Westhaven Gold Corp. provided an update from its 2023 exploration programs across the Spences Bridge Gold Belt in Southwestern British Columbia. Shovelnose Highlights: Percussion drilling of outcrop at the Franz Zone has returned numerous high-grade assays, including 191 g/t Au and 226g/t Ag.

New high-grade gold discovery in float (52.9 g/t Au) located 300 metres from Franz. Drilling at the Alpine Zone has expanded the broad, low-grade mineralization, intersecting 125m of 0.30 g/t Au and 1.77 g/t Ag. Drill Holes SN23-392, SN23-393, SN23-394 and SN23-398 all successfully intersected (though no gold assays of value, multiple metre-wide quartz veins were encountered) a new parallel zone located southwest of Vein Zone 1 between the FMN and MIK zones, that has been traced over a strike length of 300m.

Expanded vein zone at MIK Zone; remains open in both directions: SN23-367: 1.80m of 3.98 g/t Au and 43.74 g/t Ag including, 0.8m of 8.54 g/t Au and 92.50 g/t Ag. SN23-363: 2.14m of 2.61 g/t Au and 5.34 g/t Ag. Westhaven is reporting assays for the final 37 holes from its 2023 drill campaign at Shovelnose.

FMN Southeast: Drilling during Fall 2023 at the FMN target was designed to better define Vein Zone 1 in an area of sparser drilling in the southeastern part of FMN (?FMN Southeast?) and to test for localized ore shoots that may have been missed, similar to the bonanza shoots intersected further to the northwest at FMN (e.g., holes SN22-211 and 212). A reinterpretation of 2023 drilling (holes SN23-392 to 394 and 398), together with results from 2022 drilling at FMN now suggests the presence of a subparallel northwest trending splay or parallel structure to Vein Zone 1 situated 50 to 80m to the southwest that had been overshot by the original drilling. This newly recognized vein zone has now been defined over a strike length of 300m and remains open to the southeast.

Recent drilling suggests parts of this vein zone may be stronger mineralized than the original Vein Zone 1 at FMN Southeast. MIK Zone: Drilling in 2023 at MIK, 200m southwest of the Vein Zone 1 trend, was initially following up a 2011 drill hole. Additional step out drilling in the same area (eleven holes) has outlined a north trending moderately west dipping near-surface veinlet zone up to 30m wide that returned up to 17.81 g/t Au over 3.68m (hole SN23-360).

The zone has been traced over a strike length of 180m and remains open to the north and south. Follow-up drilling this winter will initially focus on step-outs to the south where the mineralization is strengthening in terms of width. Franz: The Franz outcrop was discovered in 2020, with initial surface sampling returning gold grades up to 51.1 g/t from the outcrop.

Subsequent drilling has returned Bonanza grade intervals such as 12.0m of 39.42 g/t gold (473 gram-metres intercept) in hole SN22-333. As part of Westhaven?s work to establish a resource within this 165m long vein system, the outcrop was washed and gridded in 2022, geologically mapped and surveyed (differential GPS and aerial photography) in early 2023 and systematically sampled in mid-2023. Westhaven used handheld percussion drilling equipment to complete a series of short (~30cm deep) drill holes along predefined survey controlled traverse lines defining a 1m x 3.5m sampling grid.

The average gold grade from all 127 sites is 7.96 g/t and the average silver grade is 23.7 g/t. Seventeen samples returned over 10 g/t gold up to 191 g/t gold (silver values for the same 17 samples ranged from 43 to 226 g/t). A colour coded image outlining the distribution of gold results within the two exposed lobes of the outcrop is shown below. Distribution of gold values on the edges of both outcrops, and two samples from probable outcrop to the northwest (16.4 and 79.6 g/t gold), suggest mineralization continues beneath the current overburden cover.

Next steps in the evaluation of the Franz mineralization may include additional surface sampling, continued collection of environmental baseline data, and preliminary resource modelling. Both percussion and core drilling completed at the Franz outcrop in 2023 (e.g. SN23-337 with 24.95m of 14.66 g/t gold and 35.5 g/t silver) as reported herein, will also support this work, and potentially facilitate the collection of a larger surface sample. Franz Northwest: A series of eleven holes (holes SN23-379 to SN23-389) were drilled this Summer and Fall 300 to 900m northwest of the Franz outcrop, stepping-out along the Vein Zone 1 trend.

These holes have now defined a subparallel zone of elevated arsenic hosted in bleached, and clay altered rhyolite that extends west-northwest for 470m metres and is located 70 to 200m southwest of Vein Zone 1. This zone remains open to the northwest, projects 350m beyond the known extent of Vein Zone 1 and may represent the shallower parts of a splay or satellite vein system running parallel to Vein Zone 1. Additional work is planned for 2024 that may initially involve additional surface prospecting, sampling and follow-up drilling. Alpine Zone: Recent drilling at the Alpine Zone continues to demonstrate the presence of near surface, very shallowly dipping, gold mineralization. Two holes were drilled during fall 2023 (SN23-371 and 372) to help fill a gap in previous drilling.

Both holes have returned elevated gold grades over significant widths in rhyolite tuff cut by Vein Zones 1 and 2. Gold mineralization occurs in both vein zones and in the intervening tuff wallrock, as shown by hole SN23-371 which intersected 0.30 g/t Au over 125.53m, starting from the top of the hole. These two holes confirm the bulk tonnage potential of gold mineralization drilled at the Alpine target. These Alpine intersections are outside of the mineral resources reported during the recent underground Preliminary Economic Assessment of the South Zone.

Shallow mineralization at the Alpine, Tower, FMN and Franz Zones could potentially provide easily accessible mill feed in a future mining scenario.