Viva Gold Advances Tonopah Project into Feasibility, Explores Resource Expansion

VANCOUVER, BC — January 14, 2026 — Leads & Copy — Viva Gold Corp (TSXV: VAU; OTCQB: VAUCF) is advancing its Tonopah project in Nevada into feasibility work and exploring options to expand gold and silver resources.

The Tonopah project, located near the town of Tonopah and Kinross Gold’s Round Mountain gold mine, is the focus of Viva's 2026 efforts to move through pre-feasibility/feasibility studies and into development permitting. According to President and CEO James Hesketh, the company aims to leverage the project's advanced status, metallurgical work, and environmental studies to enhance its market valuation.

Viva has started work programs that include submitting a work plan to the US Bureau of Land Management for approval of up to 23 drill locations. The work plan is identified as WP#44 under an existing Programmatic Agreement. The goal is to infill high-grade inferred mineralization (1.0 gram per tonne, “gpt”) within the 2025 PEA pit shell for potential conversion to measured and indicated material and to follow up on high-grade extensions. Drilling is expected to start in February, with additional locations planned in the Midway Hills area to validate and deepen existing drilling from the 1980s.

Bottle roll tests are underway to assess heap leach gold recovery potential at a coarse crush size (36mm) for low-grade gold mineralization (~0.4 gpt Au). Column leach testwork will follow if the bottle roll tests are successful. The company anticipates that coarse crush has the potential to reduce both capital and operating costs for heap leach operations at Tonopah.

The company is consulting with engineering firms to evaluate the accelerated development of high-grade gold mineralization in the pit for early CIL mill production, while deferring heap leaching of low-grade gold mineralization. This approach would defer initial capital costs for the heap-leach circuit and potentially accelerate initial capital payback, according to the company.

Viva has also solicited quotes from geotechnical and hydrological consultants for studies on pit slope angles, pit dewatering requirements, stormwater and pit water disposal options, and hydrologic modeling. This work will support feasibility study and development permitting and will use data collected over the last five years.

An independent review of historical exploration data identified seven areas for potential resource expansion. One of these areas, Midway Hills, saw partial drilling in the 1980’s. Viva has contracted a geophysical company to complete 14,000 meters of CSAMT geophysical survey to better define the identified targets. CSAMT was a key tool used in the original discovery of the Tonopah deposit.

Viva Gold’s Tonopah gold project is located near Kinross Gold's Round Mountain mine and controls a major land position on the Walker Lane Trend in Western Nevada. The Company trades on the TSX Venture exchange “VAU”, on the OTCQB "VAUCF" and on the Frankfurt exchange "7PB".

James Hesketh, President & CEO
(720) 291-1775
jhesketh@vivagoldcorp.com
Graham Farrell, Investor Relations
(416) 842-9003
graham.farrell@vivagoldcorp.com

Source: Viva Gold Corp