Mr. Marc Blythe reports

AU GOLD CORP ENTERS AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE HAVELOCK GOLD-ANTIMONY PROJECT IN THE HEART OF THE VICTORIAN GOLD FIELDS, AUSTRALIA

Au Gold Corp. has entered into an agreement with Leviathan Gold Australia (LGA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Leviathan Metals Corp., dated Jan. 12, 2026, to acquire a 100-per-cent interest in the 11,663-hectare Havelock gold-antimony project, located in the heart of the Victorian gold fields in Australia, halfway between Bendigo and Ballarat.

Highlights of Havelock:

• Shallow, undrilled epizonal and mesozonal gold plus/minus antimony targets;
• Historical production from multiple small-scale underground workings with recorded gold grades between one to 10 ounces per ton;
• Antimony reported in historic underground workings;
• History of coarse alluvial gold (nuggets) on the property;
• Excellent access with year-round exploration potential.

Marc Blythe, Au Gold's president and chief executive officer, stated: "Recent success at Fosterville (Agnico Eagle), Sunday Creek (Southern Cross Gold) and Costerfield (Alkane Resources) has highlighted the potential of Victoria's epizonal gold-antimony deposits. At Havelock, mining in the 1880's recovered high-grade gold-bearing quartz reef with abundant stibnite (antimony sulphide) at one of at least seven workings along a nine km trend within the project area. This historic mining has never been followed up with modern exploration programs or drilling. We are very excited to start exploration, including testing high-priority gold-antimony targets at Havelock."

Epizonal gold systems, such as those mentioned above, have created high-grade gold deposits that are now a focus for modern exploration. Significant antimony with gold in this part of Victoria is regarded as a reasonable proxy for epizonal gold mineralization.

The company has agreed to pay LGA, an arm's-length party, $75,000 and issue five million shares of Au Gold for a 100-per-cent interest in the project. In addition, Au Gold will pay per ounce payments for future resource definition. The acquisition is subject to acceptance for filing by the TSX Venture Exchange.

About the Havelock gold-antimony project

The project is located in the heart of the Victorian goldfields near Maryborough, roughly halfway between Bendigo and Ballarat and about 1.5 hours drive from Melbourne, Australia. Paved highways and roads, along with gravel tracks provide year-round, ready access to all areas of the project. Land ownership is a combination of government (Crown) land and private property.

The first discovery at the Maryborough goldfield was made on this property in 1853, with nuggets and alluvial gold, which led to small-scale hard rock mining. Water pumping and processing technologies were rudimentary during this period and mining generally targeted high grades above the water table. Two significant gold-bearing structural trends cross the property with numerous historical workings evident. The first is the Shaw-McFarlane trend (SMT), which comprises about nine km of intermittent small-scale historic workings with recorded multiounce per ton gold production in the late 1800s. The SMT has had minimal modern exploration and most targets have never been drilled.

In 2010, a local landowner had a water storage dam excavated on their property (situated in the central part of the SMT) and a metal detector operator reportedly recovered 514 ounces of gold, including 23 kilograms of gold-bearing quartz material from the excavation. Management believes the dam excavation intersected the top of a gold-bearing quartz vein (reef) that has never been explored historically or drill tested. Samples were identified as gold bearing, first by metal detector response and then visually. Individual sample weights varied between 0.238 gram and 3.07 g.

The reader is cautioned that the sample selection process described above is designed to identify high-grade samples which may not be representative. The disclosure is included because these samples will be used as a vector to guide future exploration activities specifically at the dam target.

The gold-bearing samples were delivered to on-site laboratory services, located in Bendigo, Victoria by LGA. On Site Laboratory Services is an NATA-accredited laboratory, certified as compliant with ISO/IEC 17025 (2017) -- testing. Samples were assayed using fire assay with gravimetric finish (code PE01S). Results were reported as parts per million and subsequently converted to percent gold content. LGA did not report QA/QC (quality assurance/quality control) protocols and no blanks or standards were added to the sample stream by LGA. On Site Laboratory Services added one standard and one blank to the sample batch and these samples returned values within industry accepted standard deviations. There is no relationship between On Site Laboratory Services and the company.

The second structural trend is the Leviathan-Mariner's trend (LMT), which covers three kilometres of historic workings. In 2021, Leviathan completed an eight-hole diamond drill program along a 270 m portion of the LMT targets. The drill program returned significant results from four of the eight drill holes, justifying further work.

Historic underground mining reached a maximum depth of 500 feet (152 m) on the SMT and 900 feet (274 m) on the LMT, limited by mining techniques and the presence of ground water. Mesozonal and epizonal gold systems are known to have depth extents of more than 1,000 m at other locations in Victoria, highlighting the potential below these historic workings.

Epizonal gold systems are believed to have formed in the Late Devonian, specifically between 380 to 370 Ma (million years ago). A dike at Bristol Hill mine (Maryborough), about 10 km south of Havelock was dated at 370 Ma, while a granite 10 km northwest of Havelock was dated at 391 Ma plus/minus eight, indicating that Late Devonian intrusions potentially exist on or near the property.

LGA previously referred to the project as the Timor property.

The Dja Dja Wurrung Aboriginal people are the traditional owners of the land on which the project is located. A land use activity agreement is in place for the project, providing clarity for both the Dja Dja Wurrung and the project operator.

The company advises that there are no current mineral resources on the project and cautions that despite the documented historic production, there is no certainty that exploration will result in mineral resources being estimated.

Transaction details

For a 100-per-cent interest in the project, Au Gold has agreed to pay LGA:

• Five million Au Gold common shares;
• $10,000 on signing of the agreement;
• $65,000 on TSX Venture Exchange acceptance for filing.

In addition, Au Gold will pay LGA $3 per ounce discovered (measured, indicated or inferred category). Au Gold also agrees to honour an agreement between LGA and Mercator Gold Australia, which vended the project to LGA. Under this agreement, a payment of $1 (Australian) per ounce discovered (measured, indicated or inferred) and $1 (Australian) per ounce produced shall be paid to Mercator. Payments to Mercator are capped at $1-million (Australian) for ounces discovered and $1-million (Australian) for ounces produced.

Au Gold has incorporated a wholly owned Australian subsidiary, Havelock Gold Pty. Ltd., to hold the project. No finders' fees are payable in connection with this transaction.

The company will also replace a $10,000 (Australian) environmental bond which is already in place by LGA.

Postclosing, the company plans to move quickly to commence exploration on the project.

The transaction is a fundamental acquisition under TSX Venture Exchange policies and a National Instrument 43-101 technical report on the project is being prepared for Au Gold by an independent qualified person. The technical report will be filed on SEDAR+ once it has been reviewed and accepted by the TSX Venture Exchange.

Technical information in this press release was prepared under the supervision of William Wengzynowski, PEng, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Wengzynowski is Au Gold's exploration manager.

Following completion of the transaction, LGA will beneficially own and control five million common shares, representing 11.16 per cent of the issued and outstanding common shares of the company on a non-diluted basis.

This press release and LGA's corresponding early warning report which is expected to be filed on SEDAR+ in the near term, constitutes the required disclosure pursuant to Section 5.2 of National Instrument 62-104 -- Take-Over Bids and Issuer Bids. The securities acquired by LGA are for investment purposes. LGA has no current intention to enter into any of the transactions listed in clauses (a) to (k) of Item 5 of Form 62-103F1 of National Instrument 62-103 -- The Early Warning System and Related Take-over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues, but in the future LGA may acquire or dispose of securities of the company depending on market conditions, reformulation of plans, and/or other relevant factors, in each case in accordance with applicable securities laws.

The early warning report that will be filed on SEDAR+ will satisfy the requirement of Section 5.2 of NI 62-104 to have the early warning report filed by an acquiror, in this case by LGA, with the securities regulatory authorities in each of the jurisdictions in which the company is a reporting issuer and which contains the information required by Section 3.1 of NI 62-103, which includes the information required by Form 62-103F1.

A copy of the early warning report filed by LGA in connection with the offering will be available under the company's profile on the SEDAR+ website.

About Au Gold Corp.

Au Gold is a gold exploration company focused on advancing its flagship Havelock gold-antimony project in the Victorian gold fields in Australia and the Ponderosa gold project in the Spences Bridge gold belt in British Columbia, Canada.

We seek Safe Harbor.