Western Exploration Sells its Trout Creek property adjacent to the Marigold Mine to SSR Mining Inc., and also receives an equity investment from SSR Mining

Funds received will be used for the continued exploration and advancement of Western Exploration’s Aura Mining District Project

Reno, NV (January 30, 2019) – Western Exploration LLC, (“Western” or the “Company”) a portfolio company of Coral Reef Capital, is pleased to announce the sale of the Trout Creek property (the “Property”) in Humboldt County, NV to Marigold Mining Company (“MMC”), a subsidiary of SSR Mining Inc.

The Property is South of and contiguous to the Marigold Mine and consists of two parcels of fee land totaling 200 hectares. Western completed 12 reverse circulation holes and one diamond drill core hole between 1989 and 2008, resulting in a NI 43-101 compliant resource of 223,000 indicted and inferred gold equivalent ounces.

The terms of the sale include a cash payment to Western for an undisclosed amount and a private placement into Western. In addition, Western will receive additional “top up” payments from MMC for additional gold ounces discovered on Trout Creek and a Net Smelter Royalty on all recoverable gold ounces in excess of the first 275,000 gold equivalent ounces produced from the Property.

With the sale of Trout Creek, Western has monetized an asset that will facilitate further exploration at its principal asset, the Aura Project, in northern Elko County, NV. The Aura Project currently hosts a NI 43-101 resource in two ore deposits, Doby George and Gravel Creek, with combined Indicated Resources of 688,000 gold ounces, 3.9 million silver ounces in 16.7 million tons and Inferred Resources of 938,000 gold ounces and 9.0 million silver ounces of Ag in 20.3 million tons.

About Western Exploration

Western Exploration LLC is a privately held advanced stage precious metals exploration company with rapid resource growth and near term gold production potential in Nevada. The company has a NI 43-101 compliant resource of approximately 1.8 million gold equivalent indicated and inferred ounces.

About Coral Reef Capital

Coral Reef Capital is a New York-based private investment firm that focuses on private equity investments in the natural resources/real assets sector, including upstream energy, metals & mining, oil field services and industrials. For more information, please visit www.coralreefcapital.com