Contango ORE, Inc. announced that mining operations have started at its 30% owned Manh Choh Mine (the "Project" or "Manh Choh"), located near Tokyo, U.S.A. With all major contracts, bonding and permitting in place, the Project remains on track and on budget to bring Contango's 30% interest in Manh Choh into production in the second half of 2024. Based on the Feasibility Study Technical Report Summary ("TRS"), the Manh Choh mine is expected to produce 225,000 gold equivalent ounces ("GEO") per year over a 4.5 year mine life1. Contango's share of production is expected to average 67,500 GEO per year.

In addition, the Company has initiated a surface drilling program at its 100% owned Lucky Shot project. At the Lucky Shot project, the Company initiated a surface exploration drill program on the Coleman segment of the Lucky Shot vein. As previously reported on June 12, 2023, in the Technical Report Summary for the Lucky Shot project2, the Coleman Segment of theucky Shot vein contains an estimated 95,092 ounces of Indicated gold resource averaging 15.6 grams per metric tonne ("g/t") (0.455 ounces per short ton ("oz/st")) and an additional 23,642 ounces of Inferred gold resource averaging 9.9 g/t (0.289 oz/st).