Mr. Tony Makuch reports

WALLBRIDGE MINING DELIVERS POSITIVE PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT FOR THE FENELON GOLD PROJECT IN QUEBEC

Wallbridge Mining Company Ltd. has released positive results from the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) completed on its still-growing, 100-per-cent-owned Fenelon gold project located in the Abitibi greenstone belt, along the Detour-Fenelon gold trend, Quebec.

Tony Makuch, chairman of Wallbridge, stated: "Projects such as Fenelon, with a projected annual production profile of more than 200,000 gold ounces, located in a mining-friendly jurisdiction with established infrastructure, having substantial exploration upside and access to clean hydroelectric energy are highly desirable yet exceedingly rare in the mining industry today. We are extremely pleased that the PEA on Fenelon alone is demonstrating robust economics at this early stage. We expect further improvements as we continue to add to the resource base through our exploration efforts at Fenelon and elsewhere on our very large land position in the northern Abitibi greenstone belt."

All results herein are reported in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated.

PEA summary

• Average annual gold production of 212,000 ounces over 12.3 years;
• Average annual free cash flow of $157-million over life of mine (LOM);
• After-tax NPV (net present value) of $721-million at base case gold price of $1,750 (U.S.) and Canadian dollar/United States dollar of 1.30;
• After-tax NPV of $1,070-million at spot gold price of $1,950 (U.S.) and Canadian dollar/United States dollar of 1.34;
• Initial capital expenditures of $645-million;
• Sustaining capital expenditures of $594-million;
• Total cash costs of $749 (U.S.)/oz;
• All-in sustaining costs of $924 (U.S.)/oz.

Marz Kord, Wallbridge's president and chief executive officer, commented: "Wallbridge acquired the original Fenelon property in 2016 with a small historic resource based on sporadic geological work by previous owners. Since then, we have been very successful in delineating a multimillion-ounce gold resource, which remains open in virtually all directions. Fenelon has now reached another milestone with a robust PEA that demonstrates a viable path to development and attractive economic returns based on conservative assumptions. The PEA was designed to be rigorous, using current cost data from contractors, suppliers and mining companies operating in the region to arrive at realistic projections. It represents a compelling starting point to build upon as we scope out the full opportunity at Fenelon and Martiniere, the two most advanced projects on our large, underexplored property.

"Over the next few months, we will evaluate alternatives to advance Fenelon. While doing so, we will continue to test new areas of mineralization at Fenelon. We have a great near-term opportunity to incorporate satellite deposits such as Martiniere into future studies, with the potential for substantial synergies on a district scale. Our 2023 exploration programs will further delineate the size and scale of the Fenelon and Martiniere deposits while also targeting new greenfield discoveries on our land package."

Financial analysis

At base case gold price of $1,750 (U.S.)/oz, the project generates after-tax net present value (NPV) of $721-million using 5-per-cent discount rate and an after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 18 per cent.

The project generates cumulative free cash flow of $1,395-million and average annual free cash flow of $157-million over a mine life of 12.3 years. Total taxes payable over LOM at the base case gold price is $792-million.

Sensitivities

The PEA financial economic analysis is significantly influenced by gold prices. At a spot gold price of $1,950 (U.S.)/oz and FX of 1.34, the project generates an after-tax NPV of $1,070-million and an after-tax IRR of 24 per cent with a payback period of 4.2 years from the commencement of production.

Production

Annual production over LOM is expected to average 212,000 ounces with peak year production of 240,000 ounces.

Capital costs

The initial capital costs are estimated at $645-million, and the sustaining capital is estimated at $594-million. A contingency of $54-million and $44-million is included in initial and sustaining capital costs, respectively.

Initial and sustaining capital costs were estimated based on current costs received from vendors as well as developed from first principles, while some were estimated based on factored references and experience from similar operating projects.

Cash costs

The total cash costs including the 4 per cent royalties, is estimated at $82/tonne milled or $749 (U.S.)/oz payable gold. The AISC is estimated at $924 (U.S.)/oz payable gold.

Operating cost estimates were developed using first principles methodology, vendor quotes and productivities being derived from benchmarking and industry practices.

Mineral resource estimate

The PEA is based on the 2023 Fenelon deposit mineral resource estimate (MRE) and contains indicated and inferred mineral resource. Carl Pelletier, PGeo, Vincent Nadeau-Benoit, PGeo, Simon Boudreau, PEng, and Marc R. Beauvais, PEng, all of InnovExplo Inc. are the independent qualified persons within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 for the 2023 Fenelon MRE.

Mining

The underground mine will have a production rate of 7,000 tonnes per day (tpd) over a 12.3-year mine life. A total of 30.8 million tonnes (Mt) of mineralized material at an average grade of 2.73 grams per tonne (g/t) will be extracted from three different mining zones:

• Tabasco-Cayenne zones with 68.5 per cent of the ounces to be mined;
• Area 51 zones with 31.1 per cent of the ounces to be mined;
• Gabbro zones with 0.4 per cent of the ounces to be mined.

The mining method will be long hole with longitudinal stopes for five to eight metres width, corresponding to 40 per cent of the stope tonnage. Transverse stopes are designed for stopes with eight to plus 15 metres width, which account for 60 per cent of the remaining stope tonnage.

Stope dimensions are 30 metres (A51 zones) to 40 metres (Tabasco-Cayenne zones) in height, five to 15 metres in width and 20 to 25 metres in length. The average size of the stopes from all zones is approximately 15,000 tonnes and about 150 stopes will be mined annually. Mining recovery is estimated at 96 per cent. Stope backfilling will be done with cemented rock fill (50 per cent) and rock fill (50 per cent) or with paste backfill depending on the stope dimensions and sequence.

Development will be done with a mining contractor during preproduction year 1. Starting at preproduction year 2, development will be done with owner equipment-personnel. Development priority is to develop the main Tabasco ramp and to access production centres. The development mineralized material will generate 10 per cent of the total gold production.

The mining fleet, comprising 99 pieces of mobile equipment, will be purchased via a lease financing agreement. Supporting underground infrastructure includes several main pumping stations, two ventilation and heating systems, and one exhaust raise.

Metallurgy

Metallurgical testwork was completed in two phases in 2020 and 2021 on material from Area 51 and Tabasco-Cayenne zones by SGS Canada Inc.

Grindability testing was completed in 2021, including SAG mill comminution test. The samples were characterized as hard with respect to resistance to impact breakage during SMC test, with Axb drop weight test values ranging from 23 to 31. Bond rod mill index results are in a range of 15.6 to 16.9 kilowatt-hour/tonne, which can be classified as moderately hard to hard range. The bond ball index ranges from 13.4 to 16.2 kWh/tonne, considered as in the medium range of hardness.

Gravity gold recovery testing was done in 2021 on representative composite sample of Tabasco-Cayenne and Area 51 zone material. Gold recoveries to the gravity concentrate were as high as 66.5 per cent for Tabasco-Cayenne and 84.3 per cent for Area 51, in line with prior testing in 2020. The results of gold gravity recovery testing show the need for a gravity circuit in the process flowsheet.

Cyanidation testing was completed in 2020 on representative samples following gravity recovery. Over all, gold recoveries ranged from 94.6 per cent to 96.9 per cent for the Tabasco zone and 95.3 per cent to 97.1 per cent for Area 51.

Based on 2020 and 2021 testing and planned process flowsheet, the estimated process plant payable gold recovery is to average 96.0 per cent over the LOM.

Processing

A total of 7,000 tpd of material will be processed in the plant, which will consist of a semi-autogenous grinding mill in closed circuit with a pebble crusher and ball mill in closed circuit with cyclones (SABC circuit). The crushing circuit will consist of a temporary crusher at surface operated by a contractor until the production shaft is operational. Once the shaft is operating, the material will be crushed underground prior to hoisting. A gravity circuit followed by leaching will recover coarse gold from the cyclone underflow, while the cyclone overflow is treated in one preleach tank and in a seven-tank carbon in-leach circuit, followed by SO2/air cyanide destruction. Gold will be recovered in an adsorption-desorption-recovery Zedra process circuit and electrowinning cells with gold room recovery and production of gold bars, which will be shipped to mint facilities for purification.

The SO2/air circuit is followed by a tailings flotation circuit with sulphide concentrate to produce paste backfill to send underground and/or dry for tailings storage.

The process plant building will include a laboratory, mill maintenance workshop, offices and a dry.

Surface infrastructure

The project is approximately 75 kilometres from the town of Matagami in Quebec and is accessible via a 24-kilometre forestry road from Hwy. 810. The existing Fenelon camp site includes a welcome centre, 155-room dormitories, dry, kitchen, dining room, game room, workshop and first nation cultural centre.

The existing mine site includes core shack, modular offices, garage, water treatment plant, air ventilation-heating system to serve underground opening, an open pit and a portal connecting to an underground ramp. The camp and mine site are served by diesel generators for electricity production. All these facilities will be used at the start of the project, and will be upgraded, expanded or replaced during construction and operations.

The mining and processing infrastructure will be located at the Fenelon site. The mine envisions the upgrade of existing surface infrastructure: site access road, potable water and sewage systems, underground mine portal, mine ventilation systems (intake and exhaust), main and remote gatehouses, surface maintenance shop, waste rock stockpile, overburden stockpile, and mineralized material stockpile. The project will require construction of the following infrastructure items: 7,000 tpd process plant complex, paste plant, offices, dry, truck shop and warehouse; 20 kilometres of 120-kilovolt overhead transmission line; 120 kV main substation; final effluent water treatment plant; surface water management facility, including ditches, pond and pumping stations; service and haulage roads; and tailings management facility.

The camp site will be expanded to 370 rooms with associated kitchen, dining room and game-exercise room. A local office with 25 places is planned in a nearby town to support administration, communication, human resources and technical personnel.

Production shaft and underground infrastructure

The construction of the shaft is planned to start in year 2 of production and be fully operational prior to year 5 of production.

The surface infrastructure for the production shaft consists of a steel headframe with backlegs, a hoist room building, a silo and a conveyor feeding the process plant dome stockpile. The shaft is dedicated for material handling only. The skip will be raised to the surface in a dedicated rope guided shaft by a double drum hoist located on the surface in a 1,040-metre deep shaft.

The construction of the following infrastructure is envisioned for the underground material handling complex: a grizzly on top of a four-metre-diameter-by-25-metre-high silo for the mineralized material. The same is planned for the waste rock. Both would be equipped with a rock breaker. The mineralized material from the silo will go through a crushing plant equipped with a jaw crusher and sacrificial conveyor. The crushed mineralized material will then be accumulated in a 6.1-metre-diameter-by-25-metre-high silo. A loading station with an apron fed conveyor from the waste and crushed mineralized material silos will bring the material to measuring boxes to be loaded into the 18-tonne skip and hoisted to the surface.

Tailings management and paste plant

The desulphurized thickened tailings from the mill operations will be managed with two approaches: used as underground paste backfill or disposed on surface as high-density thickened tailings. From the tailing thickener underflow will be pumped either to the paste backfill plant or to the tailings management facility (TMF).

The selected site is located 1.4 kilometres northwest of the existing small pit.

The waste rock proposed for construction coming from underground development, may be metal leaching. As a mitigation measure, an impervious geomembrane will be installed to encapsulate the waste rock. A geomembrane is also considered on the bottom of the emergency cell.

At the paste backfill plant, thickened sulphide tailings are stored in a large, agitated tank which is sized to provide several days of storage at peak sulphide production from the mill. When the paste backfill plant is running, tailings from the filter feed tank are fed to a single vacuum disc filter for dewatering. The vacuum filter cake feeds the paste mixer. The thickened sulphide tailings are also pumped into the paste mixer during backfill production for inclusion in the paste recipe. This is the primary means of sulphide tailings disposal -- underground in the paste backfill. The other streams reporting into the paste mixer to achieve the target recipe are binder (a slag cement mixture) and slump water if required to further control the paste density. The paste backfill will be distributed throughout the mine using either a single paste pump or gravity depending on the location of the stope.

Water treatment

All contact water, including groundwater, surface runoff and water from the TMF shall be collected and treated at the water treatment plant before being discharged to the environment.

Environment and permitting

In Northern Quebec (James Bay region located south of the 55th parallel), all mining developments must follow the environmental assessment (EA) and review procedures under the regulation respecting the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) and review procedure applicable to the territory of James Bay and Northern Quebec. Additionally, with a planned production capacity of 7,000 tpd, the mining project exceeds the 5,000 tpd threshold for the federal environmental assessment procedure, therefore an EA in compliance with the requirements of the new Impact Assessment Act will be required.

The acquisition of baseline environmental knowledge on the Fenelon property began several years ago and is still continuing today. To date, preliminary environmental characterizations of the physical environment and biological environment have been carried out and/or are continuing. Confirmation of the regulatory context made it possible to identify the scope of the environmental studies required to obtain environmental authorizations. Inventory work is under way to fill these gaps.

To date, no major environmental issues have been identified in the work undertaken. The situation of the woodland caribou, designated as vulnerable in Quebec and threatened at the federal level, remains uncertain to date in the project area with regard to future legal protection of its habitat.

A preliminary geochemical characterization program has been in progress since 2020 to identify the geoenvironmental characteristics of ore and mine wastes and classify their environmental risk (for example, for acid rock drainage and metal leaching) based on Quebec provincial guidance documents. Findings from the geochemical study have been incorporated into the project design.

Closure

A closure and rehabilitation plan for the land affected by the project will be prepared and submitted for authorization. The preliminary concept for site closure is estimated at $10.5-million. The current financial deposit for site closure is estimated at $2.9-million for a net closure cost of $7.6-million.

Stakeholder engagement

The project is located in the Nord-du-Quebec region, within the James Bay and Northern Quebec agreement territory on Category III lands, managed by the Eeyou Istchee James Bay regional government, with exclusive trapping rights for the Crees. The project site is located on lands that are part of the traditional territories claimed by the Cree people of Waskaganish and Washaw Sibi, and by the Algonquin people of Abitibiwinni (Pikogan). The project is located on a Washaw Sibi trapline.

Wallbridge has always prioritized engaging stakeholders and implementing a consultation plan. Over 130 communication activities have been conducted since acquisition, including meetings, site visits and workshops. The first nation communities of Washaw Sibi, Waskaganish and Abitibiwinni (Pikogan) have been extensively consulted. Concerns raised include employment, entrepreneurial opportunities, training, land use and disturbance, water quality, impacts to wildlife, and the cumulative effects of all projects in the area. To date, Wallbridge has taken actions to address these concerns and promote local benefits, including a hiring and contracting policy and the construction of a cultural centre. Furthermore, Wallbridge signed a predevelopment agreement with the Cree Nations of Waskaganish and Washaw Sibi and the Cree Nation government in 2022. Wallbridge is committed to continuing consultations with first nations, local communities and stakeholders through the EA process.

Work force

During production, the average number of employees and contractors will be 535 with a maximum at 670. The working schedule for hourly workers is based on seven days at site (10 or 12 hours per day) and seven days off site. The working schedule for staff is based on five days at site and two days off. The maximum employees and contractor on site will reach 340.

During the preproduction period, the average number of employees, contractor and construction workers will be 490 with a peak of 690 during the second half of preproduction year 2.

Next steps

The positive results of the PEA study warrants advancing the project to the next study stages. In order to advance the project to prefeasibility study level, the following programs are required:

• Infill diamond drilling to convert inferred resources to indicated resources;
• Metallurgical study including more variability testing;
• Detailed characterization and testing of thickened tailing and paste;
• Detailed geochemical characterization of waste and ore rock;
• Detailed characterization of rock mass and stope design;
• Detailed geotechnical investigation at various infrastructure sites;
• Detailed hydrogeology studies to better characterize major structures;
• Revised underground mine planning and scheduling based on revised MRE;
• Trade-off studies on material handling system, stope backfill and electric equipment;
• Detailed unit cost evaluation for development and mining.

Independence and responsibilities

The PEA was prepared for Wallbridge Mining by independent consulting firms with their respective responsibilities listed in the attached table. The qualified persons (QP) are not aware of any environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socioeconomic, marketing, political or other relevant factors that could materially affect the PEA. Each QP has reviewed and approved the content of this press release.

All scientific and technical data contained in this presentation has been reviewed and approved by Francois Chabot, Eng, Wallbridge's manager of technical services, a QP for the purposes of NI 43-101.

The company cautions that the results of the PEA are preliminary in nature and include inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them to be classified as mineral reserves. There is no certainty that the results of the PEA will be realized.

The QPs mentioned above have reviewed and approved their respective technical information contained in this press release.

The reader is advised that the PEA summarized in this press release is intended to provide only an initial, high-level review of the project potential and design options. The PEA mine plan and economic model include numerous assumptions and the use of inferred mineral resources. Inferred mineral resources are considered to be too speculative to be used in an economic analysis except as allowed for by NI 43-101 in PEA studies. There is no guarantee that inferred mineral resources can be converted to indicated or measured mineral resources, and as such, there is no guarantee the project economics described herein will be achieved.

An NI 43-101 technical report supporting the PEA will be filed on SEDAR within 45 days of this press release and will be available at that time on the company's website.

Webcast

Wallbridge management will host a webinar to discuss the Fenelon PEA results.

Date and time:  Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 27, 2023, starting at 10 a.m. ET

A presentation that summarizes the PEA results of the project is available on the company's website.

About Wallbridge Mining Company Ltd.

Wallbridge is focused on creating value through the exploration and sustainable development of gold projects along the Detour-Fenelon gold trend while respecting the environment and communities where it operates.

Wallbridge's flagship project, Fenelon, is located on the highly prospective Detour-Fenelon gold trend property in Quebec's northern Abitibi region. An updated mineral resource estimate completed in January, 2023, yielded significantly improved grades and additional ounces at the 100-per-cent-owned Fenelon and Martiniere projects, incorporating a combined 3.05 million ounces of indicated gold resources and 2.35 million ounces of inferred gold resources.

Fenelon and Martiniere are located within an 830-square-kilometre exploration land package controlled by Wallbridge. The company believes that these two deposits have good potential for economic development, especially given their proximity to existing hydroelectric power and transportation infrastructure. In addition, Wallbridge believes that the extensive land package is extremely prospective for the discovery of additional gold deposits.

Wallbridge also holds a 19.9-per-cent interest in the common shares of Archer Exploration Corp. as a result of the sale of the company's portfolio of nickel assets in Ontario and Quebec in November of 2022.

Wallbridge will continue to focus on its core Detour-Fenelon gold trend property while enabling shareholders to participate in the potential economic upside in Archer.

We seek Safe Harbor.