West Madsen Property

Our neighbour, West Red Lake Gold Mines, just declared commercial production at the Madsen Gold Mine on January 12, 2026, and with the headframe just a five-kilometre drive from our eastern claim boundary, we are in an enviable strategic location with promising targets that merit further exploration," Greg Lytle, President of Gold Finder. 

Gold Finder (formerly GoldON) owns a 100% interest in the West Madsen property (the "Property") that covers 5,988 hectares in the heart of the Red Lake Gold Camp. The Property comprises two contiguous claim blocks: Block A to the east and Block B to the west, both accessible via secondary roads that connect to Ontario HWY 618, then to the town of Red Lake, 15 km to the northeast. Block A adjoins the Madsen Gold Mine property (Figure 1), owned by West Red Lake Gold Mines (WRLG), which recently declared commercial production (see WRLG's news release of January 12, 2026).

Figure 1: Looking northeast from West Madsen Block A to WRLG's Madsen Mine Property (click on image to enlarge).

The bulk of the mineral resources on the Madsen Mine property are hosted in a ~7-km-long gold trend that follows the major crustal break or contact between the Balmer and Confederation assemblages. Gold Finder has observed the same Balmer-Confederation contact approximately 1.5 km west of the Block A eastern boundary, and identified it within an ~8-km corridor of disrupted regional magnetics that traverses Block A from the Madsen Mine property (Figure 2).

Since acquiring the original claim blocks from Great Bear Resources in 2019 and additional claims from Bounty Gold in 2020 to increase the size of Block A, Gold Finder's exploration work, focused on Block A, has included geophysical interpretations, regional mapping and prospecting, rock sampling, a soil-gas-hydrocarbon survey, and approximately 11,100 metres of diamond drilling over 28 holes (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Plan view of West Madsen - Block A with 2025 exploration areas and analytical results.

Diamond drilling has identified gold anomalies in both Balmer and Confederation Assemblage rocks. 2020 drilling intersected 14.4 g/t Au over 0.5 meters (m) in strongly altered Balmer mafic volcanic rocks (hole WM-20-05, see Gold Finder's news release of July 22, 2020), and 2021 drilling intersected 0.16 g/t Au over 195 m, including 0.51 g/t Au over 10.90 m from felsic intrusive rocks of the Confederation Assemblage (hole WM-21-22, see Gold Finder's news release of June 1, 2021). Follow-up drilling to the latter intersection in 2024, 100 meters along strike to the southwest, intersected 0.28 g/t Au over 15 m from the felsic intrusive rocks and 0.85 g/t Au over 9.44 m from silicified metasediments in the hanging wall to the felsic intrusive rocks (hole WM-24-05, see Gold Finder's news release of November 7, 2024).

In 2025, Emerald Geological Services conducted a review of the Company's previous exploration programs on the Property (2019-2024) to identify untested targets and areas that require further fieldwork before undertaking any additional mechanical stripping or drilling. Two areas were selected for the 2025 summer and fall field programs (Figure 2), which included the collection of 70 rock (grab) samples and 412 "A" horizon soil samples. Prospecting was also carried out at several targets across the Property. Results for the fall soil sampling and prospecting programs are presented below.

Fall Soil Sampling Program

Area 1 covers an area from Tack Lake, where the Balmer-Confederation contact has been identified in drilling, to the western property boundary with Athena Gold's ("Athena") Laird Lake property, where Athena previously reported a bonanza-grade grab sample of 373 g/t Au (see Athena's news release of December 4, 2024) and the identification of new gold-in-till anomalies (see Athena's news release of September 4, 2025). During Gold Finder's fall program, six north-south lines of "A" horizon soil sampling were completed as infill lines to the summer survey, each 500 meters long and spaced 100 meters apart with 25-meter sample station spacing. These were designed to test the southern half of the survey area from the summer, where anomalies of 228 ppb Au and 109 ppb Au were obtained (see Sept 9^th news release, linked above). The two highest anomalies obtained from the most recent sampling were 51 ppb Au and 39 ppb Au, both located along the same east-west trend as the 228 ppb Au anomaly, north of an east-west linear magnetic high (see Figure 3 and Table 1).

Figure 3: West Madsen - Area 1.

Area 2 covers an area near the eastern Property boundary, where 2020 soil sampling yielded anomalies up to 106 ppb Au from "A" horizon, and where 2024 drillholes WM-24-03 and WM-24-04 intersected ultramafic flows believed to belong to the Balmer Assemblage, which hosts the current and past producing gold mines of the Red Lake Camp (see Gold Finder's news release of November 7, 2024). During the fall program, four north-south lines of "A" horizon soil sampling were completed as southern extensions of the summer survey lines, which had yielded two anomalies of 76 ppb Au close to the southern extreme of the summer survey (see Sept 9^th news release, linked above). The highest value obtained from the most recent sampling was 37 ppb Au near the south end of the extension lines (see Figure 4 and Table 1).

Figure 4: West Madsen - Area 2.

Fall Prospecting Program

Prospecting was carried out at several target areas across the Property during the fall program. No significant gold anomalies were obtained from the 45 grab samples collected. However, one sample (C270024) returned 0.19% chromium (Cr) and 0.10% nickel (Ni) from an altered ultramafic outcrop in the eastern part of the Property, proximal to one of the 76 ppb Au soil sample anomalies from the summer program. Another sample (C270043) returned 386 ppm molybdenum (Mo) from mafic outcrop with quartz veining in the eastern part of the Property (See Figure 4 and Table 2). It is unknown whether Mo may be a pathfinder for Au mineralization in this area.

Sample C270024 - Altered ultramafic rock, 0.19% Cr, 0.10% Ni.

Ultramafic / peridotite sills and flows with komatiitic geochemistry are common within the Balmer assemblage, commonly altered to serpentine and magnetite or tremolite-actinolite. The distribution of gold on the adjoining Madsen Mine property is almost exclusively within altered basalt but is enhanced proximal to major lithological contacts, such as ultramafic sills, iron formations, felsic dykes and felsic volcanic strata (please refer to the technical report entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report and Prefeasibility Study for the Madsen Mine, Ontario, Canada", prepared by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. with an effective date of January 7, 2025). In future exploration programs, it will be important to conduct detailed geological mapping to identify areas where Balmer basaltic rocks contact ultramafic sills and other units that help focus gold mineralization. Prospecting, reconnaissance field mapping, and diamond drilling on the Property strongly suggest that the Balmer-Confederation contact must be located further south than previously thought in Area 2 (e.g. as portrayed by Sanborn-Barrie et al. 2004; see Figure 4).

The 2025 field programs concentrated on both the western and eastern boundaries of the Property, aiming to trace major structural and mineralized corridors that extend from neighbouring claims onto our ground," said Greg Lytle, President of Gold Finder. "We have confirmed significant gold mineralization in the central part of Block A, east of Tack Lake, as well as beneath Tack Lake itself. Our 2025 initiatives successfully uncovered new gold anomalies at the Property's extremities and identified key rock units, which will guide our drill target development work in 2026. Moving forward, our priority will be systematic geological mapping to integrate these findings and correlate our rock units with the geology of the Madsen Mine. This approach should enable us to target drillholes more precisely."

QAQC

Soil and rock samples were collected, documented, and photographed in the field, then placed in sealed bags and delivered to Activation Laboratories (ActLabs) in Thunder Bay, an ISO/IEC 17025-accredited laboratory. Soil sample collection is subject to Emerald Geological Services' internal quality assurance/quality control (QAQC) protocols, which include the insertion of blank material and certified reference material into each batch of samples submitted. Rock samples referenced in this news release were analyzed using ActLabs methods 1A2-50, a 50g fire assay with atomic absorption finish, and 1F2, a total digestion with ICP-OES finish for trace elements. "A" horizon soil samples were analyzed using ActLabs methods 2A, an INAA analysis for gold and trace elements, as well as ActLabs method 2C1, an aqua regia partial digestion with ICP finish for select metals.