BLM Approves Lahontan Gold's Expanded Santa Fe Mine Exploration Program in Nevada

The Bureau of Land Management has approved Lahontan Gold Corp.'s Exploration Plan of Operations for the Santa Fe Mine project, concluding the NEPA Environmental Assessment process and authorizing the company to advance a significantly expanded drilling and development program. This approval represents a critical regulatory milestone that enables the company to pursue extensive exploration across a 12.2 km² area with more than 700 drill holes targeting new geologic and geochemical anomalies.

The expanded exploration program will focus on historic high-grade intercepts and multiple untested zones beyond the current gold and silver resources, including high-priority targets such as the Pinnacles area and Guzzler zone. The Santa Fe Mine project, located in the mining-friendly Walker Lane of Nevada, has a substantial resource base with past production of 359,202 ounces of gold and 702,067 ounces of silver between 1988 and 1995 from open pit mines utilizing heap-leach processing.

According to the company's technical disclosure, the Santa Fe Mine currently has a Canadian National Instrument 43-101 compliant Indicated Mineral Resource of 1,539,000 oz Au Eq and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 411,000 oz Au Eq, all pit constrained. The technical content has been reviewed and approved by Michael Lindholm, CPG, Independent Consulting Geologist to Lahontan Gold Corp., who is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101.

The company plans to continue advancing the Santa Fe Mine project towards production, update the Santa Fe Preliminary Economic Assessment, and drill test its satellite West Santa Fe project during 2025. Additional technical details are available in the Preliminary Economic Assessment, NI 43-101 Technical Report, Santa Fe Project authored by Kenji Umeno, P. Eng., Thomas Dyer, PE, Kyle Murphy, PE, Trevor Rabb, P. Geo, Darcy Baker, PhD, P. Geo., and John M. Young, SME-RM with an effective date of December 10, 2024.

This regulatory approval represents a significant step forward for the company's exploration strategy in Nevada, where it holds four top-tier gold and silver exploration properties through its US subsidiaries. The expanded exploration program authorized by the BLM decision provides the company with substantial opportunity to potentially increase its resource base and advance the Santa Fe Mine project toward future production decisions.