Dakota Gold Corp

Management is responsible for the operational oversight of company-wide cybersecurity strategy, policy, and standards across relevant departments to assess and help prepare us to address cybersecurity risks, with assistance from third-party service providers. As part of our overall risk management system, we monitor and test our safeguards and train our employees on these safeguards. Personnel at all levels and departments are made aware of our cybersecurity policies through trainings.

Cybersecurity Threats

During the year ended December 31, 2023, we have not identified an indication of a cybersecurity incident that would have a material impact on our business and consolidated financial statements.

For further discussion of cybersecurity risks, please refer toItem 1A. Risk Factors.

Black Hills Property Area

Dakota Gold has 100% ownership of the interests in the Blind Gold, City Creek, Cambrian Unconformity, Tinton, West Corridor, Ragged Top, Poorman Anticline, Maitland, and South Lead / Whistler Gulch Properties. In addition, we have 100% ownership in the Barrick Option, and the Richmond Hill Option Properties upon exercise of their underlying option payments. All are located in the heart of the Homestake District. The individual claims, properties, options, and leases are aggregated into a single unit mining property, hereinafter referred to as the "Black Hills Property" (Figure 1).

Figure 1. General Location Map of the Black Hills Property.

Prior to 2022, exploration by Dakota Gold on its properties has been limited to field sampling programs, field mapping programs, geophysical surveys, and a campaign to acquire historical data sets that were known to exist for its property and the balance of the greater Homestake District. In late January 2022, Dakota Gold started its first drilling program and has since expanded its drilling programs to key project areas by increasing the number of drills to four.

A large portion of the important historical data has been acquired, digitized, and assembled into a new database in electronic form. In the case of historical geophysical data, the data has or is being digitized and reprocessed. Exploration data compilation is an ongoing activity as Homestake District-wide historical information is constantly being identified and incorporated from historical Homestake data acquired as part of land option agreements and from local public archival sources. This historical information is being augmented by active data collection in the field thru mapping, sampling and using remote geophysical methods.

Exploration plans and budgets have been prepared for each of the Blind Gold, City Creek, Cambrian Unconformity, Tinton, West Corridor, Ragged Top, Poorman Anticline, Maitland, South Lead / Whistler Gulch, the Barrick Option, and the Richmond Hill Option project areas. The Cambrian Unconformity, City Creek, Maitland and Richmond Hill projects currently have permits with the South Dakota Division of Environment and Natural Resources ("SDDANR"). Current exploration plans may be modified pending the ongoing modeling and interpretation of the Company's airborne magnetic and radiometric survey data acquired in 2020 and 2021 and an IP-Resistivity survey completed at Richmond Hill in 2022. Dakota Gold's technical team continues to model using its geophysics, geology and geochemistry data sets to improve its ability to map and project lithology and structure in covered areas and/or where the company has less historical data.

Dakota Gold plans to release a mineral resource estimate under S-K 1300 for the Richmond Hill property in 2024.

Based on its experience in the Homestake District, Dakota Gold, together with the University of South Dakota, has modeled for the exploration, development, mining, and closure of a potential Homestake-style deposit within the same geological setting of the Homestake District. The strategy of this financial modeling is to determine whether, if Dakota Gold is technically successful defining its deposit expectation with drill holes, any identified deposit would make commercial sense to ultimately develop.

Dakota Gold's Black Hills Property has well-developed power infrastructure. All of Dakota Gold's claims and leases have power on the property now, or have nearby access to power with the potential to be upgraded for production if exploration proves successful.

As of December 31, 2023, Dakota Gold is in the exploration stage and has not commenced amortization of its claims or leases. All exploration expenditures are expensed as incurred.

Dakota Gold maintains 100% ownership of 11 mineral projects in the Homestake District comprised of 2,044 unpatented claims and a combination of surface leases and/or ownership covering a total of approximately 48,006 acres located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, including the Blind Gold, City Creek, Cambrian Unconformity, Tinton, West Corridor, Ragged Top, Poorman Anticline, Maitland, South Lead / Whistler Gulch, as well as 100% ownership of the Barrick Option, and the Richmond Hill Option projects upon exercise of the underlying option, all of which are located in the heart of the Homestake District (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Detail Map Showing Claims and Leases of the Black Hills Property

The Homestake District is a favorable geologic gold setting with three unique gold deposit types that the Company believes have yielded approximately 44.6 million ounces of gold production over the past 140 years, including Proterozoic-age Homestake iron-formation hosted gold deposits, Tertiary-age replacement gold deposits and Cambrian paleoplacer gold deposits.

Dakota Gold has based the acquisition of its Black Hills claims, surface and mineral acreage and lease position on more than 50 years of combined mining and exploration experience in the Homestake District with Homestake Mining Company of California ("Homestake Mining Company") and the knowledge gained from previous exploration and mining efforts. Dakota Gold believes that its properties hold exploration targets for all three gold deposit types known to exist in the Homestake District.

The Homestake District is a low-cost jurisdiction with well-developed infrastructure and an existing experienced mining and exploration workforce. South Dakota's regulatory authorities have historically demonstrated a willingness to work with responsible operators to permit well-planned, compliant projects, and South Dakota's exploration and mining regulations are reasonable and comparable to other mining jurisdictions within the United States.

Dakota Gold's business strategy is to discover another Homestake-style deposit in the iron-formation host that is distributed across the Homestake District, largely under the cover of the younger igneous and sedimentary rocks that dominate the surface. In addition, Dakota Gold will evaluate and explore for large Tertiary gold deposits, of which there are several deposit styles known to exist in the Northern Black Hills. Dakota Gold continues to expand its land position in the Homestake District with the objective of simultaneously developing gold targets that could be brought into production in the near term.

A large part of Dakota Gold's property position is held under unpatented, Federal mining claims on US Forest Service ("USFS") or Bureau of Land Management ("BLM") administered lands. Federal unpatented mining claims have annual claim maintenance fees of $165 per claim and are due before September 1st of each year.

For exploration work on unpatented mining claims, notice must be filed with and approved by the USFS or BLM, and the SDDANR prior to undertaking any exploration activities. The notice describes the proposed exploration activities and any remedial reclamation deemed necessary. The various government agencies review the application to ensure there will be no deleterious impacts because of activity on the claims prior to granting any approvals for the proposed work.

In addition, a portion of Dakota Gold's mineral rights are composed of various ownerships of patented mineral rights including private surface lands with mineral rights, mineral rights severed from surface title and a few parcels of private surface with severed mineral rights. These lands are held 100% by the company but are in some cases controlled through option to purchase agreements subject to other obligations. These are identified in the individual property discussions below.

Exploration drilling done on private surface lands requires, in most cases, a notice be filed with the SDDANR prior to undertaking any exploration activities. The notice describes the proposed exploration activities and any remedial reclamation deemed necessary. The SDDANR reviews the application to ensure there will be no deleterious impacts because of activity prior to granting any approvals, including conditions for the proposed work.

A brief discussion of our specific properties included in the Black Hills Property is below. Because of the early stage of exploration activities on these properties, we do not consider any single property to be individually material at this time.

Richmond Hill Project

On October 14, 2021, Dakota Gold entered into an option agreement to acquire 100% of Barrick's interest in the Richmond Hill Property in the Homestake District, South Dakota. Under the terms of the agreement, Dakota Gold has a three-year option to acquire 2,126 acres of surface and mineral rights with attendant facilities. Dakota Gold issued 400,000 shares to Barrick and will make annual Option payments of $100,000 during the option period. Under the original terms of the Agreement, Dakota Gold had the right to exercise the Option on or before September 7, 2024, by assuming all liabilities and bonds associated with the Richmond Hill Property. In addition, on exercise of the option, Dakota Gold will issue Barrick an additional 400,000 shares and grant a 1% net smelter royalty ("NSR") to Barrick with respect to any minerals that may be recovered from the Richmond Hill Property. In September 2023, Dakota Gold amended their Richmond Hill Option agreement with Barrick which extended the option period to March 7, 2026 and increased the Richmond Hill Property size by an additional 489 mineral acres bringing the total mineral acreage for the project to approximately 2,615 mineral acres.

The project area is located in the western portion of Lawrence County, South Dakota, USA. More specifically the property lies within the Black Hills Meridian, Township 5N, Range2E covering portions of Sections 9, 10, 11, 13. 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, and 34. The property is contiguous to Dakota Gold's West Corridor and Blind Gold Properties and is located approximately 1/2 mile north of the producing Wharf Gold Mine (Coeur Mining). Access to the property is gained by traveling 1 mile southwest of Lead SD on Highway 85/14A to State Highway 473 and then traveling west approximately 3.2 miles to Wharf Mine Road and continuing west approximately 1.2 miles before turning and traveling 1 mile north on the Richmond Hill Road.

The Richmond Hill area is an important component of Dakota Gold's exploration strategy for the Homestake District. The property includes the past producing Richmond Hill mine and the mines of the Carbonate District. The Richmond Hill mine produced ore from Tertiary breccias dominantly hosted within Precambrian units that were processed as an open pit, heap leach operation. Tertiary-aged replacement gold mineralization, as well as possible Precambrian iron formation hosted mineralization were identified during exploration programs in the 1980s and 1990s.

Gold mineralization in breccia pipe bodies had previously been identified in the Richmond Hill, Richmond Hill North, Twin Tunnels, and Turnaround Breccia Pipes by LAC Minerals (USA) LLC. Dakota Gold followed up on this earlier work, and, by the end of 2023, completed 71 drill holes for a total of 123,573 feet (37,665 meters) which tested portions of the Twin Tunnels, Turnaround and Richmond Hill Breccia Pipes. Only three of the six known breccia pipes exposed at the Richmond Hill Gold Project have been subject to any drilling by the Company and all of the known breccia pipes on the Richmond Hill Gold Project remain open and/or lack drill testing to depth. These breccia pipes are associated with the Tertiary alkalic magmatism that generated most of the Tertiary-aged gold deposits in the Homestake District.

An aggressive drilling program was conducted on Richmond Hill in 2023, designed to accomplish two goals: (1) Validate the historic resources identified initially by LAC Minerals LLC in the 1980-90's, including metallurgical sampling, material characterization and generating a new geologic model; and (2) Expand and define additional resources through infill, step-out and depth extension drilling around and within the known resources area.

Future work planned for Richmond Hill includes the following (in order of priority): (1) completion of an S-K 1300 compliant maiden resource estimation in 2024; (2) expansion and step-out drilling around the future resource area; (3) exploration drilling around the other known, less tested, mineralized target areas; and (4) exploration drilling of geophysical targets under Paleozoic cover along the north and south extension of the Richmond Hill structural corridor.

Maitland Project

The Maitland project area is an important component of Dakota Gold's exploration strategy for the structural corridor that extends from the Homestake Gold Mine to Dakota Gold's Blind Gold Property at the northern end of the Homestake District. The Maitland Property covers the Homestake iron formation extending from the Blind Gold Property target at the north end to Homestake Mining Company's North Drift gold discovery of the late 1980s to the south. In addition to Precambrian aged gold mineralization hosted within the Homestake iron formation, the property area holds several Tertiary-aged zones of mineralization, including historic mines (e.g., Maitland Mine) hosted in the younger Paleozoic sedimentary and Tertiary intrusive rocks.

The initial 37.8 mineral acres of the Maitland project were acquired in April of 2017 through an Exploration and Mining Lease and Option to Purchase Property Agreement with Trucano Novelty Inc., of South Dakota. On October 26, 2020, Dakota Gold acquired 2,112 mineral-acres from Homestake Mining Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Barrick. Pursuant to the terms of the definitive agreement, the Company paid consideration to Barrick comprised of $3.5 million cash and the issuance of 750,000 shares of Dakota Gold's common stock. Additionally, Barrick retained a 2.5% net smelter returns royalty on the property. From August 2021 through March 2022, Dakota Gold purchased additional surface rights over existing mineral rights of approximately 168.3 acres to facilitate the exploration of the Maitland Property. Two unpatented mineral claims were staked in late 2022 (6.4 acres) to cover fractional areas of interest on open BLM land. The project mineral rights now total 2,374 acres, all of which are located in the western portion of Lawrence County, South Dakota, USA within Black Hills Meridian, Township 5N, Range 2E, covering portions of Sections 12, 13, and 24, and Township 5N, Range 3E, covering portions of Sections 7, 8, 17, 18, 19 and 20. Annual claim maintenance fees total $330.

Access to the Maitland Gold project is gained by traveling 2 miles north of Lead on Highway 85/14A to Central City/Blacktail and then turning and traveling northwest approximately 1.7 miles on the Maitland Road. The property is proximal to the Company's Cambrian Unconformity Property and is contiguous to the Blind Gold and West Corridor Properties.

Dakota Gold began drilling at Maitland in 2022 and by the end of 2023 completed 36 drill holes extending over a distance totaling 123,000 feet (37,490 meters). On February 8, 2023, the Company announced the discovery of the Unionville Zone in MA22C-009, which intercepted Precambrian hosted, Tertiary-age, epithermal gold mineralization in a breccia located beneath Cambrian hosted Tertiary replacement gold mineralization on the horizon of the Maitland Mine in sedimentary cover. Then, on May 4, 2023, The Company announced the discovery of the JB Zone in MA23C-017, which intercepted high-grade, Homestake-type, Precambrian mineralization over potentially mineable widths. On August 1, 2023, the Company began using directional drilling equipment to accurately offset and step-out from the deeper JB Zone discovery intercept in MA23C-017, as well as, continuing an infilling program between widely spaced drill holes which identified the Unionville Zone and other high-grade intercepts of Homestake-style mineralization identified in earlier drilling.

The Company is planning to continue an aggressive drilling program at the Maitland Property in 2024, subject to the availability of funds from additional equity issuances. This drilling is focused on exploration and expansion of the JB and the Unionville Gold Zones announced in 2022 and early 2023. The drilling will include focused step-out drilling around recent drill hole intercepts, as well as continued extension of the Homestake iron-formation program within the structural corridor extending from Maitland to the Blind Gold Property at the north end of the Homestake District.

Barrick Option Project (the "Barrick Option")

Dakota Gold entered into a three-year option agreement on September 7, 2021, to acquire 4,261 acres of surface rights with attendant facilities and data held by Homestake Mining Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Barrick. In consideration for the Option, Dakota Gold made a cash payment of $1.3 million and issued 1 million shares of common stock of the Company ("Shares") to Barrick and will make annual Option payments of $300,000 during the Option period. Dakota Gold may exercise the Option on or before September 7, 2024, by assuming all liabilities and bonds currently held by Homestake within the Homestake District. On November 20, 2023 it was announced that the option term was extended from September 7, 2024 to March 7, 2026. In addition, on exercise of the Option, Dakota Gold will issue Barrick 3 million additional shares and grant a 2.5% NSR to Barrick with respect to any gold that may be recovered from the Grizzly Gulch property (the "Grizzly Gulch").

The property is located in and around the City of Lead and lies within the Black Hills Meridian, Township 5 N, Range 3 E, covering portions of Sections 19, 20, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, and 34, and Township 4 N, Range3 E, covering portions of Sections 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 14, and 15.

Access to the property is gained from multiple public roads and highways including, streets within the City of Lead, paved Highway 85/14A near Central City, US Highway 385 at Pluma, and via Lawrence County maintained Grizzly Gulch, Kirk, and Yellow Creek roads.

The Barrick Option area was previously a part of, or utilized in support of, Homestake Mining Company's historic gold mining operations at Lead. Subdivisions of the property include Sawpit Gulch, Open Cut and Grizzly Gulch areas. As the property was previously disturbed by mining, Dakota Gold believes that potential exists for the Company to repurpose the property and remaining infrastructure for future operations if exploration is successful at Dakota Gold project areas that lie in close proximity. The Grizzly Gulch area of the property holds potential to re-process tailings from milling operations at the Homestake Gold Mine.

Blind Gold Project

Dakota Gold owns a 100% interest in the 191 mining claims (3,393 acres) and 39.4 acres of private surface land that comprise the Blind Gold project. In total, the Blind Gold claims cover approximately 3,433 acres in the western portion of Lawrence County, South Dakota, USA. More specifically the claims lie within the Black Hills Meridian, Township 5N, Ranges 2 and 3 E covering portions of Sections 1, 2, 11, 12, 13 and 14 in Range 2E and Sections 5, 6, 7, 8 and 18 in Range 3E.

Dakota Gold acquired 84 of the claims through the acquisition of North Homestake Mining Company in September 2012. In December 2012, Dakota Gold's Blind Gold property position was increased through the acquisition of 23 additional claims from Black Hills Gold Exploration LLC. Dakota Gold added 63 contiguous claims on its west and southwestern property boundary in February 2020 and in December 2020, 21 additional claims were at the western boundary of the property. In August 2022, Dakota Gold purchased a 39.4-acre land parcel along the west side of the Blind Gold claim block in order to facilitate drilling portions of the projected Homestake iron-formation target from private surface land. There are no known private surface rights owners within the bounds of the main block with all surface rights under the control of Dakota Gold and the USFS. The annual claim maintenance fees total $31,515.

Access to the project is gained by traveling 4.3 miles south-southeast from the City of Spearfish along the Maitland Road (Forest Service 195). Alternately, the area can be accessed from the south via the same Maitland Road from Central City. The northern segment of the property can be accessed from the Maitland Road via Forest Service Road 195-2A and the southern portion can be accessed via the Paradise Gulch Road. In addition, various forest service roads exist within the claim area.

The Blind Gold claims are located approximately 4 miles northwest and on structural trend with the Homestake Gold Mine. In the 1980s and 1990s, Homestake Mining Company's work in the Homestake District extended the Homestake iron-formation host under cover and demonstrated the repeatability of Homestake iron-formation-hosted gold deposits within the structural corridor extending northwest of the mine.

In addition to the exploration potential for gold hosted in the Homestake iron-formation, the Blind Gold project holds exploration potential for Tertiary-aged gold and silver replacement deposits typical of the Homestake District, with the mineralization hosted in the Cambrian Deadwood formation and to a lesser degree the Paha Sapa Limestone. The formation of Tertiary-age gold-silver replacement deposits is generally dependent on fault and fracture structures necessary to the transportation of mineralizing fluids and proximity to the preferential intrusive bodies, both of which are present at the Blind Gold claims. Tertiary-age gold mineralization is evidenced across the Blind Gold claims by numerous mapped prospect workings dating from the turn of the century in the Paha Sapa Limestone, Phonolite intrusive and Deadwood formation where it outcrops at the southwest corner of the property.

The Company's initial planned drill program at Blind Gold is to target Homestake iron-formations projected from the Maitland area into the Blind Gold property, gold-silver replacement deposits in the preferred Deadwood formation host under the cover of the Paha Sapa limestone emanating from the historic Maitland Gold Mine located south of the Blind Gold project boundary and structurally controlled, Precambrian hosted Tertiary mineralization and breccia bodies projected north from Unionville discovery located immediately to the south. Mineralized north-south vertical structures and breccia bodies extend from the Maitland Mine area into the Blind Gold property and can be traced for more than one mile thru historic trenching and prospects. This drilling will initially be done from drill platforms located on private surface lands located on the Maitland Property and other strategic land holdings west of the Blind Gold property.

Cambrian Unconformity Project

The Cambrian Unconformity Project was previously called the Homestake Paleoplacer project in all earlier reporting. The project name was changed to Cambrian Unconformity project in order to better describe the potential mineral targets which include Cambrian paleoplacer gold deposits, Tertiary epithermal gold mineralization along the Cambrian Unconformity associated with dikes, sills and crosscutting Tertiary-age veins and breccias and Tertiary replacement deposits in the Basal Deadwood Formation which overlie the Cambrian Unconformity.

The Cambrian Unconformity claims consist of a total of 14 unpatented mineral claims (110 acres) and approximately 253 patented surface and mineral acres for a total of 363 mineral acres covering approximately 5,700 feet of the projected northward extension of the Homestake-area paleoplacer channel trend in the western portion of Lawrence County, South Dakota, USA. More specifically the claims lie within the Black Hills Meridian, Township 5N, Range3E covering portions of Sections 20 and 21.

Dakota Gold acquired its original 14 unpatented Cambrian Unconformity claims from Black Hills Gold Exploration LLC in December 2012. Dakota Gold owns a 100% interest in the 14 unpatented claims with no known encumbrance of any kind. There are no known private surface rights owners within the bounds of the property with all surface rights under the control of the US Forest Service. The annual claim maintenance fee totals $2,310.

In February 2014, Dakota Gold entered into an agreement to acquire surface and mineral title to 26.16 acres of the Squaw and Rubber Neck Lodes that comprise Mineral Survey 1706 in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The property is located immediately to the north and adjoining Dakota Gold's 14 original unpatented claims group and was explored by Homestake Mining Company in the 1980s.

In March 2014, Dakota Gold successfully closed a transaction with Deadbroke Mining Company, Inc. to purchase approximately 565.24 mineral acres in the Northern Black Hills of South Dakota. As part of the acquisition, Dakota Gold purchased an additional 64.39 mineral acres located immediately southwest and contiguous to Dakota Gold's original unpatented claims group, including the historical Gustin, Minerva and Deadbroke Gold Mines.

In April 2017, Dakota Gold added an additional 141 acres of mineral property to the Cambrian Unconformity claims through an Exploration and Mining Lease and Option to Purchase Property Agreement with Trucano Novelty Inc. of South Dakota. The property acquisition is located immediately north and contiguous to the original Cambrian Unconformity claims.

Access to the project is gained by traveling 0.75 miles west-northwest from Central City along the Maitland Road (Forest Service 195). Alternately, the area can be accessed by traveling approximately 1.75 miles west-northwest from the City of Deadwood on the Mount Roosevelt Road (Forest Service 133).

Tertiary-age rhyolite intrusive rocks dominate the outcrop on the Cambrian Unconformity project, along with limited outcrops of Cambrian Deadwood formation contained within the rhyolite intrusive. The rhyolite is in the form of a sill/laccolith, 50 to 500 feet thick, that overlies the basal quartz pebble conglomerate units of Deadwood formation and the extensions of gold bearing paleoplacer sourced from the Homestake Lode.

Dakota Gold's Cambrian Unconformity project include the past producing Gustin, Minerva and Deadbroke Mines, which were the last three mines that produced from the channel and are located furthest to the north at the point where the channel disappears under the cover of the younger Cambrian sedimentary and Tertiary igneous rocks. The Deadbroke Mine began operations in the earliest days of the 1870s Black Hills Gold Rush and continued to produce gold through the 1920s by underground room and pillar methods at depths ranging from 100 to 200 feet below surface.

In 1973, Homestake Mining Company entered into a mining lease on the Deadbroke property, based on interest generated by a report authored by Homestake Geologist, Ross R. Grunwald and titled "Ore Potential of The Deadbroke Mine and Other Northern Black Hills Conglomerate Ores." In 1974, Homestake dewatered the Deadbroke Mine and conducted a comprehensive mine mapping and sampling program. A total of 214 channel samples were collected by Homestake geologists from the perimeter of accessible stope and development headings, as well as from pillars left in stopes. The results of the 1974 Deadbroke Mine sampling program led to a subsequent 27-hole drill program in the 1980s designed to explore for the extension of the paleochannel north of the Deadbroke Mine.

Dakota Gold drilled 6 drill holes on this property in 2022 to test for Cambrian placer gold deposits. Although no significant gold results were returned, the geology identified in the drilling led to a significant re-interpretation of the Precambrian basement rocks, as well as the paleochannel geometry below the Cambrian Unconformity. This new information will be incorporated and used for future targeting on the Cambrian Unconformity Property as well as the adjoining City Creek Project.

City Creek Project

The City Creek project consists of a group of 333 unpatented lode-mining claims (6,161 acres), and the Fidelity, Cresson, Danube, Confidence, Perhaps, Combination No. 1, Combination No. 2 and Cuba patented lode claims, M.S. 1644, the Davis Property, the Hoff Property and a portion of the Trucano Option (1,525 mineral acres). The unpatented claims and patented mineral property cover a total of approximately 7,687 acres in the western portion of Lawrence County, South Dakota, USA. More specifically the property lies within the Black Hills Meridian, Township 5N, Range 3E covering portions of Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, and 28; Township 6N, Range 3E, covering portion of section 33 and Township 5N, Range 4E, covering portions of section 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, and 18.

Dakota Gold acquired the original block of 20 City Creek claims from Black Hills Gold Exploration LLC in December 2012. The patented lode claims Fidelity, Cresson, Danube, Confidence, Perhaps, Combination No. 1, Combination No. 2 and Cuba that comprise M.S. 1644 were acquired from Trucano Novelty Inc. in April 2017 with an addition 42 unpatented lode mining claims acquired by staking in November 2018. In July 2020, the Company recorded an additional 166 claims at the northern and eastern boundary of the City Creek block. In November 2021, the Davis property was acquired to fill a gap on the south end of the City Creek project. In March 2022, an option to purchase agreement was executed for the Hoff property, which filled a large land gap and allowed alternate access to the Maitland, Cambrian Unconformity and City Creek projects as well as access for drilling to other exploration targets that exists on the property. An additional 4 unpatented mining claims were staked in late 2022 to cover fractional areas of interest, and in mid 2023, an additional 92 claims were staked to the east of the existing City Creek claim block.

Dakota Gold owns a 100% interest in the property with no known encumbrance of any kind. The Davis property includes only surface rights while the larger Hoff property included both surface and mineral rights. The unpatented portion of the property is under the control of the USFS and the BLM. The annual claim maintenance fees total $54,945.

Access to the southwest end of the property is gained by traveling 0.6 miles west-northwest from the City of Deadwood along the Mount Roosevelt Road (Forest Service 133). The area can also be accessed from US Highway 85 in the City of Deadwood. The Hoff property can be accessed from Pendo Road off Highway 85 southeast of Spearfish, South Dakota, and by internal trails and roads that run the entire length of the property.

The City Creek project is located one mile northeast of the Homestake Open Cut, one mile northwest of the City of Deadwood and is a target for Homestake iron-formation hosted gold mineralization. The southern end of the City Creek project geology is dominated by rocks of the Homestake stratigraphic sequence, including the Ellison, Homestake and Poorman formations that outcrop across the property. The Homestake iron-formation outcrop on the City Creek Property is complexly folded and represents the continuous Homestake iron-formation extension northeast of the Homestake Mine.

Numerous gold prospect pits and shallow underground workings in Homestake formation have been located at the City Creek project area and the stratigraphy has been mapped by both Homestake Mining Company and USGS geologists. The City Creek area saw limited diamond drilling by Homestake Mining Company in the 1970s and 1980s with encouraging results at current gold prices.

The Company plans additional targeting and permitting activities in order to prepare for future drilling programs on the property.

Tinton Project

The Tinton claims consists of a group of 428 unpatented lode-mining claims covering approximately 8,445.78 acres in the western portion of Lawrence County, South Dakota, and Crook County, Wyoming, USA. More specifically the claims lie within the Black Hills Meridian, Township 5N, Range1E covering portions of Sections 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 35, and 36, and Township 4N, Range1E covering portions of Sections 3, 4, and 5, and within the 6th Principal Meridian, Township 51 N, Range 60 W covering portions of Sections 21 and 28.

Dakota Gold acquired the original block of 106 claims at Tinton in September 2019. Between October 2020 and July 2021, an additional 322 unpatented claims were staked to surround the original claim block with no known encumbrance of any kind. There are no known private surface rights owners within the bounds of the claims with all surface rights on the unpatented portion of the property under the control of the USFS. The annual claim maintenance fees total $70,620.

Access to the property is gained by traveling 8 miles south-southwest from the City of Spearfish along a series of paved and aggregate secondary roads. A network of these roads cut the claims. Alternative ingress can be gained on similar roads from the town of Lead (via Savoy), located approximately 9 miles east-southeast of the claims. Some of these roads are seasonal, as they are not plowed during the winter months.

Placer gold was first discovered in the Tinton area in 1876 and placer claims in the local drainages have been worked almost continuously up to the present day. No source-lode has yet been located for the modern gold placer deposits.

In the 1990s, Homestake Mining Company undertook an exploration program at Tinton that was based on the deposition models for the paleoplacer and modern placers associated with the Homestake Lode. Preliminary groundwork at that time indicated that the most likely source of the gold originated from an area east of the placer workings, over which a district-wide ground gravity survey was conducted in an effort to locate iron-formation host rocks under the younger limestone beds that dominate the surface in the Tinton area. Based on the results of the geophysical survey, two deep core holes were subsequently drilled with intercepted rocks interpreted to be comparable with the suite of rocks at the site of the Homestake Mine.

Dakota Gold intends to resume the exploration begun by Homestake by building off the substantial work already invested in narrowing the search area. Additional geologic field work is planned for 2024.

West Corridor Project

The West Corridor project consists of 110 unpatented lode-mining claims (1,499 acres) and surface and mineral title to an additional 826 acres of patented land bringing the total area covered to approximately 2325 acres in the western portion of Lawrence County, South Dakota, USA. More specifically the claims lie within the Black Hills Meridian, Township 5N, Range2E covering portions of Sections 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 34 and 35, and Township 5N, Range3E covering portions of Sections 19 and 30.

Dakota Gold staked the unpatented claims of West Corridor between February 2020 and July 2021. There is no known encumbrance of any kind and there are no known private surface rights owners within the bounds of the claims with all surface rights on the unpatented portion of the property under the control of the USFS. Annual claim maintenance fees total $18,150.

213 acres of patented land were purchased in May of 2021 from Terrence Tyler and are subject to a 2% net smelter return royalty (the "NSR Royalty") held by Homestake Mining Company with a buyback right for 51% interest in the property subject to, among other provisions, the establishment of a 1,000,000-ounce reserve and/or inferred resource from one or more deposits located within a one-kilometer area of influence surrounding the property.

The West Corridor property is located just south of the mineral property Dakota Gold acquired from Deadbroke Mining Company in the Maitland Area in March of 2014, just north of the producing Wharf Mine (Coeur Mining, Inc.) and just to the south and east of the former Richmond Hill Mine (Barrick Gold Corporation ("Barrick"). Access to the property is gained by traveling 1 mile southwest of Lead, South Dakota ("Lead SD") on Highway 85/14A to State Highway 473 and then traveling west approximately 3.2 miles to Wharf Mine Road and continuing west approximately 1.2 miles before turning and traveling 1 mile north on the Richmond Hill Road.

The property is located midway along on a structural trend that extends northward from the Wharf Gold Mine on to the south through Richmond Hill to the north and can be traced further to the north under Paleozoic cover rocks by its geophysical signature. The targets of interest on the property are for 1) iron-formation hosted gold mineralization under the cover of younger sedimentary and igneous rocks and 2) Tertiary-age gold and silver mineralization found in Precambrian basement rocks, breccia pipes, carbonate replacements and other styles of epithermal mineralization. Geological field work and sampling in planned on the West Corridor property for 2024 field season.

Ragged Top Project

The Ragged Top claims and property consists of 71 unpatented lode-mining claims (982 acres), staked in September and March 2021, plus a combination of surface and mineral title to an additional 25 patented mining claims covering approximately 307 acres that were secured on March 9, 2021, through an option agreement with Donald Valentine of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. On August 21, 2021, Dakota Gold purchased surface and mineral title to approximately 230 acres of patented land from Atlas Development Company. In total, the claims and property cover approximately 1,519 acres in the western portion of Lawrence County, South Dakota, USA that lie within the Black Hills Meridian, Township 5N, Range2E covering portions of Sections 19, 20, 22, 28, 29, 30, 32, and 33, and Township 4 N, Range2E covering a portion of Section 5.

Dakota Gold maintains 100% ownership of the property. There are no known encumbrances of any kind and there are no other known private surface rights owners within the bounds of the unpatented claims with all surface rights on that portion of the property under the control of the USFS. The annual claim maintenance fees total $11,715.

Access to the claims and property is gained by traveling 1 mile southwest of Lead SD on Highway 85/ 14A to State Highway 473 and then traveling west approximately 3.2 miles to Wharf Mine Road and continuing generally northwest approximately 4.2 miles to the site of historic Preston gold camp.

Tertiary-aged gold mineralization in the Ragged Top area is hosted primarily in the Paha Sapa Limestone formation and has been mined from both vertical fissures called "Verticals" and from collapsed breccias.

Dakota Gold's Ragged Top claims and property are located just northwest of the producing Wharf Mine (Coeur Mining) and approximately 3 miles southwest of the former Richmond Hill Mine (Barrick). The Atlas Development and Deadwood Standard portion of the property was the site of historic small scale gold operations and was explored with shallow drilling by Homestake Mining Company in the 1970s and 1980s. Historic resources on the property were included in State Mine Permit 416, which is still active. Dakota Gold believes that the Ragged Top Property is an excellent prospect for additional tertiary-aged limestone hosted gold mineralization and for tertiary-aged gold and silver replacement mineralization in the preferred Deadwood formation host that lies deep under the cover of the limestone that dominates the surface exposure.

Data compilation and reconnaissance field work is scheduled for 2024.

Poorman Anticline Project

The Poorman Anticline claims consists of 112 unpatented lode-mining claims (1,432 acres), and approximately 74 acres of mixed surface and mineral rights parcels covering a total of approximately 1,507 mineral acres in the western portion of Lawrence County, South Dakota, USA. More specifically the claims lie within the Black Hills Meridian, Township 4 N, Range3E covering portions of Sections 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, and 17, and Township 5 N, Range2E covering a portion of Section 36, and Township 5 N, Range3E covering portions of Sections 30 and 31.

Dakota Gold staked the Poorman Anticline Property between February 2019 and August 2021 and maintains 100% ownership of the property. There is no known encumbrance of any kind and there are no known private surface rights owners within the bounds of the claims with all surface rights under the control of Dakota Gold. Annual claim maintenance fees total $18,480.

Access to the northern end of the project is gained by traveling southwest from the City of Lead on Highway 85/14A and turning onto the Kirk Road and traveling approximately 1.5 miles east. Alternately, the area can be accessed by traveling approximately 3.6 miles southwest of Lead on Highway 85/14A, turning on to County 205 south for 0.5 miles to Brownsville Road and traveling 0.8 miles east and turning north traveling approximately 2.3 miles on the Englewood Road.

The Poorman Anticline is the southwestern-most extension of the Homestake iron-formation host in the Homestake District. Gold mineralization was discovered underground on the 2,600- and 4,100-foot levels in the far western extents of the Homestake Mine in the 1950s and 60s with little known historic follow-up exploration in the Poorman Anticline closer to surface. Dakota Gold's targeting in the Poorman Anticline is based on the presence of the Homestake iron-formation host and projected intersections with important shear fabric that is known to have conducted fluids necessary to the deposition of gold mineralization in the northern extents of the structural corridor. In addition, data from the Homestake historic database indicate there were iron formation hosted gold occurrences identified on the property by field work done in the 1960s-70s.

Data compilation and reconnaissance field work is scheduled for 2024.

South Lead / Whistler Gulch Project

The South Lead / Whistler Gulch project was staked between June and September 2021 and is comprised of 783 unpatented claims (13,188 acres) and 255 acres of mineral rights covering a total of approximately 13,443 mineral acres located in the western portion of Lawrence County, South Dakota, USA. More specifically the claims lie within the Black Hills Meridian, Township 4N, Range 2E, covering portions of Sections 2, 9, 10, 11,14,15, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 35 and 36, and Township 4N, Range 3E, covering portions of Sections 1, 2, 11,12,13,14,15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36, and Township 4N, Range 4E, covering portions of Sections 18 and 19 and Township 5N, Range 3E, covering portions of Sections 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 34, 35 and 36.

The South Lead portion of the claims is not contiguous but is generally located south of the City of Lead extending as a band approximately 9 miles across the southern end Homestake District from Highway 85/14A at the west side to US Highway 385 on the east side. Multiple points of access to the property are gained from the paved State and Federal highway systems, as well as from numerous all-weather secondary paved and gravel roads maintained by Lawrence County. A network of BLM and Forest Service roads cut the property. The Whistler Gulch section of the property is generally located immediately south of the City of Deadwood and extending south and east from Whistler Gulch. Access to the property is gained from streets within the City of Deadwood, US Highway 385 along at the western property boundary, and from numerous all-weather gravel roads maintained by Lawrence County. A network of BLM and Forest Service roads cut the property.

Dakota Gold maintains 100% ownership of the project. There are no known private surface rights owners within the bounds of the claims with all surface rights on the property under the control of the USFS or BLM. The annual claim maintenance fees total $129,195.

The South Lead / Whistler Gulch project has been subject to extensive historic prospect and mining activity, primarily related to Tertiary-aged gold mineralization in the Deadwood formation, Tertiary-aged intrusives and Precambrian basement rocks. Dakota Gold believes the South Lead / Whistler Gulch project area holds potential for Homestake-style iron-formation hosted mineralization down plunge from the Homestake mine under cover of the younger rocks that dominate the surface.

The South Lead / Whistler project area is extensive. Significant historic mining activity is evident by the presence of numerous prospect pits and adits scattered throughout the area, as mapped on published geological quadrangle maps. However, neither Homestake Mining Company records nor the US Government mineral records (MRDS) have recorded the mining and commodity information for the area associated with the old mine workings.

Data compilation and reconnaissance field work is scheduled for 2024 using the Company's proprietary regional geophysical surveys as guides.