Ms. Tara Christie reports

BANYAN ANNOUNCES 2024 EXPLORATION AND TECHNICAL PROGRAM, AURMAC PROJECT, YUKON, CANADA

Banyan Gold Corp. is talking about the 2024 exploration and technical program at its AurMac project located in the Mayo mining district, approximately 40 kilometres northeast from the village of Mayo, Yukon, and 356 km north of Whitehorse, Yukon. Additionally, Banyan has also commenced further metallurgical work, and engineering and environmental baseline programs to advance the project to support future economic studies and permit applications.

Highlights:

• Diamond drilling up to 5,000 metres strategically focused on potential economic drivers, including:
  • Demonstration of higher-grade mineralization and grade continuity in potential starter pits on the Powerline deposit;
  • Testing mineralized structures and lithological horizons that control the east-west grade-continuity within the Powerline deposit;
  • Targeted holes to demonstrate scale of and continued expansion of mineral resources at Powerline and Airstrip deposits;
  • Test areas identified for potential infrastructure.
• Metallurgical work to continue to optimize the three conventional mining process flowsheets identified from successful phase 1 metallurgy program (see company news release of Feb. 6, 2024), including carbon in pulp (CIP) and carbon in leach (CIL), flotation and heap leaching;
• Continuation of internal scoping level engineering for AurMac project to lay the groundwork for future economic studies;
• Environmental baseline studies.

"AurMac is well positioned in this current gold price environment with a seven million ounce gold resource, with near-surface mineralization, and with existing road and hydro power infrastructure on the property," stated Tara Christie, president and chief executive officer. "In 2024, Banyan will continue to add value through drilling, metallurgy and engineering to prepare to demonstrate project economics, and for the project to be advanced rapidly and efficiently."

Two thousand twenty-four exploration update

Banyan plans to initiate its 2024 exploration program in May, 2024, and will deploy two drills. Drilling objectives will include: infill drilling of higher-grade near-surface zone within the Powerline zone; testing mineralized structures and lithological horizons controlling the east-west grade continuity within the Powerline deposit; test areas identified for potential infrastructure; and, importantly, will target the extension of previously defined gold mineralization at the Airstrip deposit, which has not been drill tested since 2020.

Metallurgy program update

Banyan has commenced additional follow-up metallurgical studies with Forte Analytical LLC in Fort Collins, Colo., and Base Metallurgical Laboratories Ltd. in Kamloops, B.C., toward the optimization of the three conventional mining processes, including CIP/CIL, flotation and heap leaching identified in the Feb. 6, 2024, news release. Test work will focus on optimization of gold recoveries through expanded test work designed to evaluate various grind sizes and reagent rates, along with combination of gravity recovery in the mill process flow sheets. Additionally, amenability to preconcentration test work is being conducted to support future trade-off studies.

Internal project scoping and engineering

Banyan has been working with engineering consultants to initiate internal scoping and engineering investigations to support the evaluation of the three conventional mining processes, including CIP/CIL, flotation and heap leaching, identified in the Feb. 6, 2024, news release. The initial project evaluations will incorporate various throughputs for each process flowsheet, and will utilize the results from the phase 1 and continuing metallurgy programs to support definition of the operational parameters used for future economic studies. Moreover, the scoping studies will be used to outline areas for initial engineering field investigations of potential mine infrastructure.

Environmental baseline update

Banyan has been conducting environmental baseline studies for the AurMac project since 2021 through the collection of surface water quality, hydrological and meteorological information to complement the robust data set collected by Hecla Mining Company and Victoria Gold Corp. from their continuing mining operations on adjacent properties. Banyan will expand the environmental baseline programs for the AurMac project in the summer of 2024, inclusive of groundwater investigations to support future permit applications and economic studies.

Qualified person

Paul D. Gray, PGeo, is a qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101, and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release. Mr. Gray is Banyan Gold's geological consultant and has verified the data disclosed in this news release, including the sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information.

Upcoming events:

• Arctic Indigenous Investment Conference -- May 7 to May 8;
• Commodity Discovery Fund -- Discovery Day -- May 14;
• Invest Yukon Investment Conference and property tours -- June 21 to June 26;
• Eastern U.S. Roadshow -- New York, Connecticut and Florida -- Aug. 20 to Aug. 30.

About Banyan Gold Corp.

Banyan's primary asset, the AurMac project, is adjacent to Victoria Gold's Eagle gold mine, in Canada's Yukon. The current inferred mineral resource estimate for the AurMac project of seven million ounces has an effective date of Feb. 6, 2024.

The 173-square-kilometre AurMac project lies 30 kilometres from Victoria Gold's Eagle project and adjacent to Hecla Mining's high-grade Keno Hill silver mine. The AurMac project is transected by the main Yukon highway and access road to the Victoria Gold open-pit, heap-leach Eagle gold mine. The AurMac project benefits from a three-phase power line, existing power station and cell phone coverage. Banyan has the right to earn up to a 100-per-cent interest, in both the Aurex and McQuesten properties, respectively, subject to certain royalties.

The inferred MRE for the AurMac project was prepared on Feb. 6, 2024, and consisted of 7,003,000 ounces of gold (see the table entitled "Pit-constrained inferred mineral resources -- AurMac project") hosted within near-surface, road-accessible, pit-constrained mineral resources contained in two near/on-surface deposits: the Airstrip and Powerline deposits.

Detailed images of the mineral resource model, including an interactive 3-D model and additional information can be found at the company's website.

In addition to the AurMac project, the company holds the Hyland gold project, located 70 km northeast of Watson Lake, Yukon, along the southeast end of the Tintina gold belt. The Hyland project represents a sediment-hosted, structurally controlled, intrusion-related gold deposit, within a large land package (over 125 square km), accessible by a network of existing gravel access roads.

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