Dr. Paul West-Sells reports

WESTERN COPPER AND GOLD ANNOUNCES CASINO COPPER-GOLD PROJECT DRILLING RESULTS

Western Copper and Gold Corp. has released assay results from the remaining 13 holes of the 2021 diamond drilling program at its wholly owned Casino copper-gold project in Yukon, Canada. The program, developed with input from Rio Tinto, comprised a total 6,074.97 metres (m) in 22 holes. Highlights of the first nine drill holes were reported in Western's Nov. 29, 2021, news release, and are included herein.

Highlights:

• Drilling in the deposit core area confirmed its importance to the overall resource at Casino as shown by long intercepts of grades higher than the average resource grades in the Leached Cap (CAP), Supergene (SUP) and Hypogene (HYP) zones:
  • DDH21-13 returned a 300.23-metre (length of hole) interval grading 0.70 per cent copper equivalent (CuEq), including a 21-metre subinterval grading 1.50 per cent CuEq within the HYP zone.
  • DDH21-20 returned a 248.41-metre (length of hole) interval grading 0.58 per cent CuEq, including a 21-metre subinterval grading 1.10 per cent CuEq in the SUP zone.
• Drilling northeast of the deposit core returned values at or exceeding resource-grade levels:
  • DDH21-17 returned a 300.23-metre (length of hole) interval grading 0.57 per cent CuEq, including a 15-metre subinterval grading 1.09 per cent CuEq in SUP mineralization.
• Review of lithological and mineralogical settings for holes DDH21-07, 21-08 and 21-09 indicates these holes were collared along or proximal to the northwest-southeast-trending Casino fault:
  • A high-grade intercept grading 2.53 per cent CuEq across 65.80 m in DDH21-09 (see news release dated Nov. 29) is hosted by brecciated rock that consistently hosts higher-grade mineralization in the Casino deposit.
• Although grades from most exploration holes drilled outside of the current deposit area were lower than average resource grades, hole DDH21-14, collared east of the deposit, returned a 54.35-metre interval grading 0.78 per cent Cueq, with the majority of contained value derived from anomalous gold and silver content.

Summary

The 2021 program comprised 16 holes within the Casino deposit resource boundaries, centred on the deposit core area (see news release dated Feb. 2, 2021). Drilling within the resource area included five resource confirmation holes, three metallurgical testing holes and eight holes for geotechnical analysis. An additional six exploration holes were drilled outside of the deposit area. All holes within the deposit area returned values that confirmed or, in some cases, improved upon previous drilling. These positive results represent important achievements of the 2021 program.

At Casino, higher grades are hosted mostly by intrusive breccias and, in the deposit core, also by Patton porphyry intrusive rock. Holes DDH21-07, -08 and -09, collared east of and at a significantly lower elevation than the deposit core, indicate that higher grades also occur in brecciated zones east of the deposit core. These high-grade intervals may be influenced by proximity to the Casino fault.

Significant CuEq values have now been established for the various zones comprising the Casino deposit. Analysis of results within respective zones continue to support previous drilling results showing that the supergene enrichment zones host somewhat higher CuEq values than the underlying hypogene zone. Significantly higher supergene to hypogene ratios in DDH21-09 may reflect structurally controlled enriched mineralization along and proximal to the Casino fault.

Qualified person

Carl Schulze, PGeo, is the qualified person responsible for the execution of the Casino project exploration program and the preparation of the technical information in this news release.

QA/QC (quality assurance/quality control) protocol, including assurance of chain of custody, has been implemented. Core samples are evenly cut by rock saw, then prepared and analyzed by ALS Geochemistry. Prepared samples are initially run using a four-acid digestion process and conventional multielement ICP-AES (inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy) analysis. Additional assaying for total copper and molybdenum is run using a four-acid digestion -- AES or AAS (atomic absorption spectrometry) method to a 0.001-per-cent detection limit. Gold assays are run using 30-gram samples by fire assay with an AA finish to a 0.005-part-per-million detection limit, with samples greater than 10 ppm finished gravimetrically. The QA/QC procedure involves regular submission of certified analytical standards and property-specific duplicates.

About Western Copper and Gold Corp.

Western Copper and Gold is developing the Casino project, Canada's premier copper-gold mine in Yukon and one of the most economic greenfield copper-gold mining projects in the world.

The company is committed to working collaboratively with its first nations and local communities to progress the Casino project, using internationally recognized responsible mining technologies and practices.

We seek Safe Harbor.