Western Exploration Inc. (TSX-V: WEX) (OTCQX: WEXPF) is pleased to provide an update regarding the initial assay results following the completion of the Company’s Phase 1 drill program at Doby George, one of three main mineral deposits located at the Company’s wholly-owned Aura project, located in Elko County, Nevada.

DRILL HIGHLIGHTS

• DGC789 intersected 20.88 meters of 1.41 g/t and 23.63 meters of 3.27 g/t Au, including 7.32 meters of 5.27 g/t Au.
• DGC790 intersected 54.56 meters of 2.08 g/t Au, including 6.4 meters of 4.70 g/t Au.

Darcy Marud, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Western Exploration, commented: “The first two drill holes completed at Doby George demonstrate the remarkable continuity and tenor of near surface oxide gold mineralization and support our assumption that Doby George can be a high-quality, high-grade oxide gold deposit. Importantly, wide zones of higher-grade mineralization offer potential to expand the current resources, not only within the oxide zone but also at depth within the unoxidized part of Doby George.”

The complete results for DGC789 and DGC790 are reported below in Table 1. Assay results for the remaining seven drill holes are pending.

Table 1. 2022 Doby George Drill Hole Results

All sample intervals were assayed by both fire assay (AuFA) and cyanide soluble shake tests (AuCN) followed up by atomic absorption finish. The AuCN results are a measure of the solubility of Au in dilute CN solutions and the state of oxidation of the samples. An AuCN/AuFA ratio of greater than 80% generally indicates strong oxidation and good cyanide extraction potential.

DRILL PROGRAM DETAILS

The Phase 1 drill program was comprised of nine large diameter (PQ) core holes which were completed between July 26, 2022 and September 12, 2022. The drill holes were located at eight different drill sites for a total of 1,138 metres at the Doby George deposit (see Figure 1 and Table 2 below).

The purpose of the Phase 1 drill program was to evaluate areas within, and adjacent to, the current resource boundary to:

• validate and delineate current mineral resources;
• locally test for the expansion potential and structural controls on mineralization;
• provide samples for metallurgical test work to outline leach kinematics, as well as mineralized material and waste rock characteristics; and
• expand upon geotechnical studies through additional test work.

Table 2. Drill Hole Coordinates

Holes DGC789 and DGC790 were completed in the West Ridge resource area of Doby George, which accounts for approximately 82% of the current mineral resource estimate at Doby George. The drill holes are approximately 440 meters apart and showed very positive grade distribution when compared to the resource block model prepared for the Company by Mine Development Associates and contained in the technical report titled “2021 Updated Resource Estimates and Technical Report For the Aura Gold-Silver Project, Elko County, Nevada” dated October 20, 2021 (with an effective date of October 14, 2021) (see Figure 2 and Figure 3 below). A copy of the Technical Report is available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) under Western Exploration’s issuer profile.

Once assays results have been received for all nine drill holes completed in connection with the Phase 1 drill program, McClelland labs will commence certain heap leach and column leach test work with the previously crushed and assayed samples. The Company expects to receive the results of all metallurgical test work at the start of Q2 2023.

About Doby George

Doby George is one of the highest-grade, undeveloped open pit heap leach resources in Nevada and one of three mineral deposits on Western Exploration’s 100% owned Aura Project. The Aura Project is located 32 kilometers north of the Jerritt Canyon mine, which has been in continual operation since 1981. The deposit is an outcropping, high-grade sediment-hosted mineral deposit, with multiple zones of mineralization identified by drilling in a 1.7 x 0.8 km area (see Figure 4 below). The zone of oxidation extends approximately 150 to 200 meters below surface, while limited deep drilling has encountered unoxidized gold mineralization at depths of over 600 meters below surface.

Homestake Mining Company initially discovered the deposit in the mid-1980s. Since that time, 827 drill holes have been completed, totaling 115,197 meters of drilling. This includes 74 drill holes, totaling 22,622 meters that were drilled by Western Exploration LLC between 1998 and 2017. Metallurgical test work completed on oxidized material by Homestake Mining Company, Independence Mining Company, and Atlas Precious Metals Inc., has indicated favorable metallurgy for standard cyanide heap leach processing. Results from the previous metallurgical testing completed on 52 bottle rolls and 23 column leach samples indicate that heap leach gold recoveries approaching seventy percent can be expected via a crush of 1 to 1.5 inches.

In addition to an established mineral resource estimate (as determined in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects), the Aura Project has well established infrastructure including year-round accessibility by highway and county-maintained road and nearby access to water and electricity (see Figure 5 below). Western Exploration has exploration, development, and mining rights on 930 hectares of privately owned fee lands through a mineral lease agreement with a local landowner and may purchase those fee lands at any time for the development of Doby George.

The 6,000-hectare Aura Project is unique in the junior mining space insofar as resources have been identified in three different deposits (Doby George, Gravel Creek and Wood Gulch), as supported by the Technical Report (see Table 3 below).

Table 3. Updated resource estimates for the Aura Project as contained in the Technical Report

In 2017, Agnico Eagle Mines Limited became a partner of the Company and has invested over US$14 million in support of the Company’s exploration initiatives. In addition, Agnico Eagle Mines Limited provides technical expertise to the Company through a joint technical committee with Western Exploration’s management team.

About Western Exploration

Born from a 25-year history of advancing exploration projects in Nevada as a private company, today Western Exploration is composed of an experienced team of precious metals experts that aims to lead Western Exploration to becoming a premiere gold and silver development company in North America. The Company’s principal asset is the 100% owned Aura gold-silver project, located approximately 120 kilometers/75 miles north of the city of Elko, Nevada, and includes three unique gold and silver deposits: Doby George, Gravel Creek, and Wood Gulch.

Qualified Person Approval

The scientific and technical content in this news release has been reviewed, prepared and approved by Mark Hawksworth, General Manager of the Western Exploration’s Aura Project, who is a “qualified person” within the meaning of NI 43-101.

Quality Assurance – Quality Control

Drill program design, Quality Assurance/Quality Control and the interpretation of results is performed by qualified persons employing a QA/QC program consistent with NI 43-101 and industry best practices.

Drill core samples were delivered by Major Drilling to Western Exploration’s secure warehouse/logging facility in Mountain City and washed, photographed and logged by company geologists. Quality control samples are inserted at regular intervals in the sample stream, including blanks and reference materials with all sample shipments to monitor laboratory performance.

Drill core samples are transported by Neilsen Exploration to McClelland Laboratory Inc. located in Sparks, Nevada, for sample preparation and analysis. Each interval is removed from the core box, weighed and crushed using a jaw-crusher to an approximately 2″ top size. The crushed interval is blended by repeated coning and is quartered to obtain a one-quarter split for finer crush. Each one-quarter split is crushed to 10 mesh (2 mm) and split to obtain 0.25 – 0.50 kg for pulverization. For fire assays, the 0.25 kg split is pulverized to >95%-150 mesh (106µm). Analysis for gold and silver is completed using a 30-gram fire assay with AA finish. For the CN soluble tests, A 10-gram aliquot of sample (>95%-106 µm) is leached by shaking in a 50 mL test tube for 1 hour, at ambient temperature and 33.3% solids, using a solution of NaCN (5.0 gpL) and pH > 11.0 using NaOH. The solution is separated by centrifuging. Clear solution is analyzed by AA for gold.

Figure 1. Location of 2022 PQ Metallurgical test holes and resource zones in the Doby George deposit (Graphic: Business Wire)

Figure 2. Positive comparison of fire assay gold values in hole DGC789, relative to block model grades contained in the Technical Report. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Figure 3. Positive comparison of fire assay gold values in hole DGC790, relative to the block model grades contained in the Technical Report. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Figure 4. Doby George deposit with +1.0 g/t Au resource blocks and US$1,800 Au pits. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Figure 5. Aura Project – Land holdings and Infrastructure. (Graphic: Business Wire)