Western Copper and Gold Corporation announced the launching of a metallurgical testing program for its wholly-owned CasinoCopper-Gold Project. Fifteen composite samples were prepared from core acquired in 2023. Western's Technical and Sustainability Committee, comprised of members from Western, Rio Tinto Canada Inc. and Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, prepared the Drill and Metallurgical Programs. The 2023 Drill Program consisted of seven holes for 2,244 m ranging from 130 m to 556 m in length.

The drill holes were located inside the current pit boundaries and were selected to provide a range of grades, host rocks, and mineralogy for the Metallurgical Program. The drill holes were also selected to convert indicated resource to measured. The drill results continue to show the importance of the Core Zone wherein relatively higher grades are encountered as shown by DDH23-05, which intersected 158.5 m of supergene mineralization, in part oxidized, with 0.82% CuEq1.

Furthermore, DDH23-04, which is approximately one kilometre west of the Core Zone, and DDH23-06, which is at the northwest edge of the Core Zone, intercepted 86.0 m of 0.56% CuEq1 and 174.0 m of 0.52% CuEq1, respectively, in the supergene zone. The fifteen composite samples represent supergene and hypogene mineralization at various grades and will be subjected to comminution and flotation tests to produce a definitive concentrate from each composite. The results from this testing will be used to develop a more detailed geometallurgical model of the deposit.

The test program is being carried out at ALS Metallurgy, based in Kamloops, BC, and is being supervised by Western, Rio Tinto Canada Inc., and Mitsubishi Materials Corporation personnel. QA/QC protocol for DDH22-01, including assurance of chain of custody, has been implemented. Core samples are evenly cut by rock saw, then prepared and analyzed by ALS Geochemistry.

Prepared samples are initially run using a four-acid digestion process and conventional multi-element ICP-AES analysis. Additional assaying for total copper and molybdenum is run using a four-acid digestion ? AES or AAS method to a 0.001% detection limit.

Gold assays are run using 30-gram samples by fire assay with an AA finish to a 0.005 ppm detection limit, with samples greater than 10 ppm finished gravimetrically. The QA/QC procedure involves regular submission of Certified Analytical Standards and property-specific duplicates. Check samples are also included and are sent to a secondary lab to test the primary labs' methods/procedures.