Scorpio Gold Plans Sonic Drilling and Metallurgical Tests at Manhattan Mine

Scorpio Gold Corporation has announced plans to conduct a sonic drilling and metallurgical test work program at its Manhattan District Project in Nevada. The initiative aims to evaluate the potential commercial value of historic waste dump, tailings, heap leach, and low-grade stockpile material that has already been mined and remains at the surface.

The company has identified four historic surface facilities for evaluation: the heap leach pad, tailings storage facilities, waste dump, and the historic low-grade stockpile area. These areas were delineated through volumetric modeling of the Company's 2024 LiDAR survey, historical topographic data, density estimates, and swell factors. The material, which is already mined and sits at the surface, is expected to be reprocessed using toll milling opportunities at operating mills within trucking distance of Manhattan.

Approximately 35 sonic drill holes are planned for the program, with head characterization test work scheduled to follow. The primary objective is to generate the data package required to characterize the material's suitability for toll milling opportunities. If successful, the results will advance the program to Phase 2, which involves a Mineral Resource Estimate for the surface material, adding to the Company's existing mineral inventory.

Zayn Kalyan, CEO of Scorpio Gold, stated, "With open pit mining starting in 1980 and heap leach operations running from 1989 to 1993, the creation of these facilities at Manhattan has left a substantial accumulation of already-mined material sitting at the surface. This program is about systematically quantifying this material and obtaining preliminary metallurgical characterization of each material type. With operating mills within trucking distance in central Nevada, this information will assist the company in determining whether this material may have any commercial value."

Harrison Pokrandt, Vice President of Exploration at Scorpio Gold, added, "These tailings and waste facilities prove to be exciting targets as we review historical data about the production history in Manhattan. The value of the program extends well beyond the material itself. Junior exploration companies are typically dependent on equity financings to fund growth; the program is designed to test whether Manhattan's surface material can provide an alternative through organic growth. The program has been specifically designed to generate the data package, grade, recovery characteristics, deleterious elements, and material handling properties, that toll milling operators in the region would require to evaluate receiving and processing the material. Historical mining at Manhattan operated under gold prices and recovery technologies that are less favorable than today's prices and extraction technologies."

The Manhattan District Project, located in the Walker Lane Trend of Nevada, is road accessible and lies approximately 15 kilometers south of the operating Round Mountain Gold Mine. Historically, Manhattan has produced approximately 700,000 ounces of gold from high-grade placer and lode operations dating from the late 1890s through to the mid-2000s. The maiden mineral resource estimate covering the Goldwedge and Manhattan Pit areas of Manhattan is comprised of 18,343,000 tonnes grading 1.26 g/t gold for a total of 740,000 ounces of contained gold in the inferred category. A historical mineral resource estimate covering the Black Mammoth, April Fool, Hooligan, Keystone, and Jumbo areas of Manhattan comprises 1,652,325 tonnes grading 5.89 g/t gold for a total of 312,900 ounces of contained gold.

The program will be executed in two phases. Phase 1 involves sonic drilling and head characterization, with approximately 35 vertical sonic drill holes planned to use a track-mounted sonic rig. Samples will be collected on 0.5 to 1.0-meter intervals, and head characterization test work will be conducted to estimate grade, variability, oxidation state, and cyanide amenability across the four material sources. SLR will provide on-site support throughout drilling, including logging, sampling, chain-of-custody, and QA/QC protocols, with a full summary report to follow.

Results from the head characterization will determine whether the material warrants a full metallurgical test work program, which may include bottle roll and cyanide leach testing, gravity and flotation amenability, mineralogical characterization, and other test work relevant to potential processing routes and toll milling discussions. Phase 2 will involve the completion of a Mineral Resource Estimate for the waste dump, tailings, heap leach, and/or low-grade stockpile material, as applicable, defining the tonnage and grade of material with reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction. Any such estimate would be incremental to the Company's existing mineral resource inventory at Manhattan.