Mr. James Hesketh reports

VIVA GOLD INITIATES WORK PROGRAMS AND RESOURCE EXPANSION INITIATIVES

Viva Gold Corp. has commenced work to advance its 100-per-cent-owned Tonopah project into feasibility work, while also taking steps to demonstrate additional potential to increase gold and silver mineral resource at the project. Tonopah is in the heart of the prolific Walker Land trend in Nevada and is approximately a 20-minute drive from the town of Tonopah, Nev., and half hour's drive from Kinross Gold's Round Mountain gold mine.

"The Tonopah gold project is one of the most advanced undeveloped gold projects in Nevada. Viva's primary focus for 2026 is to rapidly advance Tonopah through prefeasibility/feasibility study work and into development permitting. In 2025, Viva published a preliminary economic analysis (PEA) and resource estimate at Tonopah and closed the year with an equity financing to support moving the project forward. Our 2025 PEA identified areas of work required to further improve project economics and to guide our feasibility study program. The existing pit confined resource at Tonopah contains 86-per-cent measured and indicated material, a high confidence level mineral resource. Viva believes that this advanced project status combined with its advanced metallurgical and baseline environmental study work provides the company with a competitive advantage and the ability to strongly leverage its current market valuation," stated James Hesketh, president and chief executive officer.

Initial work programs commenced by Viva in 2026 include:

• Viva has submitted a proposed work plan (WP No. 44) under its existing programmatic agreement to the United States Bureau of Land Management for approval of up to 23 drill locations. The primary goal of this work is to infill remaining areas of high-grade (1.0 gram per tonne (gpt)) inferred mineralization within the 2025 PEA (preliminary economic assessment) pit shell for potential conversion to measured and indicated material while also following up on identified high-grade extensions to the resource pit. Additional drill hole locations are planned in the Midway Hills prospect area of the project, about 1.4 kilometres to the west of the main pit, to validate and deepen existing drilling completed in the 1980s. Drilling is expected to commence in February.
• A series of bottle roll tests are currently under way to test heap leach gold recovery potential at a coarse crush size (36 millimetres) for low-grade gold mineralization (approximately 0.4 gram per tonne Au) at the project. A crush size of approximately 12.5 mm was used in the 2025 PEA study costing. This work, if successful, will be followed by column leach testwork. Coarse crush has the potential to reduce both capital and operating costs for heap leach operations at Tonopah.
• Viva is currently developing scopes of work and holding discussions with engineering companies experienced in prefeasibility/feasibility evaluations for gold development projects in Nevada. A key focus will be to assess the accelerated development of high-grade gold mineralization in the pit to initiate early CIL mill production while deferring the heap leaching of low-grade gold mineralization. This processing schedule would defer initial capital costs for the heap-leach circuit and should accelerate initial capital payback. The unique nature of the Tonopah gold deposit allows this segregation to be considered.
• Viva has solicited quotes from its existing geotechnical and hydrological consultants for studies to include work on optimizing pit slope angles, pit dewatering requirements, storm water and pit water disposal options, as well as hydrologic modelling. This work is required to support both feasibility study and development permitting and will incorporate all information collected over the last five years of project work at Tonopah.
• In late 2025, Viva commissioned a third party independent review of all available historical exploration data available on the Tonopah property and its near proximity with the goal of identifying additional exploration opportunities for resource expansion. A total of seven areas were identified for additional review. One of these areas, Midway Hills, was partially drilled in the 1980s with gold discovery that has not been followed up. Viva has contracted a geophysical company to complete an additional 14,000 metres of CSAMT geophysical survey with fieldwork to be completed over the next two months to help better define several of the identified targets. CSAMT was a key tool used in the original discovery of the Tonopah deposit.

About Viva Gold Corp.

Viva Gold's 100-per-cent-owned Tonopah gold project sits in the middle of gold mining country about a half-hour drive south of the Round Mountain mine owned by Kinross Gold and controls a major land position on the prolific Walker Lane trend in Western Nevada. Viva has developed a high confidence level gold mineral resource and can demonstrate the potential for an economically viable open pit, heap leach/mill gold project through rigorous PEA study. Viva Gold is committed to developing the Tonopah gold project in an environmentally and socially responsible fashion. These values are aligned with management's core values and permeate throughout the company's decision-making process.

Viva Gold is led by chief executive officer James Hesketh, a 40-year veteran in the mining space who has led the development and construction of eight other mines around the world throughout his career. Mr. Hesketh has surrounded himself with equally experienced mining professionals both on the management team and the board.

Viva Gold trades on the TSX Venture exchange VAU, on the OTCQB VAUCF and on the Frankfurt exchange 7PB. Viva currently has about 171.7 million shares outstanding and boasts a best-in-class management team and board with decades of gold exploration and production experience. The company is advancing its high-grade Tonopah gold project in mining friendly Nevada with the support of several institutional shareholders.

James Hesketh, MMSA-QP, has approved the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this press release. Mr. Hesketh is not independent of the company; he is an officer and director.

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