Dr. Diane Nicolson reports

AMARC 2023 YEAR IN REVIEW FULLY FUNDED FOR EXTENSIVE 2024 DRILLING

Amarc Resources Ltd. has provided a summary of Amarc's achievements and milestones in 2023, which culminated in all of the company's projects being fully financed for 2024. The stage is now set for extensive drilling to significantly advance the company's 100-per-cent-owned portfolio of copper-gold (Cu-Au) porphyry districts this year. Amarc will operate all projects.

In 2023, the company advanced both the Joy and Duke districts through extensive work programs financed by Amarc's earn-in parties: Freeport-McMoRan Mineral Properties Canada Inc. and Boliden Mineral Canada Ltd., respectively. Both companies (see Amarc's news releases dated Oct. 26, 2023, and Dec. 13, 2023) are continuing their participation into this year. Management believes that these strategic earn-in agreements are a testament to the quality of Amarc's project portfolio, located in British Columbia, a premier mining jurisdiction, and its attractiveness to major mining companies. In addition to being important catalysts to the advancement of the company's projects, the investments made through the Joy and Duke agreements will provide a significant flow of exploration results in 2024.

In a challenging market for junior exploration companies, Amarc also completed a $2.77-million international financing in late 2023 (see Amarc's news release dated Dec. 1, 2023). Approximately $2-million of the net proceeds will be used exclusively for exploration of Amarc's portfolio of B.C. copper-gold projects, with the remainder to be used for working capital. As a result, Amarc is well financed to meet its corporate objectives in 2024.

Joy copper-gold district

In May, 2021, Amarc entered into a mineral property earn-in agreement with Freeport, a wholly owned subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (see Amarc's news release dated May 12, 2021). Freeport may acquire up to a 70-per-cent ownership interest in Joy by making staged investments totalling $110-million.

The 2023 program built on the successes of the systematic 2022 program (15,427 metres in 37 core holes and extensive surface surveys) that defined the important potential of deposit-scale porphyry Cu-Au systems (see Amarc's news releases dated Jan. 23, 2023, and March 2, 2023). Highlights include:

• The emergence of mineralized trends at Joy, similar to the four-kilometre-long northeast trend of the Nugget, Kemess North, Kemess Underground, Kemess Offset and Kemess East porphyry Cu-Au deposits in the Kemess mining district held by Centerra Gold Inc., and located immediately adjacent to the south of the Joy tenure.
• The northeast-striking 15 km Pine trend at Joy, which includes large-scale sulphide systems outlined by induced polarization (IP) surveys at the Pine (six square km) deposit, Canyon (five square km) discovery, and Twins (seven square km) and SWT (three square km) deposit targets. Initial drilling results at each of these systems indicate the potential for a cluster of porphyry mineralized deposits.
• A considerable extension of mineralization along strike to over 1,700 m and from near surface to depth at the Pine deposit. Widely spaced drilling completed to date indicates clear potential to expand the length of the deposit footprint to over 2,600 m.
• Limited initial scout drilling discovered substantial new Cu-Au porphyry mineralization at the largely overburden-covered Canyon (five square km) deposit target (see Amarc's news release dated March 2, 2023).
• Freeport's investments to date include $5.94-million contributed in 2021, approximately $14-million in 2022 (see Amarc's news releases dated Nov. 15, 2021, and Oct. 11, 2022), plus fully financing this past year's program. The extensive field surveys in 2023 focused on detailed refinement of multiple porphyry Cu-Au targets clustered along mineralized trends over the 495 square km property. The 2023 program also included rehabilitation of road and bridge access to the Pine Cu-Au deposit and other deposit targets to prepare for an extensive drilling program in 2024.

On Oct. 26, 2023, Amarc announced that planning had commenced with Freeport ahead of the 2024 drilling program, which is scheduled to commence in the second quarter.

Duke copper-gold district

In November, 2022, Amarc entered into a mineral property earn-in agreement (EIA) with Boliden, an entity within the Boliden Group of companies (see Amarc's news release dated Nov. 22, 2022). Under the terms of the agreement, Boliden has a two-staged option to earn up to a 70-per-cent interest in the Duke district by investing $90-million in exploration and development expenditures.

Since that time, $10-million in exploration expenditures at the Duke district have been fully financed under the EIA with Boliden (see Amarc's news release dated Nov. 22, 2022).

Drilling in 2023 confirmed that the Duke deposit extends to depths of at least 600 m and expanded the deposit footprint laterally to over 650 m north-south by 800 m east-west (see Amarc's news release dated June 15, 2023). Moreover, a comprehensive exploration template was developed to effectively screen and advance the additional 16 priority exploration targets within the extensive 722 square km Duke district tenure. This rapid advance in understanding of the controls on mineralization at the Duke deposit provides a higher probability of success in these regional target areas, while revealing significant potential exists, with further drilling, for the definition of internal higher-grade zones within that deposit.

On Dec. 13, 2023, Amarc announced that preparations have commenced with Boliden for an extensive, $10-million 2024 exploration program at Duke, with drilling planned to commence on site in February. The program will be fully financed by Boliden.

Outlook

Copper is a critical mineral that plays a key role in the global energy transition, with surging demand for electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure projects.

The growing demand is expected to collide with a lack of new projects coming on-line later in the decade. Further, recent closures and production cuts of approximately 600,000 tons of refined copper have shown how vulnerable existing production is, leading industry analysts to forecast supply deficits and a rapidly tightening copper market in 2024 and 2025.

Also in 2023, more than 60 countries at the COP28 climate change conference backed a plan to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030. This plan is expected to generate approximately 4.2 million tons in extra copper demand by that time, according to a recent report by Citibank.

Amarc believes the outlook for the copper market is bright and the need for development of new copper resources is clear, as demand from green transition industries is growing rapidly and appears to be outpacing any new potential supply. Hence, Amarc will continue to focus on developing the kind of district-scale, high-value copper-gold assets that major mine operators want and the world needs.

Dr. Roy Greig, PGeo, a qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical content in this release.

We seek Safe Harbor.