Ms. Dawn Zhou reports

ABASCA RESOURCES CONTINUES TO FOCUS ON URANIUM EXPLORATION AT ITS 100%-OWNED KLS PROJECT AND TO EVALUATE FLAKE GRAPHITE POTENTIAL AT ITS LOKI ZONE

Abasca Resources Inc. has provided exploration updates on the 100-per-cent-owned, 23,977-hectare Key Lake South uranium project (KLS) in Northern Saskatchewan. The company has also outlined its exploration plans for 2024. The company continues to focus on advancing its exploration at KLS toward a uranium discovery and is planning a 5,000-metre drill program to test prospective target areas and trends. A resampling program to evaluate graphite potential in what is now referred to as the Loki zone is planned after recent assay and QEMSCAN analyses of samples in the Campbell target area returned significant results from the 2016 drill program.

Drill program

In 2023, the company completed two drill programs totalling 10,135 metres. The programs were designed as initial follow-up to historical shallow drilling conducted in 1978 and 1979 that intersected graphitic fault zones and local clay alteration. In addition to intersecting anomalous uranium mineralization at the Mustang target area (see news release dated May 24, 2023), the 2023 drilling confirmed prospective graphitic structures and local oxidation, bleaching, silicification and clay alteration.

The 2024 drill program is planned to continue the methodical testing of prospective uranium targets at KLS, including parts of the Mustang-Seager Lake conductor corridor along strike of the Key Lake uranium deposits, as well as the Campbell and Zimmer target areas:

• The Mustang-Seager Lake trend is part of a regional conductive corridor that extends along strike toward the Key Lake uranium deposits. The KLS uranium project includes 10 kilometres of this corridor that comprise multiple stacked graphitic fault zones and include anomalous uranium up to 1,260 parts per million uranium that was intersected at the Mustang target area in 2023. The 2024 drilling will focus on testing structural breaks and bends in the central and northern segments of this largely untested corridor.
• The Zimmer target area is located in the central part of the project area, and the 2024 drilling plans to follow up on previously intersected clay alteration.
• The western section of the Campbell target area was previously drilled in 2016 and intersected anomalous uranium up to 2,160 ppm U in a sample from drill hole KS-CC16-13. In addition, an intensely graphitic fault zone was intersected over 40 m of core length and has a known two km strike length. The 2024 drilling at Campbell is planned to follow up on the anomalous uranium intersection, as well as test the extent of the main fault zone to evaluate its economic potential for graphite in the Loki zone.

Brian McEwan, vice-president of exploration, stated: "The intersection of reactivated graphitic fault zones, hydrothermal alteration and anomalous radioactivity in the 2023 drilling keep us optimistic that we are on the right track. We have only tested a narrow portion of the prospective corridors at KLS, and we are confident in our systematic approach to determine where we should focus our efforts in future exploration programs."

Loki zone graphite

In addition to uranium, Natural Resources Canada also lists graphite as a critical mineral. Graphite is one of six critical minerals considered essential for priority supply chains for modern clean technologies such as batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). Recent review of the drill cores from a drilling program conducted in 2016 at the Campbell target area concluded that further evaluation of its graphite potential is warranted. The 2016 drilling intersected a moderately dipping, strongly graphitic fault zone over a two km strike length. Intersections of the graphitic fault were within the first 200 m of each drill hole and up to 40 m down hole. The extent of the fault zone is currently open along strike and down dip.

Samples from the 2016 drill program, stored at SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories in Saskatoon, were selected for graphite content as an initial test to determine further work (see an attached table). Several samples were also selected for flake size and morphology analysis by QEMSCAN. The samples were originally collected to evaluate pathfinder elements as part of uranium exploration and, therefore, only representative samples were collected and the entire graphitic zone and its surrounding area were not sampled.

Loki flake graphite highlights:

• Strongly graphitic fault zone with intersections up to 40 m down hole and a two km strike length;
• Shallow mineralization -- intersections within first 200 m of drilling and open down dip;
• Multiple intersections with total graphite greater than 10 per cent, including up to 22.2 per cent in a 50-centimetre sample in hole KS-CC16-12;
• Median diameter passing percentage for 10 samples selected for QEMSCAN: 147 micrometres, including a sample up to 214 micrometres.

Resampling of the graphite mineralization in 2016 drill core is planned to be completed during the summer in conjunction with the 2024 drill program.

"Abasca's team remains focused on locating potential uranium deposits at KLS, and we will continue to explore all identified uranium target areas on the KLS uranium project. Meanwhile, we are pleased with the preliminary grade and mineralogic results of the flake graphite at the Loki zone and look forward to contributing to Saskatchewan's critical-minerals strategy on diversified target minerals," stated Dawn Zhou, president and chief executive officer.

Collected samples in 2016 were originally sent to SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories in Saskatoon, Sask., an independent laboratory accredited under ISO/IEC 17025:2017, for preparation and ICP-MS multielement analysis and boron by fusion. The pulps from the samples have been stored at SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories and were analyzed for graphite content and total sulphur by LECO. Samples were originally collected in 2016 as part of a uranium exploration program in accordance with industry-standard quality assurance/quality control practices and included the insertion of blanks, standard reference materials and repeats into the sample stream at regular intervals; however, no graphite reference materials were used.

For more information and an overview of the Key Lake South uranium project, please visit the company's website.

Qualified person

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dave Billard, PGeo, a qualified person as set out in National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Billard is a director of Abasca.

About Abasca Resources Inc.

Abasca is a mineral exploration company that is primarily engaged in the acquisition and evaluation of mineral exploration properties. The company owns the Key Lake South uranium project, a 23,977-hectare uranium exploration project located in the Athabasca basin region in Northern Saskatchewan, approximately 15 kilometres south of the former Key Lake mine and current Key Lake mill.