Dakota Gold Announces 2026 Plans for Richmond Hill and Maitland Gold Projects Following Successful Drill Programs

Lead, South Dakota--(Newsfile Corp. - January 13, 2026) - Dakota Gold Corp. (NYSE:DC) ("Dakota Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to report additional drill results from the Richmond Hill Oxide Heap Leach Gold Project ("Richmond Hill" or the "Project") 2025 drill campaign and outline its 2026 strategy to advance its flagship projects. This year, the Company will be conducting a drilling program at Richmond Hill to support the delivery of a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) in the second half of 2026, while also executing an infill drill campaign at the Maitland Gold Project's ("Maitland") Unionville Zone targeting a maiden resource by year-end.

Highlights from this update include:

• Richmond Hill expansion drill holes RH25C-319 intersected 1.18 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au) over 47.6 meters (56 gram meters) and RH25C-323 intersected 2.19 g/t Au over 31.1 meters (68 gram meters), including 17.35 g/t Au over 1.5 meters (26 gram meters). RH25C-323 is the furthest step-out hole drilled to date on the Project and is 200 meters (660 feet) north of the current measured and indicated resource boundary, and 305 meters (1,000 feet) north of gold mineralization that drove the pit boundary. Several adjacent holes are awaiting assay results and will be received in the coming weeks. The mineralization in the northeast is only limited by drilling and remains open. The 2025 drill program covers an area of 300 meters (980 ft) north - south and 535 meters (1,750 ft) east - west.

• The 2026 Richmond Hill drill campaign includes a total of 15,481 meters (50,790 feet) of drilling in 109 holes. Infill drilling will convert inferred to measured and indicated resources for the initial 10 year mine plan area, expansion drilling will focus on the north Project area, and condemnation drilling will test areas for infrastructure suitability to ensure optimal site design for the Feasibility Study. All drilling required for the purpose of the Feasibility Study is expected to be completed by Q3 2026.

• The Company will complete a Pre-Feasibility Study for Richmond Hill in the second half of 2026. With the resource expansion drilling in the north intersecting significantly higher grades than resource cut-off, complimented with an extensive metallurgical test program, the Company will undertake a PFS with a focus on the first ten years of mining. This will allow the Company to report reserves in 2026 and will inform the Feasibility Study to be completed in the first half of 2027.

• The Company will launch a 2026 Maitland drill campaign of 5,578 meters (18,300 feet) in 44 holes of infill drilling to define a maiden resource for the Tertiary-aged Unionville gold Zone.

"With many higher-grade gold intercepts encountered during the 2025 drill program, solid working capital and an experienced team, Dakota Gold is positioned to advance Richmond Hill by completing a Pre-Feasibility Study, and deliver Maitland's maiden resource in 2026 — key steps that further de-risk our flagship projects and position the Company to create long-term value for shareholders," said Jack Henris, President and COO of Dakota Gold.

2026 Richmond Hill Program

The Company will complete requisite studies to publish a PFS in the second half of 2026, followed by a Feasibility Study in the first half of 2027. The PFS will provide processing design, complete throughput trade-off studies, and incorporate high-grade opportunities into an initial mine sequencing program. The throughput trade-off studies will optimize processing tons per day ("TPD") from the Initial Assessment of 30,000 TPD up to 60,000 TPD by considering crushing sizes, stacking, transportation of material, agglomeration and other features of the processing design. The PFS will incorporate up to date metallurgical testing from the program currently underway and provide clear disturbance estimates to support our permit submission. The PFS and Feasibility Study manager will be M3, IMC will prepare the resource and mining plan, Forte Dynamics will manage the metallurgical test work and NewFields will provide the heap leach design.

The Company successfully completed 242 drill holes in its 2025 drilling campaign totaling 29,279 meters (~96,000 feet). To date, a total of 181 drill hole assay results including the results today have been released from the 2025 campaign thus far. Assays for 61 drill holes are pending release, including many from northeast expansion drilling, which will be reported as they are received through early 2026. The July 7, 2025 Initial Assessment with Cash Flow has an open pit designed with 12.2 meter (40 feet) benches. The average grade for the Measured and Indicated mine plan is 0.566 g/t Au. Many higher-grade gold mineralization intersections encountered in the 2025 campaign in the initial areas of planned mining will be incorporated into the PFS, including reported holes shown below.

2025 Richmond Hill drilling campaign highlight holes received and reported to date:

• RH25C-162 intersected 1.85 g/t Au over 43.4 meters (80 gram meters) - Metallurgical
• RH25C-164 intersected 1.94 g/t Au over 60.0 meters (116 gram meters) - Metallurgical
• RH25C-166 intersected 2.25 g/t Au over 44.3 meters (100 gram meters) - Metallurgical
• RH25C-169 intersected 2.78 g/t Au over 39.3 meters (109 gram meters) - Metallurgical
• RH25C-171 intersected 1.50 g/t Au over 62.1 meters (93 gram meters) - Metallurgical
• RH25C-200 intersected 2.25 g/t Au over 33.4 meters (75 gram meters) - Metallurgical
• RH25C-204 intersected 1.22 g/t Au over 62.5 meters (76 gram meters) - Metallurgical
• RH25C-209 intersected 1.40 g/t Au over 73.5 meters (103 gram meters) - Metallurgical
• RH25C-211 intersected 1.55 g/t Au over 52.3 meters (81 gram meters) - Metallurgical
• RH25C-215 intersected 1.72 g/t Au over 42.7 meters (74 gram meters) - Metallurgical
• RH25C-236 intersected 8.16 g/t Au over 11.3 meters (93 gram meters) - Metallurgical
• RH25C-241 intersected 3.72 g/t Au over 20.5 meters (76 gram meters) - Infill
• RH25C-270 intersected 2.26 g/t Au over 29.2 meters (66 gram meters) - Metallurgical
• RH25C-288 intersected 4.15 g/t Au over 14.5 meters (60 gram meters) - Metallurgical
• RH25C-295 intersected 2.15 g/t Au over 30.0 meters (65 gram meters) - Infill
• RH25C-303 intersected 4.52 g/t Au over 15.2 meters (69 gram meters) - Expansion
• RH25C-323 intersected 2.19 g/t Au over 31.1 meters (68 gram meters) - Expansion

Figure 1. Plan Map showing location of Dakota Gold Corp. Richmond Hill 2025 Drill Campaign drill results reported today in Table 1.

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Table 1. Richmond Hill Drill Results (Metric / Imperial)^1,2,3,4,5,6

The table may contain rounding errors.

1. Abbreviations in the table include ounces per ton ("oz/ton"); grams per tonne ("g/t"); feet ("ft"); meter ("m"); and gram meters ("g x m").
2. True thickness unknown.
3. Intervals calculated based on 0.5 g/t Au cut-off and maximum dilution of 3.05 meters.
4. The July 7, 2025 Initial Assessment with Cash Flow has an open pit designed with 12.2m (40 ft) benches. The average grade for the Measured and Indicated mine plan is 0.566 g/t Au (0.017 oz/ton). A gram meter of 7 and above has been highlighted in Table 1 based on the bench height and average grade.
5. The following condemnation holes drilled at the location of the planned heap leach pad 1 has confirmed no significant gold mineralization: RH25C-258 and RH25C-277
6. The following monitoring water well hole drilled outside of the resource area for permitting has confirmed no significant gold mineralization: BG-GW-05; CC-GW-01 and CC-GW-02

2026 Maitland Program

The 2026 Maitland drill campaign will infill previous Dakota Gold and historical Homestake Mining Company drilling, targeting a maiden resource by the end of the year 2026 for the Unionville Zone. The Unionville Zone is an extensive zone of continuous Tertiary epithermal gold mineralization that remains open in all directions. To date, Dakota Gold's drill program has tested and confirmed the Unionville Zone target extension strike extends for at least 2,000 meters (6,562 feet). In addition, with the inclusion of rock chip samples, the total strike length extends 3,000 meters (9,843 feet) shown in Figure 2. The Maitland Unionville Zone is located 2,134 meters (1.33 miles or 7,000 feet) east from Richmond Hill shown in Figure 3. The close proximity of the flagship projects could provide potential leveraging of infrastructure.

While the focus of the 2026 Maitland infill drill campaign is the Unionville Zone, the Company will continue to evaluate additional work to advance Maitland's JB Gold Zone. The JB Gold Zone is a high-grade underground discovery, which features Homestake style gold bearing banded iron formation. Drilling to date includes 47 drill holes with an average grade of 10.76 g/t Au and intercept width of 4.0 meters (with unknown true thickness). The JB Gold Zone provides long term high-grade optionality.

Figure 2. Plan view of Dakota Gold Corp. Maitland highlighted drill holes containing Tertiary epithermal gold mineralization.

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Figure 3. Aerial map of Dakota Gold Corp. Richmond Hill and Maitland Gold Projects.

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Dakota Gold will be hosting an investor and analyst tour in January 2026. A copy of the presentation for the upcoming tour will be available to view on the Company website: https://dakotagoldcorp.com/investor-info/investor-downloads/

About Dakota Gold Corp.

Dakota Gold is expanding the legacy of the 145-year-old Homestake Gold Mining District by advancing the Richmond Hill Oxide Heap Leach Gold Project to commercial production as soon as 2029, and outlining a tertiary maiden resource as well as a high-grade underground gold resource at the Maitland Gold Project, both located on private land in South Dakota.

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Shareholder and Investor Inquiries

Qualified Person and S-K 1300 Disclosure

James M. Berry, a Registered Member of SME and Vice President of Exploration of Dakota Gold Corp., is the Company's designated qualified person (as defined in Subpart 1300 of Regulation S-K) for this news release and has reviewed and approved its scientific and technical content.

Quality Assurance/Quality Control consists of regular insertion of certified reference materials, duplicate samples, and blanks into the sample stream. Samples are submitted to the ALS Geochemistry sample preparation facility in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Gold and multi-element analyses are performed at the ALS Geochemistry laboratory in Vancouver, British Columbia. ALS Minerals is an ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited lab. Check samples are submitted to Bureau Veritas, Vancouver B.C. as an umpire laboratory. Assay results are reviewed, and discrepancies are investigated prior to incorporation into the Company database.

Forward-Looking Statements

This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. When used in this communication, the words "plan," "target," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend," "potential," "will" and "expect" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Any express or implied statements contained in this communication that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: our expectations regarding additional drilling, metallurgy and modeling; our ability to deliver a new maiden resource at the Maitland Project by year end, our expectations for the improvement and growth of the mineral resources and potential for conversion of mineral resources into reserves; completion of a pre-feasibility study, a feasibility study, and/or permitting; our expectations regarding free cash flow and future financing, and our overall expectation for the possibility of near-term production at the Richmond Hill project. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and expectations that may not be realized and are inherently subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among others: the execution and timing of our planned exploration activities; our use and evaluation of historic data; our ability to achieve our strategic goals; the state of the economy and financial markets generally and the effect on our industry; and the market for our common stock. The foregoing list is not exhaustive. For additional information regarding factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in our forward-looking statements, we refer you to the risk factors included in Item 1A of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, as updated by annual, quarterly and current reports that we file with the SEC, which are available at www.sec.gov. We caution investors not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this communication. These statements speak only as of the date of this communication, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise these statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. We do not give any assurance that we will achieve our expectations.

All references to "$" in this communication are to U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated.

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