Montage Gold Corp. report results from ongoing drilling at the Koné Gold Project. A resource expansion program began in late November 2022 and is ongoing on numerous targets including Yeré North and Gbongogo South where shallow initial RC drilling has intersected high-grade intercepts from surface.

Concurrently, diamond drilling at the Gbongogo Main deposit (formerly referred to as the Gbongogo deposit) continues to confirm and expand the resource with the most recent deep holes ending in mineralization. Exploration is ongoing and has been expanded based upon impressive discoveries since commencement of the program in November 2022. The KGP forms a contiguous block of 1,800 sq km of exploration permits and a further 458 sq km of exploration permit applications, for a total of 2,258 sq km and covers a strike length of over 75km on one of the most prospective gold belts in West Africa.

Montage has completed 15,000m of a planned program that has now been increased to over 40,000m and includes a combination of RC, diamond core, and reconnaissance, shallow RC drilling across a range of targets. The primary objective of the program is to identify high-grade satellite deposits grading +1.5g/t or better that will enhance the large-scale Koné deposit. Resource RC drilling of the upper part of the Gbongogo Main deposit is now complete and core drilling commenced at the start of February with 1,454m drilled to date.

Gbongogo Main currently hosts an Inferred Mineral Resource of 5.2Mt at 2.1g/t for 351koz (1.2g/t cut off). The initial core holes have been drilled down plunge to provide samples for metallurgical test work, to improve understanding of the high-grade quartz tourmaline vein sets that cut the plunging quartz diorite unit and to test depth extension of the mineralization. This drilling has further confirmed the high-grade nature of Gbongogo Main and work is now focused on systematic infill drilling in the deeper parts of the resource.

Results received from GBDDH033 demonstrate that the plunging intrusive body is still open and widening at depth to a true width of close to 100m. Montage is upgrading and expanding the resource at Gbongogo Main and aims to define an Indicated Mineral Resource in the coming months. Metallurgical samples are being shipped to SGS Lakefield, hydrogeological drilling is complete and geotechnical drilling will commence in April as part of the engineering work towards the delivery of a revised Feasibility Study.

Shallow reconnaissance RC drilling (30m vertical) forms a major part of Montage's strategy to evaluate the wider exploration potential of the KGP. The first target drilled in this initial program was Gbongogo South where historic drilling intersected inconsistent mineralization over a strike length of >500m, just south of the Gbongogo Main deposit. Montage's evaluation of the area suggests that the primary control on the north-plunging intrusive at Gbongogo Main is a major north-south break in the geology representing the eastern margins of a district scale shear zone that extends northward for over >15km.

Diouma North is located 2km south of Gbongogo Main and is a new discovery by Montage from mapping out the southern extensions of Gbongogo Main and Gbongogo South. It lies outside historic soil anomalies and clearly illustrates the serious potential of the area beyond historical work conducted by 3rd parties. GBRC065 intersected wide zones of mineralization hosted within a silicified diorite intrusive with widely disseminated pyrite.

100m to the south, holes GBRC070 and GBRC071 intersected tighter, higher-grade mineralization with the intervening section returning lower grade intercepts. The limited drilling to date by Montage has defined a north-east trending mineralised structure with coincident mineralised intrusive material over a strike length of 150m which is open in all directions in an under-explored part of the project area. Follow-up drilling is a priority.

Yeré North was first identified by Barrick in 2021 from three trenches and two RC holes returning wide intercepts over an intrusive body. Montage has now completed three lines of shallow RC drilling across this target confirming the mineralization over a 200m strike length. Importantly, previously unidentified high grade bedrock mineralization was intersected at the south end of the prospect.

As with Diouma, these are early days for this prospect and Montage is mobilizing to follow up the exciting initial results with deeper RC drilling at Yeré North in addition to further surface work to expand the prospect which is open to the north and south.