Nevada King Gold Corp. announced that one of its reverse circulation exploration drill holes intercepted 54.9 metres grading 5.34 g/t oxide gold, starting at surface from within the south-west corner of the Atlanta open pit, on its 100% owned Atlanta gold mine project, Battle Mountain Trend, Nevada. This hole is one of several vertical RC holes drilled along the western edge of the pit bottom (Figure 1) in an area that had not been drill-tested since the cessation of mining in 1985.

Vertical RC drill hole AT21-062, drilled from within the Atlanta pit, encountered 54.9m averaging 5.34 g/t Au starting at surface. The mineralized rock is oxide material and includes a high-grade intercept of 10.7m averaging 11.19 g/t Au from 30.5m to 41.2m. The true thickness of the reported intervals are uncertain, however, based on the Company's initial interpretation of the geometry of the gold mineralization true thickness of the replacement-type mineralization is expected to be in the range of 70% to 85% of the reported 54.9m intercept length.

This high-grade intercept projects southward along the Atlanta Mine Fault zone into an area of low historical drill density measuring about 100m long by 50m wide that encompasses only one historical hole. Pit wall instability, lack of access, and the prospect of encountering shallow stopes limited previous exploration drilling in this area to the testing of deeper projected vein targets. As a result there is no shallow drill data from prior drilling within this part of the property and gold mineralization in this area is not included in the current Atlanta resource estimate (Gustavson 2020 NI 43-101 pit constrained resource estimate), even though it occurs at surface and within the confines of the Gustavson resource constraining pit shell.

Similar potential for resource expansion is seen in holes AT21-038 and AT21-038A also reported and drilled along the eastern margin of the open pit, where both intercepts confirm a 32m-thick zone of near-horizontal mineralization that connects with mineralization sampled along the pit walls. Moving forward into 2022, Nevada King will be tracking the shallow high grade mineralization intercepted in AT21-062 with additional drilling stepping out to the south. Location of Nevada King's 2021 RC drill holes relative to historical drill holes and the 2020 Gustavson gold resource zone and pit perimeter.

Drill section H-H' crosses the centre of the historical open pit and ties the higher grade mineralization seen in the Gustavson resource model on the west to the lower grade mineralization seen along the eastern pit margin. Cross section H-H' showing gold distribution in the Nevada King RC holes drilled across the centre of the historical Atlanta open pit. Eastern margin of 2020 Gustavson gold resource model is located west and below intercept in AT21-062.

Gold mineralization hit in AT21-062 extends the Gustavson resource model further eastward and up to the bottom of the pit. Assay results from Nevada King's RC drilling along Section H-H' and within the vicinity are reported below in Table 1. The reported intercepts are down-hole lengths and may not represent true thickness of mineralization. However, the intercepts in vertical holes AT21-62 and AT21-38 may be close to true thickness, but additional drilling is needed for ascertaining the actual geometry of the mineralized zone.

Based on nearby Kinross hole KR97-15, the Company is confident that AT21-062 has not drilled down a narrower vein and that the high grade mineralization has significant thickness in this area, again as illustrated in Figure 2. Averaged intercepts utilize a 0.30 g/t external cut-off grade. Historical angle RC hole KR97-15 drilled by Kinross in 1997 cut 38.1m grading 6.69g/t Au, including 7.6m grading 12.28g/t from 172.3 to 179.9m. This was one of the shallowest and highest grade gold intercepts within the Gustavson 2020 resource model, but the lack of hole data to the north, east, and south precluded Gustavson from laterally expanding this outstanding intercept, so it remained a point anomaly.

Historical RC drilling west and down dip from KR97-15 produced conflicting grade averages that were difficult to rectify with the KR-97-15 intercept. The high grade intervals seen in KR-97-15 are not reflected in the nearby KR-97-05, and more importantly, the 45.7m @ 6.32 g/t reported in vertical Bobcat hole 88-14 cannot be rectified in any way with the 56.4m @ 1.46 g/t returned in the vertical twin hole drilled by Bobcat two years later. The large grade disparities seen in these four historical holes casted doubt on the validity of these reported higher grade intercepts, which in turn made it impossible for Gustavson to merge the high grade in KR97-15 downward into the 88-14 high grade intercept.

Similar problems occurred when trying to rectifying gold grade between holes in other parts of the Gustavson resource model, raising the question of whether or not the discrepancies were due to erratic mineralization, drill recovery problems, assay lab problems, or all of the above. The Company's ongoing exploration and interpretative work is designed to resolve these questions. With this objective, initial work has included drilling a N-S panel of closely spaced shallow vertical holes above and slightly east of the KR97-15 intercept.

AT21-062 was closest to the KR97-14 intercept, both with respect to geography and grade. The 10.7m @ 11.19 g/t in AT21-062 matches closely with the 7.6m @ 12.28g/t reported in KR97-1, which tends to validate the grades and thicknesses seen in both holes. It also lends credence to the high-grade intercept reported by Bobcat in 88-14.

Aside from extending the mineralization from KR97-15 up to the bottom of the pit, AT21-062 more importantly confirmed the higher grade mineralization seen in KR97-15 and 88-14, which will figure prominently moving forward into the 2022 drilling program. Nevada King now sees good potential for expanding the shallow, oxidized, higher grade mineralization encountered in AT21-062 both laterally and down-dip to depth from the bottom of the existing pit. This higher grade mineralization now holds promise for establishing early cash flow in the event of an open pit operation.

A larger proportion of the 2022 drilling program will consist of core holes dedicated to chasing this shallow, higher grade mineralization along strike and to depth.