Mako Gold Limited announced that it has received positive results from phase 1 of the 25,000m auger drilling program on the Company's 90% owned Napié Project in Côte d'Ivoire. Phase 1 has exceeded the Company's objective to demonstrate the multi-million-ounce gold potential of Napié by identifying several mineralised footprints equal to or several times larger than Tchaga or Gogbala along the extensive 30km shear and associated faults at Napié. The program began with orientation auger drilling over the Tchaga and Gogbala deposits, which form the basis of the maiden 868koz MRE 1. The purpose of the orientation program was to ensure that auger would be effective in identifying significant gold mineralisation in other areas on Napié.

Large, continuous auger anomalies were returned from Tchaga and Gogbala, thereby validating that auger works well on Napié to identify gold mineralisation. During the orientation survey samples were collected and analysed at the laterite/saprolite interface (transition zone) as well as end of the hole (EHS) within the saprolite. High-grade results were returned from the transition zone including 55.90g/t, 2.20g/t Au and 1.79g/t Au.

Only EHS was analysed for the rest of the program since it worked well to identify the gold mineralised zones during the orientation phase. Phase 1 of the 25,000m auger drilling program is complete with all assays received. A total of 1,420 holes were drilled at a line spacing of 400m and sample spacing of 100m for 14,462m drilled.

A total of 1,681 samples were submitted for bottle roll analysis. A thematic location map of historic and current auger holes is shown in Appendix 1. Coordinates and results 8ppb and above are shown in Appendix 2. The highest priority targets identified by auger for RC/DD drilling are as follows: Tchaga North where 11km of gold mineralisation was identified. Limited previous drilling by Mako returned 8m at 8.53g/t Au, 1m at 215g/t Au and 4m at 101.31g/t Au 2. The area between Tchaga and Gogbala where auger identified a 5.6km gold mineralised trend.

Limited previous drilling by Mako returned 1m at 30.89g/t Au, 17m at 1.68g/t Au, 4m at 4.82g/t Au and 5m at 3.28g/t Au 3. The 1.4km-long zone south of the Gogbala deposit which returned 55.90g/t Au and 1.79g/t Au in transition samples outside of the resource in an area of no previous RC/DD drilling. The auger drilling program has successfully narrowed down wide soil anomalies coincident with the 30km-long Napié shear and associated splays. This will allow the Company to vector in to more specific drill targets for resource expansion.

An excellent example of how the auger is refining the drill targets is at Tchaga North, where the soil anomaly (shown in yellow) is up to 2km wide. Auger has identified two new parallel zones which provide precise drill targets. Next Steps: The phase 2 auger drilling program, which will consist of tightening up the grid to 200m X 50m on select targets identified in phase 1, should commence in late January.

Results from phase 2 are scheduled for mid to late February with planned RC/DD drilling to commence shortly thereafter.