining and environmental consultancy, to design and execute a sonic drilling and metallurgical test work program evaluating the historic waste dump, tailings, heap leach and low-grade stockpile material at the company's 100-per-cent-owned Manhattan district project in Nevada, United States, as a potential near-term development opportunity.

Highlights:

• Four historic surface facilities identified for evaluation -- the heap leach pad, tailings storage facilities, waste dump and the historic low-grade stockpile area -- with their physical extents delineated through volumetric modelling of the company's 2024 lidar survey, historical topographic data, density estimates and swell factors;
• Material is already mined and sits at surface;
• Approximately 35 sonic drill holes are planned, with head characterization test work scheduled;
• Program designed to generate the data package required to characterize the material's suitability for toll milling opportunities at operating mills within trucking distance of Manhattan;
• Successful results would advance the program to phase 2: a mineral resource estimate for the surface material, additive to the company's existing mineral inventory.

"With open-pit mining starting in 1980 and heap-leach operations running from 1989 to 1993, the creation of these facilities started at Manhattan has left a substantial accumulation of already-mined material sitting at surface in tailings, a historic heap-leach pad, waste dump facilities and the low-grade stockpile. This program is about systematically quantifying this material and obtaining preliminary metallurgical characterization of each material type. With operating mills within trucking distance in central Nevada, this information will assist the company in determining whether this material may have any commercial value," said Zayn Kalyan, chief executive officer of Scorpio Gold.

"These tailings and waste facilities prove to be exciting targets as we review historical data about the production history in Manhattan," said Harrison Pokrandt, vice-president of exploration at Scorpio Gold. "The value of the program extends well beyond the material itself. Junior exploration companies are typically dependent on equity financings to fund growth; the program is designed to test whether Manhattan's surface material can provide an alternative through organic growth. The program has been specifically designed to generate the data package -- grade, recovery characteristics, deleterious elements and material handling properties -- that toll milling operators in the region would require to evaluate receiving and processing the material. Historical mining at Manhattan operated under gold prices and recovery technologies that are less favourable than today's prices and extraction technologies."

Surface material opportunity

In 2024, the company completed a high-resolution lidar survey over the Manhattan district. Volumetric modelling of the lidar data, reconciled against premining topographic maps dated 1971 with minimum contour spacing of 40 feet, together with density assumptions and swell factor estimates provided by the company, has delineated the physical extent of the surface material across the four facilities: the heap leach pad, the tailings storage facilities, the waste dump and the historic low-grade stockpile area. The quantity and grade of this material have not been categorized as a mineral resource or mineral reserve under National Instrument 43-101 and, accordingly, the company is not disclosing tonnage or volume estimates at this time. A key objective of the program is to generate the drilling, sampling, assay and density data required to support a mineral resource estimate that would define the tonnage and grade of this material with reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction.

Program overview

The program will be executed in two phases.

Phase 1 -- sonic drilling and head characterization: Approximately 35 vertical sonic drill holes are planned to use a track-mounted sonic rig, with drilling services to be contracted directly by the company. Sonic drilling is the industry-standard method for sampling unconsolidated material, providing continuous, representative core through dumps, tailings, leach pad and stockpile material.

Samples will be collected on 0.5- to 1.0-metre intervals. Head characterization test work consisting of total gold and silver assays, LECO sulphur analysis, and cyanide shake testing will be used to estimate grade, variability, oxidation state and cyanide amenability across the four material sources. SLR will provide on-site support throughout drilling, including logging, sampling, chain of custody and quality assurance/quality control protocols, with a full summary report to follow.

Results from the head characterization will determine whether the material warrants a full metallurgical test work program, which may include bottle-roll and cyanide leach testing, gravity and flotation amenability, mineralogical characterization, and other test work relevant to potential processing routes and toll milling discussions.

Phase 2 -- mineral resource estimate: Should phase 1 produce results indicating potential economic value and drill hole spacing is deemed sufficient, SLR will complete a mineral resource estimate for the waste dump, tailings, heap-leach and/or low-grade stockpile material, as applicable, defining the tonnage and grade of material with reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction. Any such estimate would be incremental to the company's existing mineral resource inventory at Manhattan.

About the Manhattan district

Manhattan, located in the Walker Lane trend of Nevada, United States, is road accessible and lies approximately 15 kilometres south of the operating Round Mountain gold mine, which has produced more than 15 million ounces of gold. For the first time, the company has consolidated Manhattan's past-producing mines under a single entity that holds valuable permitting and water rights. Historically, Manhattan has produced approximately 700,000 ounces of gold from high-grade placer and lode operations dating from the late 1890s through to the mid-2000s. The maiden mineral resource estimate covering the Goldwedge and Manhattan pit areas of Manhattan comprises 18,343,000 tonnes grading 1.26 grams per tonne gold for a total of 740,000 ounces contained gold in the inferred category.

A historical mineral resource estimate covers the Black Mammoth, April Fool, Hooligan, Keystone and Jumbo areas of Manhattan and comprises 1,652,325 tonnes grading 5.89 g/t gold for a total of 312,900 ounces contained gold. The deposit is interpreted as a low-sulphidation, epithermal, gold-rich system situated adjacent to the Tertiary-aged Manhattan caldera in the Southern Toquima Range of Nevada. A qualified person as defined in NI 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has not done sufficient work to make the historical MRE current, and the company is not treating the historical MRE as current.

Qualified person

The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Leo Hathaway, PGeo, executive technical director of Scorpio Gold, a qualified person, as defined under NI 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Scorpio Gold Corp.

Scorpio Gold holds a 100-per-cent interest in the Manhattan district, located in the Walker Lane trend of Nevada, United States. Scorpio Gold's Manhattan district is approximately 4,780 hectares and comprises the advanced exploration-stage Goldwedge mine and four past-producing pits that were acquired from Kinross in 2021 (see news release dated March 25, 2021). The consolidated Manhattan district presents an exciting late-stage exploration opportunity, with over 140,000 metres of historical drilling, significant resource potential, and valuable permitting and water rights.

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