RUA GOLD Strengthens Management Team with Appointment of VP, Exploration

Rua Gold Inc. (TSXV: RUA,OTC:NZAUF) (OTCQB: NZAUF) (WKN: A40QYC) ("Rua Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the strengthening and expansion of its management team through the appointment of Emmett D'Urso as Vice President, Exploration. Mr. D'Usro will work directly with the Company's COO, Simon Henderson, further enhancing Rua Gold's technical capabilities.

With more than 13 years of mineral exploration experience, Mr. D'Urso brings extensive expertise in orogenic gold exploration, particularly within the Victorian Goldfields, where he has focused on high-grade, narrow vein, Fosterville-style deposits. This experience is especially relevant as Rua Gold's Reefton project shares similar geological characteristics. Most recently, he contributed to exploration programs at Global Ore Discovery, where he played a key role in drill program planning and budgeting for antimony projects in New South Wales.

Prior to that Mr. D'Urso served as a Senior Site Official with De Grey Mining during the pivotal Hemi study phase. In this role, he oversaw daily site operations, managed multi-disciplinary exploration teams, and contributed to both greenfields and resource definition campaigns. His leadership and operational oversight through this transformative period at De Grey underscore his ability to guide projects from early discovery toward development with a strong focus on safety, efficiency, and stakeholder engagement.

Rua Gold CEO, Robert Eckford, commented, "On behalf of our board of directors and management team, I am pleased to welcome Emmett D'Urso as our new Vice President of Exploration. Emmett's depth of experience working on analog deposits in the Bendigo-Ballarat region brings valuable insight directly applicable to our projects. His addition strengthens our technical team as we advance our portfolio, particularly in Reefton.

With Emmett on board, Simon Henderson, our COO, will be able to dedicate more time to driving forward our Glamorgan Project, where we expect to ramp up activities in Q4 2025. The ongoing expansion of our technical team with such high-caliber talent highlights both the strength of our projects and our commitment to unlocking their full potential."

Option and DSU Grant

The Company granted 100,000 options (each, an "Option") to Mr. D'Urso of the Company in accordance with the Company's stock option plan dated July 24, 2024. Each Option is exercisable into one Common Share at an exercise price of $0.78 per Common Share for five years following the date of grant. The Options are subject to a 3-year vesting period with 33,333 Options vesting on October 1, 2026, 33,333 Options vesting on October 1, 2027, and 33,334 Options vesting on October 1, 2028.

The Company also announces the grant of 140,778 deferred share units ("DSUs") to non-executive directors of the Company at a deemed price of $0.70 per DSU, in accordance with the Company's DSU Plan dated July 24, 2024. The DSUs are subject to a one-year vesting. Each DSU entitles the holder to receive one Common Share at the time the holder ceases to be a director of the Company.

New Marketing Agreement

The Company engaged Global One Media Group Pte. Ltd. ("Global One Media") commencing October 1, 2025. Pursuant to the investor relations agreement, Global One Media has agreed to provide content development and digital marketing services. Global One Media is an investor-focused digital marketing firm and will assist the Company with its digital and social media influencer marketing efforts.

The term of the agreement with Global One Media (the "Global One Agreement") commences on October 1, 2025 and ends March 31, 2026. The Global One Agreement may be renewed on a monthly basis after the initial term upon the mutual agreement of the Company and Global One Media. Under the terms of the Global One Agreement, the Company has agreed to pay Global One Media a monthly cash fee of USD$5,500. There are no performance factors impacting the compensation of Global One Media, and Global One Media will not receive any securities of the Company as compensation. Global One Media does not have any interest, directly or indirectly, in the Company. The Global One Agreement is subject to regulatory approval by the TSX Venture Exchange.

ABOUT Rua Gold

Rua Gold is an exploration company, strategically focused on New Zealand. With decades of expertise, our team has successfully taken major discoveries into producing world-class mines across multiple continents. The team is now focused on maximizing the asset potential of Rua Gold's two highly prospective high-grade gold projects.

The Company controls the Reefton Gold District as the dominant landholder in the Reefton Goldfield on New Zealand's South Island with over 120,000 hectares of tenements, in a district that historically produced over 2Moz of gold grading between 9 and 50g/t.

The Company's Glamorgan Project solidifies Rua Gold's position as a leading high-grade gold explorer on New Zealand's North Island. This highly prospective project is located within the North Islands' Hauraki district, a region that has produced an impressive 15Moz of gold and 60Moz of silver. Glamorgan is adjacent to OceanaGold Corporation's biggest gold mining project, Wharekirauponga.

For further information, please refer to the Company's disclosure record on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this new release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur and specifically include statements regarding: the Company's strategies, expectations, planned operations or future actions, including but not limited to exploration programs at its Reefton and Glamorgan projects and the results thereof. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements.

Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. A variety of inherent risks, uncertainties and factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control, affect the operations, performance and results of the Company and its business, and could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results expressed or implied by forward looking statements. Some of these risks, uncertainties and factors include: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; risks related to the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war; risks related to climate change; operational risks in exploration, delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration projects or capital expenditures; the actual results of current exploration activities; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; changes in labour costs and other costs and expenses or equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, including but not limited to environmental hazards, flooding or unfavorable operating conditions and losses, insurrection or war, delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing, and commodity prices. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements and reference should also be made to the Company's short form base shelf prospectus dated July 11, 2024, and the documents incorporated by reference therein, filed under its SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca for a description of additional risk factors.

Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/268673