Originally explored from 1982 to 1995, the Project was inactive for almost 25 years prior to acquisition by HighGold in 2019. The large land package is underexplored and has significant exploration potential.

Contango will focus on expanding  and developing the JT Deposit and Ellis Zones in addition to generating new discoveries.  Contango is advancing elements that will facilitate eventual mining at the JT Deposit, including an expanded airstrip, an underground access ramp to expand and upgrade the resource, and a road to a barge landing at the coast. Baseline studies, permitting, and design work are underway.

With an existing high-grade resource at Johnson Tract that will only increase with further drilling, the Company is assessing opportunities for near term production. The JT project is conveniently located close to tidewater which presents a unique opportunity for directly shipping ore mined at JT by barge to an existing mill facility.

The JT Deposit hosts an Indicated Resource of 3.489 Mt grading 9.39 g/t gold equivalent (“AuEq”) comprised of 5.33 g/t Au, 6.0 g/t Ag, 0.56% Cu, 0.67% Pb and 5.21% Zn. The Inferred Resource of 0.706 Mt grading 4.76 g/t AuEq is comprised of 1.36 g/t Au, 9.1 g/t Ag, 0.59% Cu, 0.30% Pb, and 4.18% Zn.

Metallurgical test work results indicate excellent recoveries with a gold recovery of >97% and base metal recoveries ranging from 80-90% to separate copper, zinc, and lead concentrates. Deleterious elements generally occur in low concentrations.

Select JT Deposit drill intersections include:

• 108.6 m grading 10.4 g/t Au, 7.6% Zn, 0.7% Cu, 2.0% Pb and 8 g/t Ag (JT82-004 Original Discovery)
• 71.4 m grading 20.9 g/t Au, 9.8% Zn, 0.9% Cu, 1.6% Pb, and 9 g/t Ag (JT88-034)
• 137.7 m grading 11.3 g/t Au, 2.4% Zn, 0.5% Cu, 0.5% Pb, and 4 g/t Ag (JT93-067)
• 107.8 m grading 12.4 g/t Au, 7.1% Zn, 0.9% Cu, 1.6% Pb, and 9 g/t Ag (JT19-082)
• 75.1 m grading 10.0 g/t Au, 9.4% Zn, 0.6% Cu, 1.1% Pb, and 6 g/t Ag (JT19-090)
• 74.1 m grading 17.9 g/t Au, 7.3% Zn, 0.5% Cu, 1.3% Pb, and 7 g/t Ag (JT20-092)
• 56.6 m grading 19.3 g/t Au, 2.4% Zn, 0.5% Cu, 0.4% Pb, and 3.9 g/t Ag (JT21-125)
• 120.5 m grading 18.8 g/t Au, 3.9% Zn, 0.6% Cu, 0.9% Pb, and 6 g/t Ag (JT22-152)

The outcropping Ellis Zone was drill tested in 1983 by Anaconda Copper with two drillholes. The zone was not tested again until HighGold drilled 577.9 g/t Au and 2,023 g/t Ag over 6.40 m in hole DC21-010 in 2021. HighGold continues to grow the Ellis Zone with the objective of generating an initial resource estimate for the new discovery.

Select Ellis Zone drill intersections include:

• 6.4 m grading 577.0 g/t Au, 2023 g/t Ag, 2.15% Zn, 0.3% Cu, and 0.23% Pb (DC21-010)
• 42.8 m grading 3.4 g/t Au, 23.3 g/t Ag, 0.21% Cu, 0.83% Pb, 2.06% Zn (DC22-036)
• 35.2 m grading 4.2 g/t Au, 6.1 g/t Ag, 0.12% Cu, 1.4% Pb, 3.19% Zn (DC22-045)
• 14.8 m grading 10.14 g/t Au, 13.8 g/t Ag, 0.28% Cu, 0.46% Pb, 5.97% Zn (DC22-046)

Project History

The Johnson Tract drill discovery was made by Anaconda Minerals in 1982.

Past work (1982-1995) included eighty-eight (88) drill holes for a total of 26,840 meters, and major engineering and mining related studies by Westmin Resources Ltd. that evaluated direct shipping ore to their Premier mill in Stewart, British Columbia.

Past work prioritized engineering at the expense of exploration, resulting in significant untested exploration potential.

The Project reverted to CIRI in the late 1990s and saw no work until HighGold acquired the project in 2019.

Agreement with CIRI

HighGold’s lease agreement is with Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (“CIRI”), one of 12 land-based Alaska Native Regional Corporations created by the Alaska Native Claims Act (ANCSA) of 1971. CIRI selected the Johnson Tract lands through ANCSA and, in addition to mineral and surface rights, CIRI was also granted port and transportation easement across adjoining parkland to support the extraction of minerals.

The lease agreement has an “Initial Term” of 10-years, followed by a 5-year “Development Term” to achieve a mine construction decision, and then a “Production Term” that will continue for so long as operations and commercial production are maintained. Minimum exploration expenditure and annual lease payments are required to maintain the lease until production. CIRI maintains certain NSR royalty rights and a back-in right for up to a 25% participating interest.

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The JT Deposit hosts an Indicated Resource of 3.489 Mt grading 9.39 g/t gold equivalent (“AuEq”) comprised of 5.33 g/t Au, 6.0 g/t Ag, 0.56% Cu, 0.67% Pb and 5.21% Zn. The Inferred Resource of 0.706 Mt grading 4.76 g/t AuEq is comprised of 1.36 g/t Au, 9.1 g/t Ag, 0.59% Cu, 0.30% Pb, and 4.18% Zn.

The high-grade Indicated Resource forms an average 40-m thick sub-vertical, tabular structure highly amenable to low-cost, bottom-up, bulk underground mining techniques. This exceptional width is 10x that of high-grade (>5 gpt AuEq) peers.

Locked cycle flotation tests yielded very high-quality copper, zinc, lead and gold concentrates produced at a coarse primary grind with very good metal recoveries, low impurities, and negligible penalty elements. Highlights include:

• Gold recovery of 97.2% combined total of payable gold to concentrates and leaching of tails.
• Zinc recovery of 92.3% to a concentrate grading 52.6% zinc.
• Copper recovery of 84.5% to a concentrate grading 30.6% copper.
• Lead recovery of 72.4% to a concentrate grading 62.1% lead.
• Gold pyrite concentrate grading 64.3 g/t gold.
• Coarse primary grind size of 125 microns.

The JT Deposit is interpreted as an intermediate sulfidation epithermal deposit with volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) characteristics. Mineralization at the main JT Deposit forms a tabular silicified body that contains a stockwork of quartz-sulphide veins and breccia surrounded by a widespread zone of anhydrite-chlorite alteration, outboard to a widespread zone of pyrite-sericite alteration. Drilling has defined silicification and mineralization from surface to a vertical depth of approximately 350 meters, over a total strike length of over 600 meters, and to a maximum true width of 60 meters.

The JT Deposit is truncated to the southeast by the northeast striking, 5–10 m Dacite Fault. The hanging wall to the Dacite Fault is relatively unaltered quartz-feldspar porphyry, suggesting that part of the deposit has been offset. This offset remains a priority exploration target.

HighGold continues to grow and build value at the JT Deposit, which is open in multiple directions, while also advancing engineering, technical studies, and permitting in support of advanced exploration and evaluation. These include designs and permitting for an expanded airstrip to accommodate aircraft that can carry large equipment, underground access to the base of the current JT deposit to both expand and upgrade the resource, and a road to a barge landing site at the coast.

Resource Estimate

Table 1. JT Deposit Mineral Estimate at 3.0 g/t AuEq Cut-off

(effective date July 12, 2022)

Property Map

JT Property Plan Map

JT Deposit Long Section

The DC Prospect is located four (4) kilometers northeast of the JT Deposit and is characterized by a series of large gossan alteration zones that extends over a 1.5 km x 3.0 km area, focused along a northeast-striking structure, similar to the JT Deposit. Mineralization and pervasive clay/anhydrite alteration are preferentially developed within dacitic volcaniclastic rocks capped by a shallowly dipping sequence of lesser altered basaltic volcanic rocks that are host to a gold- and silver-rich epithermal vein field at higher elevations. The widespread extent of alteration and mineralization exposed in erosional windows through the capping basalt supports potential for a large and partially blind mineralized system linking the various DC Prospect zones together over a strike length of 3 km.

Drilling in 2021 resulted in the discovery of the “Ellis Zone” as near-surface bonanza-grade mineralization, which returned 577.9 g/t Au and 2,023 g/t Ag over 6.40 m in hole DC21-010. The Ellis Zone was expanded in 2022 and 2023, and mineralization has now been defined over a strike length of 125 meters and from surface to a depth of 225 meters with an average true thickness of 10 to 15m within the plunging core of the zone. Other significant intercepts include:

• 14.3 g/t AuEq over 14.8 m (DC22-046),
• 21.7 g/t AuEq over 11.9 m (DC22-043), and
• 5.4 g/t AuEq over 42.8 m (DC22-046).

The Ellis Zone shares many similarities with the JT Deposit, including high base and precious metal grades, steep geometry, coarse-grained base metal sulfides in stockwork veins and siliceous breccia, within anhydrite-altered dacitic fragment rocks. Anhydrite-chlorite alteration is zoned outboard to a widespread zone of pyrite-sericite (± clay) alteration.

The Ellis Zone remains open along trend and at depth. HighGold continues to grow the Ellis Zone with the objective of generating a resource estimate for the new discovery, while also testing the greater potential at the DC prospect.

View looking North from Upper DC towards the Ellis Zone at Middle DC. Vein sampling at Upper DC for scale.

OTHER PROSPECTS

Larger District Opportunity

The district-scale potential at Johnson Tract, like that found at many VMS and epithermal districts, is supported by the presence at least nine (9) other prospect areas with similar alteration and mineralization styles. The prospects are distributed over an approximate 12-kilometer strike length, most of which are early-stage raw prospects with little or no prior drilling. The best-known prospects are Difficult Creek (DC), Kona, Easy Creek (EC), South Valley, and Double Glacier.

Map showing MobileMT apparent resistivity outlining major prospects.

Map showing northern prospects: DC,Milkbone, Kona, and Easy Creek (January 2022)

Difficult Creek (DC) Prospect

Alteration at DC consists dominantly of pervasive sericite and pyrite and locally abundant anhydrite/gypsum and clay on surface. Alteration has a structural and stratigraphic control and is strongest in a unit of shallowly north-dipping dacitic volcaniclastic rocks that underlie a package of less altered basaltic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks. Alteration is exposed in erosional windows and along structures that cut the overlying basaltic rocks. Alteration and mineralization are exposed in a 1.5 x 3.0 km area, suggesting a very large, partly buried mineralizing hydrothermal system. The Central Fault, a major northeast-striking, altered, and mineralized fault cuts the DC prospect area and is a likely control on mineralization.

Mineralization at DC occurs as base and precious metal- and sulfide-rich quartz-carbonate veins and breccias, similar to mineralization at the JT Deposit. Local surface mapping and sampling suggests that gold-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) style mineralization may also occur near the contact between the dacitic tuffs and overlying basaltic rocks (MDC prospect). The basaltic capping rocks locally host abundant silver- and gold-rich epithermal-style quartz veins at higher stratigraphic elevations (UDC prospect), further evidence of a large, partially blind mineralized hydrothermal system linking various prospects at DC.

DC Prospects from UDC looking North towards MDC. Easy Creek occurs over the ridge to the North.

Milkbone Prospect

The Milkbone Fault is a property-scale, west-dipping structure with local zones of alteration, mineralization, and spatially associated high-grade soil, grab, and float samples. The Milkbone Prospect occurs west of DC and may be in part related to the DC mineralizing system. The Milkbone Fault is also mineralized to the north in Easy Creek valley where high Au-grades have been sampled from within and around altered faults.

Kona Prospect

The Kona Creek Prospect consists of an area of strong phyllic to advanced argillic alteration (pyrophyllite ± dickite), approximately 0.4 km x 0.8 km, hosted in a series of dacitic tuffs laterally equivalent to those hosting the Johnson Deposit to the south. IP surveys have identified chargeability and conductivity anomalies coincident with surface alteration at the Kona Creek Prospect, in addition to anomalous pathfinder elements (Bi, Se, Te) in surface soils. Alteration and both geophysical and geochemical anomalies are focused along the north-northeast striking fault and are truncated to the west by the major west dipping Kona Creek Fault.

Easy Creek (EC) Prospect

The Easy Creek prospect, at the northern extend of the Johnson Tract, consists of a 2 km zone of alteration that has seen only limited historic exploration. On the western side of the Easy Creek valley, mapped alteration coincides with elevated Au and Cu in soils and strong chargeability and resistivity anomalies. On the southeastern side, mapped alteration is coincident with a >100 ppb Au-in-soil anomaly surrounding a strong magnetic high around a biotite quartz diorite intrusion. Magnetite veins and miarolitic cavities with Cu mineralization have been mapped in and around the intrusion.

Surface rock samples at Easy Creek include a historic 1m chip channel sample at 2.9 g/t Au and a 2021 boulder discovery which returned 29.1 g/t Au. These samples, and anomalous soils, cluster locally around the projected northern trace of Milkbone fault, a regional scale structure closely associated with mineralization at the Milkbone prospect to the south. No drilling has been done at Easy Creek.

South Valley Prospect

A geophysical anomaly (magnetics and resistivity) with similar response to that of the JT Deposit occurs under cover in the Johnson River valley, along trend from the JT Deposit and in equivalent host rocks. Mapped alteration increases in intensity towards the geophysical anomaly within these host rocks. Historic drilling of this target intersected strong alteration and anomalous Au and Cu mineralization. This target occurs close to the potential future portal site location.

Double Glacier Prospect

The historic Double Glacier prospect lies just outside of the property boundary. Mapped alteration and abundant high-grade massive sulfide veins outcrop in equivalent host rocks along trend to the southwest of the JT deposit. This stratigraphy dips to the southeast, below the property boundary. Three holes drilled in 2023 successfully intersected strongly altered and weakly mineralized JT Deposit host stratigraphy along altered structures. More work is required to follow-up on this highly prospective target.

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