Mr. John Proust reports

JAPAN GOLD - BARRICK ALLIANCE CONTINUES TO ENCOUNTER SIGNIFICANT MINERALIZED INTERVALS IN DRILLING AT THE MIZOBE PROJECT IN SOUTHERN KYUSHU

Japan Gold Corp.'s second phase of drilling at the Barrick alliance Mizobe project in Southern Kyushu, Japan, has further expanded the footprint of a largely concealed, multiphase hydrothermal system with current dimensions of approximately 2.5 by 1.5 kilometres.

The new drilling continues to encounter mineralized intervals on an open hydrothermal alteration system at Mizobe. Mineralization encountered in drilling is locally extensive with broad breccia-hosted intervals up to 144 metres in down-hole length. Multiple alteration and mineralizing events are observed in the drill core including banded chalcedony-sulphide vein clasts, banded carbonate-quartz-sulphide veins, and hydrothermal brecciation which has provided a permeability pathway and host for a younger gold-sulphide mineralization event. Banded chalcedony is a quartz vein texture that may represent the upper parts of epithermal vein systems, fragments of this banded chalcedony now incorporated into a younger mineralized hydrothermal breccia provide a vector toward potential deeper structure-controlled vein-style mineralization not yet identified.

"The dynamic nature of hydrothermal events seen in the drill core at Mizobe is very encouraging, particularly the banded quartz veins which are typical of high-grade epithermal deposits of the district, including the world-class Hishikari deposit, located 20 kilometres to the north. The hydrothermal system shows good scale and complexity, and interpretation of drill core is vectoring us towards a system with potentially significant gold endowment," commented Andrew Rowe, Japan Gold's vice-president of exploration.

The second phase of drilling at Mizobe completed in Q4 2023 comprising diamond holes for a total of 1,271.3 metres. Based on the strong encouragement from the initial framework drill program completed earlier in 2023, drilling continued to target mineralization on large, up to 500 metres stepouts around the long-mineralized intercept in MZDD23-003, and beneath mineralized breccias located 1.5 kilometres to the west, at the historical Semari antimony workings.

Drill holes MZDD23-004, 005, 006 and 007 all encountered hydrothermal alteration with variable intervals of gold mineralization including the following notable results, all intervals are down-hole lengths, refer to the attached table for more detail.

• MZDD23-004
  • 33.55 metres at 0.6 gram per tonne Au and 3.1 g/t Ag from 28.3 m;
    • Including: 16.7 m at 0.8 g/t Au and 3.9 g/t Ag from 28.3 m;
      • 12.0 m at 1.0 g/t Au and 4.5 g/t Ag from 33.0 m;
      • 4.0 m at 1.6 g/t Au and 8.9 g/t Ag from 36.5 m.
• MZDD23-006
  • 1.3 m at 1.7 g/t Au and 2.2 g/t Ag from 50.7 m;
    • Including: 0.8 m at 2.4 g/t Au and 3.4 g/t Ag from 50.7 m.

The Barrick alliance sees the importance of structural controls as a key focusing mechanism for high-grade mineralization. The geometry of mineralization and controlling structures is not yet fully understood due to widespread concealment by a veneer of postmineral ash. The next steps at Mizobe will include a detailed ground magnetics survey, currently under way, to assist in mapping alteration and host rocks toward the definition of gold-fertile structures for the next round of drill targeting.

Mizobe project

The Mizobe project is located 20 kilometres south of the world-class Hishikari gold mine in the Hokusatsu region of Southern Kyushu. The Hishikari mine has produced 8.49 million ounces of gold at a grade of more than 20 g/t since 1985. The Hokusatsu region is Japan's largest gold-producing district, with more than 12 million ounces of combined production from low-sulphidation epithermal deposits. Japan Gold holds a large portion, more than 90,000 hectares of prospective ground within the Hokusatsu region as prospecting rights or reserved as prospecting rights applications.

Sampling techniques and assaying

The drilling results discussed in this news release are from drill core samples obtained by PQ, HQ and NQ size triple-tube diamond core drilling using a PMC700 and PMC-400 man-portable drill rigs owned and operated by the company. Company senior geologists fully supervised the drilling program at the drilling site.

Drill core was collected in plastic core trays at the drill site and transported by road in company vehicles to its core shed storage facility in the nearby Urushi Village, near the project area. The drill core was carefully logged, photographed and sample intervals were marked up along predicted mineralized and selected unmineralized intervals by Japan Gold senior project geologists.

Sample lengths varied from 0.25 to 1.0 metre; depending on the positions of geological contacts and variations in alteration composition. The core was split by diamond rock saw supervised by project geologists. Half-core sample was collected from the entire length of each designated sample interval and placed into individual-labelled, self-sealing calico bags for secure packaging and transport to the laboratory. The half-core samples weighed between 0.25 to five kilograms depending on the sample length and core size. A chain of custody was established between the company and receiving laboratory to ensure the integrity of the samples during transportation from site to the lab. The samples were sent in batches to ALS Laboratories in Vancouver, Canada, for sample preparation and assaying.

Samples were crushed, pulverized and assayed for gold 50 grams charge fire assay/AAS finish (Au-AA24; 0.005 part per million lower detection limit) and a 48 multielement by four-acid digest with ICP-MS determination (ME-MS61L; Ag 0.002 ppm lower detection limit). Overlimit Au and Ag samples were reassayed by fire-assay and gravimetric finish (GRA-22, LDL of 0.5 and five ppm for Au and Ag respectively).

Japan Gold KK inserted certified reference materials (CRMs) at every 20th sample to assess repeatability and assaying precision of the laboratory. In addition, the laboratory applied its own internal quality control procedure that includes sample duplicates, blanks and geochemical standards. They report these results with the certified assay report. Laboratory procedures and QA/QC (quality assurance/quality control) protocols adopted are considered appropriate. The CRMs and internal QC/QA results fall within acceptable levels of accuracy and precision and are considered to lack any bias.

Rock results presented in this news release and accompanying figures are from one to three kilograms selected grabs of river float samples, and continuous chip-channel samples. The grab samples of float material reported in this announcement are believed to originate from the underlying bedrock of the drainage basin from which they were collected. The company cautions that grab and float samples are selective by nature and may not be representative of typical mineralization on the property. Composited chip-channel samples have been collected continuously along exposures of bedrock at intervals between 0.5 to 1.5 metres. Sample preparation and assaying were done by ALS Perth, WA, Australia. Samples were crushed and pulverized and gold was analyzed by 50 gram-charge fire assay and AAS finish. A 48 multielement analysis including silver was done by four-acid digest and ICP-MS determination.

A chain of custody was established between the company and the receiving laboratory to ensure the integrity of the samples during transportation from the site to the lab. Japan Gold inserted certified reference materials (CRMs) at every 20th sample to assess the repeatability and assaying precision of the laboratory. In addition, the laboratory applied its own internal quality control procedure that includes sample duplicates, blanks and geochemical standards. They report these results with the certified assay report. Laboratory procedures and QA/QC protocols adopted are considered appropriate. The CRMs and internal QA/QC results fall within acceptable levels of accuracy and precision and are considered to lack any bias.

Qualified person

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Japan Gold's vice-president of exploration, Andrew Rowe, BAppSc, FAusIMM, FSEG, who is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Japan Gold Corp.

Japan Gold is a Canadian mineral exploration company solely focused on gold exploration across Japan. The company holds a portfolio of over 300 square kilometres of prospecting applications and prospecting rights which cover areas with known gold occurrences, have a history of mining and are prospective for high-grade epithermal gold mineralization. The Japan Gold leadership and operational team of geologists, drillers and technical advisers have extensive experience exploring and operating in Japan.

Japan Gold has an alliance with Barrick Gold Corp. to jointly explore, develop and mine certain gold mineral properties and mining projects with the potential to host Tier 1 or Tier 2 gold orebodies.

We seek Safe Harbor.