KEFI Gold and Copper Plc provided an operational update for the Hawiah Copper-Gold Project ("Hawiah") in the Company's minority-owned Gold & Minerals Ltd. ("GMCO") joint venture. Since initial grant of the Hawiah Exploration Licence ("EL"), GMCO has completed more than 105,000m of drilling. The ongoing 65,000m infill and expansion drilling programme continues with three diamond rigs onsite and c.52,000m of this programme completed to the end of March 2024.

The first stage of this programme was designed to further test the depth limits of the Crossroads Extension area of the Hawiah orebody. This has been highly successful with notable intercepts including: HWD_222 intersecting 8.6m (7.5m ETW) of massive sulphide averaging 0.8% copper, 0.4% zinc, 0.5 g/t gold and 8.1g/t silver from 970.2m; and HWD_246 intersecting 9.3m (8.4m ETW) of massive sulphide averaging 0.7% copper, 1.0% zinc, 0.6 g/t gold and 10.2 g/t silver from 872.7m. The above intercepts have extended the vertical depth of known mineralisation at Hawiah to 740m and increased the down-plunge extent of the Crossroads Extension Lode by a further 270m.

Overall, the Hawiah infill drilling has been returning results in line with expectations and confirmed the 2022 MRE result. This has provided further confidence in the geological model ahead of the next MRE update which is scheduled for Fourth Quarter 2024. Highlights from the infill drilling at Camp lode include: HWD_268 intersecting 33.09m (18.87m ETW) of massive sulphide averaging 1.3% copper, 0.1% zinc, 0.4g/t gold and 4.8g/t silver from 353.41m; and HWD_340 intersecting 22.35m (13.36m ETW) of massive sulphide averaging 1.0% copper, 1.5% zinc, 0.6g/t gold and 49.6g/t silver from 572.4m.

A key aim of this infill drilling programmes is to convert the majority of the 30 million tonne Hawiah (including its satellite deposit Al Godeyer) to the Indicated Resource category as well as to expand the MRE in several areas. In conjunction with the various development studies being undertaken, this is expected to enable the estimation of substantial Ore Reserves. Upgrading Al Godeyer Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate: Located only 12km west of the proposed Hawiah processing plant site, Al Godeyer is a satellite deposit to the main Hawiah orebody.

GMCO exploration activities began in 2022 with the maiden MRE announced in April 2023 of 1.35 million tonnes ("Mt") at 1.4g/t gold, 0.6% copper, 0.54% zinc, and 6.6g/t silver. Al Godeyer offers an excellent opportunity to provide additional near-surface ore to the proposed regional processing centre at Hawiah. Recent exploration focus has been aimed at increasing the current 1.35Mt Inferred Resource to a c.2Mt Indicated Resource, which would allow the Al Godeyer deposit to be incorporated into mine designs and Ore Reserves, as part of the planned Hawiah Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS").

The first phase of the Al Godeyer infill drilling programme was completed in August 2023. This short eight-hole programme was designed to confirm mineralisation in unclassified portions of the potential open-pit environment ahead of the main infill drilling programme. The first programme was a success with all holes intercepting the mineralised zone in-line with modelling.

Highlights from the first phase include: AGD_024: 7.0m (6.1m estimated true width ("ETW") at 1.8g/t gold, 1.0% copper, 0.1% zinc and 4.1g/t silver from 123.0m; and AGD_018: 3.1m (2.3m ETW) at 1.1g/t gold, 0.6% copper, 3.3% zinc and 15.5g/t silver from 114m. The next 4,500m of infill drilling, designed to close the drill spacing to the anticipated Indicated Resource classification requirement, is now underway and expected to complete in mid-June 2024. Exploration elsewhere within the Al Godeyer and Al Godeyer East ELs is still at an early stage and a focus during 2024 is to explore southeast of the main Al Godeyer gossan where it continues at surface as narrow, discontinuous gossanous outcrops.

The first stage of this will be a deeper penetrating geophysical survey to help delineate sub-surface targets, which will cover major portions of the two licences. Advancing Hawiah Towards Development: Hawiah already ranks as the third largest base-metal project in the emerging Saudi Arabian minerals sector. Triggering of the Hawiah DFS is scheduled to occur following the availability of the updated MRE in late 2024.

Hawiah is a larger development project than the Jibal Qutman discovery and entails underground and open-pit mining, coupled with technically more advanced processes to treat the polymetallic orebody comprising copper, gold, zinc and silver. Additional metallurgical testwork studies are ongoing to assess and optimise various processing and mining options. Hawiah's status has recently been further highlighted by the granting of EL's, contiguous to GMCO's within the Wadi Bidah, to the Saudi Government-controlled company ("Ma'aden") and its local exploration joint venture with Ivanhoe Electric, which has announced that the Wadi Bidah is one of the top 4 priority targets for their proprietary deep-probing geophysical survey technology (the 'Typhoon' electromagnetic 'EM' method).

KEFI's GMCO joint venture partner ARTAR has agreed to fund the ongoing programme at present to ensure swift progress continues in Saudi Arabia whilst KEFI triggers project launch in Ethiopia at the high-grade Tulu Kapi Gold Project. This much-appreciated support from ARTAR reflects the strong partnership relationship and the combined priority given to production start-up in both countries.