Rua Gold Inc. (TSXV: RUA) (OTCQB: NZAUF) (WKN: A40QYC) ("Rua Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to advise on the updated Cumberland gold camp drill target. This follows on from the integration of VRIFY AI into RUA's extensive geological database and the consolidation of the Reefton Goldfield, an orogenic gold and antimony belt on the South Island of New Zealand.

Highlights:

• The AI contribution is already paying dividends as the tool has accelerated the identification of and prioritization of our drill targets.

• Prioritizing Cumberland gold camp comprising of 7 historic mines in a 2 km long north-northwest trending zone of quartz veins and shearing.

• Follow up target on historic Cumberland drill hole, GAL001 showing 21.9m (5m true width) of 92.0g/t Au including 1m of 1911 g/t Au (60 oz/t).

• Drilling contractor is being mobilized and the Company anticipates commencing drilling before the end of January.

The Company is expanding its 2025 exploration program to include the Cumberland gold camp, a historic gold camp 3kms south of Globe Progress Mine, which has produced over 1 million ounces of gold (historic production prior to 1950 of 424,000 ounces, and a further 665,000 ounces from 2007 - 2015 under OceanaGold).

Figure 1: Overview of the Reefton Goldfield.

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EARLY WIN FROM Rua Gold'S AI INVESTMENT
The Cumberland target was identified by uncovering several exploratory holes drilled by OceanaGold 15 years ago, including hole GAL001, which had the following exceptional results on a well-defined quartz vein at shallow depth:

GAL001: 21.9m (5m true width) of 92.0g/t Au including 1m of 1911 g/t Au (60 oz/t).

GAL001 was drilled down the vein, giving an exaggerated width but provides for a compelling and prospective target to follow up immediately.

Rua Gold has collated hundreds of thousands of data points from its recent Siren acquisition, historic workings and contemporary exploration on its multiple mine sites, and district wide geophysical data over the Reefton Goldfields. The ability to combine rapid data-mining of this information by VRIFY, in concert with Rua Gold's extensive surface geochemistry and ultra-detailed UAV magnetics accumulated in the last 5 years, provides us with rapid feedback on a multi layered dataset, that now focusses our prospect ranking, and directly informs our drilling programs.

Simon Henderson, COO of Rua Gold, commented, "Consolidation of our holdings on the Reefton Goldfield provides a plethora of gold targets and historic deposits to examine. AI driven VRIFY provides a science data driven platform to assimilate the vast amount of data available, identify patterns and associations at lightning speed, and provide iterative feedback, constantly updating and adding value as the exploration process rolls out. We are excited by its early success in highlighting key areas such as Cumberland to prioritize our drill activity planned in 2025."

Figure 2: VRIFY AI hotspot identification showing Cumberland-Gallant Prospect

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CUMBERLAND HISTORY

The Cumberland gold camp comprises 7 historic mines in a 2 km long north-northwest trending zone of quartz veins and shearing. Historic production totaled 21,740oz gold at an average recovered grade of 26.1 g/t (see appendices).

Figure 3: Map showing Cumberland historic mine camp

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INITIAL DRILL TARGET

Based on the extensive surface exploration work and historical drilling, the Gallant lode in the Cumberland gold camp presents an exceptional high-grade target that has never seen significant exploration work:

• It has quartz veins outcropping on surface within an envelope of strong gold-arsenic anomalism.

• It has several exploratory holes drilled by OceanaGold 15 years ago, which include exceptional results on a well-defined quartz vein at shallow depth (Table 1).

• Core orientation clearly demonstrates that this intersection drilled down the quartz reef exaggerating its width.

• Geological modelling interprets the vein to be approximately 5m wide.

Table 1: Intercept from GAL001, calculated with a 1.5ppm Au cut-off and up to 3m internal dilution.

Note: true width of vein: 5m.

VRIFY'S AI PLATFORM

The Company has partnered with VRIFY to onboard VRIFY's AI-assisted mineral discovery platform to accelerate discovery, reduce costs and further de-risk exploration.

In conjunction with the consolidation of the Reefton Goldfield in November 2024, the Company implemented the VRIFY AI tool. Early in the AI training phase, Cumberland was identified as a standout target. The VRIFY team has assimilated geochemistry, drilling and geophysical data on an unprecedented scale and accuracy over the whole district, processing over 84GB of data, +170,000 data points, actively informing our 2025 drill targets for quicker project advancement and de-risking our work programs.

Rua Gold's data, unlocked through VRIFY's Al-assisted mineral discovery platform. This AI-assisted data synthesis enabled Rua Gold to actively and effectively rank its 2025 drill targets, accelerating its project advancement and de-risking its work programs in a matter of minutes, a process that would have taken months, if performed manually.

ACCELERATED DISCOVERY

Rua Gold inherited thousands of data points from historic activity on its multiple mine sites and exploration work with the Reefton Goldfields. The ability to rapidly mine this existing data for new insights and targets, while incorporating recent work, provided real-time feedback through VRIFY's platform to inform drilling programs.

SCALABILITY and COST SAVINGS

Rua Gold is just beginning and is confident that VRIFY will continue to add value by allowing for the analysis of larger datasets without increasing costs linearly.

HIGHER ACCURACY

VRIFY's proprietary Al model reduces human error and identifies patterns that manual review might miss, increasing discovery potential.

QAQC HISTORIC DRILLING (MR 5093)

Rua Gold is treating the drill results as historic.

The QP has verified the data disclosed, including drill collar location, sampling and analytical information contained in the written disclosure,

1. Data was verified by examination of remaining core in the core-box; confirming intervals, core splitting and interval handling procedures and logged core descriptions matched original core logging.

2. Verified the core sampling and assay procedures by examining and confirming from the original assay certificates of SGS and ALS laboratories that the sample numbers recorded matched the sample intervals logged.

3. Verified from original assay certificates stated blanks and certified standards and duplicates were used and reported, and where deviations outside 2 standard deviations assays have been repeated.

4. Verified that suitable assay methodology for coarse gold was used by both laboratories SGS Reefton method FASC30T(screen fire assay) and ALS method Au-SCR22AA (screen fire assay).

5. The QP has verified in the zone of exceptionally high-grade gold values that gold is clearly visible in veinlets within a significant quartz vein.
   (c) The QP satisfactorily verified all data used in this disclosure.

The QAQC summarized from the OceanaGold report is as follows:

"Diamond drill samples were generally taken over 1 m intervals and cut in half. Half the core was then sent to SGS or ALS. Some of the significant reef samples were analyzed at the ALS laboratory in Townsville for rapid processing and the rest were analyzed at the SGS laboratory in Westport. Due to the large amount of quartz reef drilled in the first part of the program, a screen fire technique was introduced at SGS (FAS30T).

ALS Townsville preformed 1 kg screen fire assays (Au-SCR22AA) along with a standard fire assay procedure (Au-AA26). Diamond core submissions included at the minimum one blank and two certified standards and at least two lab duplicates taken after coarse crushing of the sample. If both standard assays from the same hole returned assay values outside two standard deviations of the actual value, the laboratory was requested to re-assay the job. Assays from dispatches RD131025.1 and RD131106.1 showed significant deviation from standards and checks. These two batches were re-assayed (RD131025.1R and RD131106.1R respectively).

All assay data was imported into the Reefton project acQuire database directly from laboratory reports."

Source: Anderson, T., 2014. MP 41164 Globe Progress annual technical report - 2014, OceanaGold Ltd; NZP&M, Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE), New Zealand. Unpublished Mineral Report MR5093.

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'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 2 million ounces of gold grading between 9 and 50 grams per tonne.

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 15 million ounces of gold and 60 million ounces of silver. Glamorgan is adjacent to OceanaGold Corporation's biggest gold mining project, WKP.

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

Technical Information

Simon Henderson CP, AUSIMM, a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure contained herein.

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; and the effects and benefits of the Transaction. 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.

Appendices

Historic Production Cumberland Camp (Barry, 1993)

Source: Barry, J.M., 1993. The History and Mineral Resources of the Reefton Goldfield. Ministry of Commerce Resource Information Report No. 15.

Reference for historical grades and production:
Barry, J.M., 1993. The History and Mineral Resources of the Reefton Goldfield. Ministry of Commerce Resource Information Report No. 15.

Reference for Gallant assay results:
Anderson, T., 2014. MP 41164 Globe Progress annual technical report - 2014, OceanaGold Ltd; NZP&M, Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE), New Zealand. Unpublished Mineral Report MR5093.

Table 3: Collar for GAL001, historic drill hole.

Projection: New Zealand Transverse Mercator (NZTM) 2000.

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