Banyan Gold - Substantially De-risked 7 Million Ounce Gold Opportunity in the Yukon

• Banyan Gold's flagship AurMac project in the Yukon has a 7 million oz gold resource at surface
• The AurMac project has excellent infrastructure (roads, power, nearby mills), minimizing capex significantly
• Recent resource update allows internal engineering and scoping study work to understand project economics and key de-risking steps
• Metallurgical test work indicates good recoveries via heap leach (60-72%) or tank leaching (84%) with a high gravity recovery
• Prudent capital management with $7M cash, ongoing baseline environmental work; considering 6,000m drill program

Banyan Gold (TSX-V:BYN) is advancing its 100%-owned AurMac Gold Project located in the prolific Yukon Territory of Canada. With a recently updated gold resource totaling 7 million ounces at surface, exceptional nearby infrastructure, and ongoing technical studies, Banyan is positioning AurMac as an attractive development-stage project in a top mining jurisdiction.

7 Million Ounce Resource with Compelling Infrastructure

The AurMac project hosts 7 million ounces of gold in two adjacent deposits - the Powerline deposit containing 6.2 million ounces and the Airstrip deposit 845,000 ounces to the north. Importantly, this large resource begins right at the surface, making it amenable to open-pit mining methods. Discussing the project's highly favorable location, Banyan President & CEO Tara Christie stated:

"AurMac has exceptional infrastructure with roads, and power immediately adjacent to 2 mines that are operating - Keno Hill's high-grade silver and Victoria Gold's open pit heap leach mine."

This positions AurMac to leverage existing infrastructure which can significantly reduce capital costs.

Interview with President & CEO Tara Christie

Focused Internal Studies to Understand Project Economics

Following the recent 7 million ounce resource update, Banyan's technical team has turned its attention to internal engineering and scoping-level studies. The goal is to thoroughly understand the project's economics and key factors to transform AurMac into an economic, developable mining project.

"We're now at the phase where we're doing some internal engineering and scoping study work, trying to understand the sensitivities and the key things that need to be done to make this an economic project," said Christie. "Now that we've connected the two pits into one larger resource, it makes a lot more sense to be doing the engineering on that."

Evaluating Starter Pit Potential

A critical aspect the Banyan team is evaluating is the potential for a higher-grade starter pit to drive quick capital payback. Within the larger 7 million ounce resource grading 0.63 g/t gold, there are distinct zones of higher grade mineralization exceeding 1 g/t, mainly in the Powerline deposit.

"My kind of target is I need to find half a million to three-quarters of a million ounces of one gram plus material for our starter pit payback," explained Christie. "And then you're over that critical hurdle because once you've paid for the infrastructure, 0.5 g/t becomes economic."

By initially focusing on mining the highest-margin material, Banyan could potentially minimize the payback period and overall risk of the AurMac development.

Positive Metallurgical Test Work

Banyan has conducted preliminary metallurgical test-work on AurMac mineralization, with encouraging results. Heap leach tests returned gold recoveries ranging from 60% to 72%. Tank leach testing, which would entail a moderately higher-cost processing route, achieved recoveries of around 84%.

Notably, the testing showed a very high gravity recoverable gold content of 53%. "If you can increase your recoveries by a percentage or you can decrease capex by understanding something or decrease operating costs by not having to grind quite as fine, that's going to add a lot of value," said Christie.

Ultimately, Banyan will need to complete trade-off studies evaluating the optimal processing route, balancing recoveries, capital intensity and operating costs. However, the initial met results provided a solid baseline to build upon.

Prudent Capital Management and Near-Term Plans

Banyan is taking a prudent approach to managing its capital and technical programs. The company currently has about $7 million in working capital which is sufficient to maintain its Yukon site and continue key de-risking activities like baseline environmental studies and metallurgical optimization.

"The derisking on the project level, the continued engineering, that's going to be throughout the year as we start to try to move towards a PEA," commented Christie. "We are putting together a plan. We're being cautious and I want to make sure we continue to deliver on what we say."

Banyan is contemplating a 6,000-meter exploration and infill drill program in 2024, likely focused on expanding and upgrading the higher-grade zones to indicated resources. However, the company remains flexible to ramp up activities if market conditions warrant.

"We are set up for that and we've run all the plans. Because we have the infrastructure. We're on a road. We've already got 3 drills on site, we have a 100-person camp. We're set up to ramp up very quickly in the right environment," affirmed Christie.

With a large 7 million-ounce resource, robust infrastructure, and ongoing de-risking activities, Banyan Gold's AurMac project represents an attractive opportunity in the development-stage gold space. Positive initial metallurgy, the potential for a high-margin starter pit, and its location in the mining-friendly Yukon are all favorable attributes.

Led by an experienced management team, Banyan is taking a disciplined approach to advance AurMac while maintaining a strong treasury. Upcoming potential catalysts include further metallurgical optimization, updated geological modeling and a 6000-m drill program. Longer-term, the release of a PEA would represent a major milestone in validating AurMac's economic potential. Banyan Gold offers investors a compelling combination of scale, grade, location and prudent management to create value as it continues advancing the AurMac project.

The Investment Thesis for Banyan Gold

• 100% ownership of advanced-stage AurMac gold project in Yukon, Canada
• Large scale: 7Moz resource at surface across two adjacent deposits
• High-grade starter pit potential to drive robust project economics/rapid payback
• Excellent infrastructure (roads, power, nearby mills) to minimize capex
• Attractive preliminary metallurgy with high gravity recoverable gold
• Disciplined capital management: $7M cash to advance the project in 2024
• Potential near-term catalysts: met testing, updated geologic model, PEA study
• Experienced, proven management team prudently advancing the asset

Macro Thematic Analysis

The current market environment appears highly constructive for gold and gold equities. Persistently high inflation, economic uncertainty and the specter of a recession are all fueling demand for safe-haven assets like gold. This is evidenced by gold's recent surge to all-time highs in 2023.

For gold companies, this provides a powerful macro tailwind. Banyan Gold CEO Tara Christie noted the optimistic sentiment among market participants at recent industry conferences: "I thought there was an excellent conference, great meetings. You always meet with institutional investors, private investors, new investors. And that was quite interesting - there were some generalists that were really making their first forays into mining, which I thought was interesting."

The entry of generalist investors into the gold space is a particularly bullish signal, suggesting the potential for new inflows into the sector. "This generalist investor GMT Capital took a 9.9% stake in a couple of gold companies including Victoria Gold," Christie pointed out as an example. "They aren't mining specialists - this is their first foray into the sector."

With the gold price comfortably above US$1,900 per ounce and industry costs still lagging that rise, gold producers are poised to generate substantial free cash flow at current metal prices. And development-stage companies like Banyan building ounces in the ground should benefit from rising investor interest and enhanced project economics.

As Christie summed up:

"Gold juniors right now are so undervalued. I look at some of the companies and they're trading at unbelievably low price per ounce. We needed to see the gold price go up for the majors to see some of these small assets. We're trading at $8 per ounce, many of our peers are $30-70 per ounce for pre-development companies, so there's lots of room for many companies to re-rate higher, and Banyan is one of them."