Mr. Caleb Stroup reports

HEADWATER GOLD COMMENCES DRILLING ON THE MIDAS NORTH PROJECT, NEVADA

Headwater Gold Inc. has commenced an approximate 3,500-metre maiden drill program on its Midas North project, Nevada. Drilling is fully financed by Newcrest Mining Ltd., pursuant to the option and earn-in agreement announced on Aug. 16, 2022.

Highlights:

• Approximately 3,500 m of initial drilling is planned, utilizing a combination of reverse circulation (RC) and diamond core drilling.
• The Midas North project hosts a large, undrilled epithermal alteration cell in the northern Midas district, approximately 13 kilometres north of Hecla Mining Company's past-producing Midas mine.
• The goal of the program is to drill multiple structural targets at depth in the inferred epithermal boiling zone and test for the presence of high-grade gold and silver mineralization.
• Midas North represents the fourth drill program of 2023 across the Headwater portfolio:
  • Midas North: approximately 3,500 metres (this release);
  • Spring Peak: approximately 11,500 metres (in progress);
  • Katey: approximately 3,500 metres (in progress);
  • Mahogany: approximately 1,500 metres (assays pending).

Caleb Stroup, the president and chief executive officer of the company, states: "This maiden Midas North drill program presents Headwater shareholders with a rare opportunity to be the first to explore the northern extension of the famous high-grade Midas district, which hosts multiple past-producing gold and silver veins immediately to the south. Our team is confident that the Midas North project has the potential to yield a new discovery and we are committed to utilizing the very best exploration techniques to unlock its full potential. Since acquiring the project, our technical team has assembled a comprehensive geologic and geophysical data set that has allowed us to generate numerous high-priority drill targets which will be tested with this initial maiden drill program. The commencement of the Midas North drilling marks the fourth drill program in the Headwater portfolio this year, demonstrating a scale of activity that sets the company apart from most of our peers. Our partnership with Newcrest provides our shareholders with exposure to a substantial amount of high-impact exploration while minimizing dilution at a corporate level."

2023 drill program

The drill program is expected to consist of approximately eight to 10 holes comprising 3,500 m of drilling. A combination of RC and diamond core drilling will be utilized to test five principal target areas where potential feeder structures have been identified through the integration of geologic mapping and controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotelluric (CSAMT) resistivity geophysical interpretation. The presence of steam-heated alteration, outcropping vent facies silica sinter and collapse structures suggests the epithermal alteration cell is fully preserved with potential for high-grade gold and silver mineralization in an interpreted epithermal boiling zone, approximately 150 to 250 m below surface.

About the Midas North project

Headwater's 100-per-cent-owned and royalty-free Midas North project adjoins Hecla Mining Company's past-producing Midas mine complex to the north and covers a large hydrothermal alteration cell, extending at least four kilometres in strike and one kilometre in width. Geologic mapping, surface sampling and geophysics completed by the company in the project area have highlighted several priority areas to explore for high-grade epithermal veins at depth. Extensive epithermal alteration exists on the project, including widespread zones of high-level chalcedonic to opaline silica flooding, clay alteration and local sinter formation with fossilized geyser vents. The project has seen very limited historic exploration with no documented exploration drilling. Midas North is subject to Newcrest's option to acquire up to 75 per cent of the project following expenditures totalling $30-million (U.S.) and the completion of a prefeasibility study within a designated time frame.

About Headwater Gold Inc.

Headwater Gold is a technically driven mineral exploration company focused on the exploration and discovery of high-grade precious metal deposits in the Western United States. Headwater is aggressively exploring one of the most well-endowed and mining-friendly jurisdictions in the world with a goal of making world-class precious metal discoveries. Headwater has a large portfolio of epithermal vein exploration projects and a technical team comprising experienced geologists with diverse capital markets, junior company and major mining company experience. The company is systematically drill testing several projects in Nevada, Idaho and Oregon and in August, 2022, and May, 2023, announced significant transactions with Newcrest Mining where Newcrest acquired a 9.9-per-cent strategic equity interest in the company and entered into several earn-in agreements on Headwater's projects.

Qualified person

The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Scott Close, PGeo (158157), a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

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