Mr. Kiran Patankar reports

MAPLE GOLD COMMENCES 10,000 METRE PHASE I DRILL PROGRAM AT DOUAY AND PROVIDES 2025 OUTLOOK FOR THE DOUAY/JOUTEL GOLD PROJECT

Maple Gold Mines Ltd. has provided an exploration update and 2025 outlook for its 100-per-cent-owned Douay gold project and Joutel gold project, located along the Casa Berardi/Douay gold trend in Quebec, Canada.

A 10,000-metre phase I diamond drilling program has now commenced at Douay with an expected duration of three to four months. Key objectives of the program include:

• Targeting poorly drilled areas within inferred resources for conversion to indicated resources within the pit-constrained and underground resource domains;
• Stepout drilling along strike, downdip and downplunge to expand inferred resources;
• Stepout drilling from zones of high-grade gold mineralization within the underground inferred resources to demonstrate lateral and vertical continuity;
• Targeting areas between modelled mineralized zones with geological continuity;
• Testing new targets developed during the compilation exercise of geological, geochemical and geophysical data.

Concurrent development initiatives are anticipated throughout 2025 to advance and derisk the Douay deposit, including a review of the current Douay mineral resource estimate (MRE) and an evaluation of potential scenarios to optimize higher-grade mineral resources that could be accessible by underground mining methods. An additional 3,000 metres of diamond drilling are planned at Joutel in the second half of 2025 to extend the known high-grade gold mineralization along the past-producing Eagle-Telbel mine trend.

"We are excited to be drilling again at Douay with refocused attention on the higher-grade core of the deposit and its possible extensions both within and beyond our current drill pattern up to 500 metres vertical depth," stated Kiran Patankar, president and chief executive officer. "Maple Gold's technical team has accomplished a monumental task in compiling over 50 years of exploration data to generate new geological/structural/geochemical 3-D models that have vastly improved our drill targeting. This work highlights the excellent exploration potential of Douay/Joutel, the importance of its location along the deep-seated Casa Berardi break and the opportunity for the property to host multiple gold deposits within a variety of geological settings. Our focus in 2025 will be executing a comprehensive exploration and development program that is aimed at delivering shareholder value through the drill bit and via project derisking while maintaining strict cost discipline across the company."

A total exploration budget of approximately $6.3-million has been established for 2025, including permitting, drilling, assaying, personnel, and camp and site support costs. The 2025 work program will be fully financed from Maple Gold's existing treasury.

Program details

The company is currently planning a minimum of 10,000 metres of diamond drilling at Douay in 2025. Phase I drilling has now commenced with an expected duration of approximately three to four months. The breakdown of the drilling metreage will be approximately: 70 per cent dedicated to derisking and expanding the Douay MRE through strategic infill and stepout holes (along strike and at depth); and 30 per cent for the testing of new regional geological and geophysical targets along strike from the Douay MRE and north into the Taibi group sediments along favourable structural breaks and lithologic contacts. The company plans to complete infill drilling throughout the Douay MRE to convert inferred resources to indicated resources, potentially add new inferred resources within poorly drilled 100-to-200-metre gaps between modelled mineral domains and target the downplunge extensions of higher-grade zones outside the Douay MRE.

The company plans to utilize all available data from its year-long data compilation exercise to initially target the shallow portions of the Douay mineralizing system (greater than 500 metres vertical depth) to fully understand the geometry of the known zones and outline key plunge directions (phase I) before systematically stepping downplunge and at depth (greater than 500 metres vertical depth) during a proposed second drilling phase (phase II). This will allow the company to control exploration risk and maximize exploration success.

The initial focus of phase I drilling will be on the central portions of the Douay MRE targeting higher-grade areas within the porphyry zone (comprising west/central/east portions), which is hosted within the Douay intrusive complex and includes some of the highest-grade assays returned on the property (up to 2,888 grams per tonne of gold over 0.5 metre in historical drill hole DO-05-04). Other targets include: the 531 zone which is hosted within mafic volcanic and folded interflow sedimentary rocks and includes one of highest-grade gold intersections reported by the company in drill hole DO-21-310, which returned 8.8 grams per tonne gold over 28.5 metres, including 12.7 grams per tonne gold over 10.0 metres and 31.1 grams per tonne gold over 0.5 metre (see the company's news release dated Sept. 9, 2021); and the Main zone, which lies along the northern edge of the Douay deformation zone (DDZ) with gold mineralization hosted along the sheared graphitic contact between the Taibi group volcaniclastic and sedimentary rocks to the north and Cartwright Hills group mafic volcanic rocks to the south. Taibi group sediments represent a promising new target area for the company with the potential for sediment-hosted gold deposits along a major lithotectonic boundary similar to the Casa Berardi and Canadian Malartic deposits.

Douay/Joutel exploration update

Since the completion of its last drilling campaign in the spring of 2023, the company has focused on streamlining on-site operations, standardizing procedures, enhancing efficiencies, centralizing data management, optimizing workflow and reducing overhead site costs. This effort has led to increased productivity from a revamped technical team that has reviewed historical drill core, compiled and digitized data, distinguished new geological and structural controls on gold mineralization, and developed vectors for targeting gold mineralization in the next phases of drilling.

Key tasks completed by the Maple Gold technical team include: relogging of historical diamond drill core (greater than 20,000 metres); reinterpretation and preparation of drill hole cross-sections and level plans for all mineralized zones; updating and creating new robust 3-D geological and structural models in Leapfrog software; updating of the propertywide drill hole and geochemical databases with previously unincorporated historical data; layering of geological, structural, geochemical and geophysical data sets to generate new targets; and use of expert geochemical consultants to process multielement assay data to identify potential pathfinder elements and hot spots.

Key findings from the year-long data review and compilation exercise include:

• The Casa Berardi deformation zone (CBDZ) widens around Douay/Joutel, resulting in complex zones along the DDZ of brittle and ductile deformation, subsidiary splays, north-northeast cross-faulting, and potential dextral rotation around the Douay intrusive complex resulting in Delta-type pressure shadows and possible structural traps for gold.
• A variety of host domains and rock types are favourable for gold mineralization, including the Douay alkaline intrusion, Taibi group sediments (including iron formations), Cartwright Hills group basalts (including iron-rich tholeiitic komatiites), Temiskaming-style conglomerates and structural breaks associated with major lithotectonic (volcanic sedimentary) contacts.
• Multiple styles and generations of mineralization are present at Douay/Joutel, including intrusion-related gold systems (IRGS), multiphase breccias, late orogenic gold and synvolcanic-exhalative gold (Eagle-Telbel).
• Gold mineralization is commonly associated with broad zones of albitization, iron carbonatization, silicification, hematization, fenitization and biotitization; and pyritization and alteration can be used as a key vector for gold mineralization.
• The 12 main mineralized zones all display a strong plunge geometry to the higher-grade gold mineralization, which varies from shallow to steep and from southeast to southwest, possibly related to an earlier folding event. There also appears be a periodicity to the mineralized zones within the DDZ spaced 500 metres to 1,000 metres apart.
• There has been very limited drilling below 500 metres vertical depth in comparison with other gold deposits in the Abitibi (East Gouldie/Odyssey and LaRonde).

Planned Douay development initiatives

The company plans to review the current Douay MRE for the project, which currently contains both pit-constrained and underground inferred and indicated mineral resources to optimize higher-grade resources that could be accessible through an underground mining scenario. Initial focus would include the Douay West zone, which currently hosts indicated mineral resources totalling 4.2 million tonnes grading 2.13 grams per tonne gold (containing 286,000 ounces of gold) and inferred mineral resources totalling 3.7 million tonnes grading 1.39 grams per tonne gold (containing 169,000 ounces of gold). Douay West also includes existing surface infrastructure constructed in 1995, including a head frame and mine hoist.

2024 exploration work completed at Joutel and Morris VMS (volcanogenic massive sulphide) project

In Q2 2024, the company completed a 525 line-kilometre airborne drone magnetic geophysical survey over a detailed grid on the western portion of the Joutel gold project to assist in the development of new drill targets along the western strike extent of the Eagle-Telbel stratigraphy.

In Q3 2024, the company completed a lithogeochemical sampling program over its Morris VMS project, located 29 kilometres east of Matagami, Que. The program focused on the felsic volcanic rocks of the key Watson Lake formation, which are present on the Morris project and are known to host the major VMS deposits within the Matagami mining camp. The summer 2024 sampling program highlighted several areas of highly altered rhyolite, and the company is developing plans for follow-up work in 2025.

Qualified person

Ian Cunningham-Dunlop, PEng, vice-president, technical services, of Maple Gold and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information related to exploration and mineral resource matters contained in this news release.

About the Douay/Joutel gold project

The Douay/Joutel gold project is located adjacent to Highway 109 in the heart of the Abitibi greenstone belt, Canada's premier gold mining jurisdiction. This large, 100-per-cent-owned land package includes the multimillion-ounce Douay gold project and the past-producing, high-grade Joutel gold mine complex. The property contains approximately 400 square kilometres of highly prospective geology within the influence of the major gold-bearing CDBZ. Gold mines in the immediate region include the Casa Berardi gold mine operated by Hecla Mining Company and the Detour Lake Gold Mine operated by Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.

About Maple Gold Mines Ltd.

Maple Gold is a Canadian advanced exploration company focused on advancing its 100-per-cent-owned, district-scale Douay and Joutel gold projects located in Quebec's prolific Abitibi greenstone gold belt. The Douay/Joutel projects benefit from exceptional infrastructure access and boast approximately 400 square kilometres of highly prospective ground, including an established gold mineral resource at Douay with significant expansion potential as well as the past-producing Telbel and Eagle West mines at Joutel. In addition, the company holds an exclusive option to acquire 100 per cent of the Eagle mine property, a key part of the historical Joutel mining complex.

Maple Gold's property package also hosts a significant number of regional exploration targets along a 55-kilometre strike length of the Casa Berardi deformation zone that have yet to be tested through drilling, making the property ripe for new gold and polymetallic discoveries. The company is currently focused on carrying out exploration and drill programs to grow mineral resources and make new discoveries to establish an exciting new gold district in the heart of the Abitibi region.

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