CGOLF - Contact Gold Announces 2023 Exploration Program for the Green Springs Project

(TheNewswire)

Vancouver, BC - TheNewswire - April 5, 2023 - Contact Gold Corp. (the “Company” or “Contact Gold”)(TSXV:C ) ( OTC:CGOLF) is pleased to announce the approvalof a US$ 1,850,000 exploration and drillingprogram for 2023 at the Company’s GreenSprings oxide gold project, located on Nevada’s Cortez Trend.

Green Springs is strategically located 7 km immediatelyeast of the Gold Rock project operated by Calibre Mining Corp. (TSX:CXB; OTCQX: CXBMF) and 20 km southeast of their Pan Mine.

In December 2022 the Company entered into an earn-inagreement with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Centerra Gold Inc. (“Centerra”) (TSX: CG) (NYSE:CGAU) providing Centerra the option to acquire a 70% interest in GreenSprings for cumulative earn-in exploration expenditures of US$10,000,000 and aggregate cash payments to the Company of US$1,000,000.

For further details on the earn -in with Centerra please see Contact Gold newsrelease dated December 9, 2022

2023 Program Highlights:

• The approved Year 1 exploration program will be fundedby Centerra, with a total budget of US$ 1.85 million.

• The approved 2023 exploration and drill programrepresents a 23% larger program than the contractual minimumfirst-year work commitment.

• 4,500 metres of reverse circulation drilling areplanned at Green Springs for 2023, for up to 45 drill holes.

• Drilling will focus on growing established high-gradeoxide zones such as X-Ray and Tango, along with initial drill testingof high conviction green fields targets.

• Drilling is expected to start in mid-May.

• The Company is operator of Green Springs and will leadexploration under Centerra’s US$ 10 million earn-in.

• Contact Gold will also dedicate resources to generatingadditional high-quality greenfield targets to ensure a full targetpipeline.

“We are looking forward to kicking off ourpartnership with Centerra at Green Springs.  The project boastsmultiple known zones of drilled high-grade oxide gold, along withmultiple high conviction green fields targets.” said MattLennox-King, President and CEO of Contact Gold.  “With funding fromour partner, Centerra, we intend to make rapid progress stepping outon the known zones at Green Springs in 2023 and will continuegenerating new drill targets across the Green Springs property.”

Planned 2023 Green Springs drillingtargets:

The Company’s planned 2023 program includes a focuson several target areas, including known zones of mineralization,following-up on recent discoveries, and first-pass drilling athigh-priority green fields targets.

X-Ray Zone

• Near-surface, well oxidized, with exceptional gradesand thicknesses.

• Open for expansion to the south, the west, and thenorth to some degree.

• Average depth of completed drill holes is 86.8metres.

• Highlights of 2022 drilling:

  • oo 1.66 g/t Auover 28.96 metres , from a depth of 9.14 metres,in drill hole GS22-01

    • ?? Including: 2.66 g/t Au over 15.24 metres

  • oo 0.82 g/t Auover 35.05 metres , from a depth of 9.14 metres,in drill hole GS22-02

    • ?? Including: 1.32 g/t Au over 16.76 metres

  • oo 1.95 g/t Auover 41.15 metres , from a depth of 15.24 metres,in drill hole GS22-04

    • ?? Including:  3.71 g/t Au over 15.24metres

  • oo The Company plans 4-6 holes atX-Ray in 2023.

  Tango Zone

• Located in the northern portion of the project, one kmNE of the high-grade X-Ray Zone.

• The identified zone of gold mineralization currentlymeasures 250 x 500 metres.

• There are significant expanses of untested andprospective Pilot Shale to the west of the current drill pattern.

• The average depth of completed drill holes at Tango in2022 is 74 metres.

• Highlights of 2022 drilling

  • oo 0.51 g/t Auover 30.48 metres , from a depth of 4.57 metres,in drill hole GS22-09

    • ?? Including: 1.02 g/t Au over 3.05 metres

    • ?? 0.70 g/t Au over 16.76metres , from a depth of 3.05 metres, in drillhole GS22-08

    • ?? 0.45 g/t Au over 24.38 metres, from a depth of 19.81 metres, in drill holeGS22-11

  • oo The Company plans 10-12 holesat Tango in 2023.

    Other priority targets:

• 4-6 holes at the B-C Gap and C-D Gap targets testingthe lower Pilot Shale target.

• 6-8 holes at the undrilled frontier Whiskey and Foxtrottargets.

• 2-4 holes at the Zulu Target where the mine trend iswide open for expansion to the south east.

The Company also plans additional soil sampling,mapping, and geophysics to develop additional drill targets for thenext phase of exploration and discovery at Green Springs.

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Equity incentive award to technicalteam

On April 4, 2023, the Company awarded stock options toa new member of the Green Springs technical team to purchase anaggregate of 50,000 Contact Shares, with an exercise price of $0.02per share. The Options were granted pursuant to the Company’s Optionand Incentive Plan and will expire five years from the date of grant,and vest in thirds over the course of three years.

Qualified Person and technicaldisclosure

The scientific andtechnical information contained in this news release has been reviewedand approved by Vance Spalding, CPG, VP Exploration, Contact Gold, whois a “qualified person” within the meaning of NI 43-101.

Drill intercepts were calculated using a minimumthickness of 3.05 metres averaging 0.14 ppm gold and allowinginclusion of up to 4.57 metres of material averaging less than 0.14ppm gold for low grade intervals and higher-grade intervals werecalculated using a minimum thickness of 3.05 metres averaging 1.00 ppmgold and allowing inclusion of up to 4.57 metres of assays averagingless than 1.00 ppm gold.  Gravimetric assays are used for all FireAssays above 4.00 ppm gold. Cyanide solubility assays are completed onall Fire Assays greater than 0.1 g/t. True width of drilledmineralization is unknown but owing to the apparent flat lying natureof mineralization, is estimated to generally be at least 70% ofdrilled thickness in most cases. The Cyanide recovery percentages areequally averaged by interval and are not weighted by gold content perinterval.  Quality Assurance / Quality Control consists of regularinsertion of certified reference standards, blanks, and duplicates.All failures are followed up and resolved whenever possible withadditional investigation whenever such an event occurs. All assays are completed at Paragon; an ISO17025:2005 accredited lab.  Check assays are completed at a second,reputable assay lab after the program is complete.

Green Springs is an early-stage exploration propertyand does not contain any mineral resource estimates as defined byNational Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”). There has been insufficient exploration to define amineral resource estimate at Green Springs. Additional informationabout Green Springs is summarized in the NI 43-101 Technical Reportentitled “NI 43-101 Technical Report for the Green Springs Project,White Pine County, Nevada, USA” prepared for Contact Gold, with aneffective date of June 12, 2020, and dated August 5, 2020, as preparedby John J. Read, C.P.G; an independent consultant and qualified personunder NI 43-101, and can be viewed under Contact Gold’s issuerprofile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

About Contact Gold Corp.

Contact Gold is an exploration company focused onmaking district scale gold discoveries in Nevada.  Contact Gold’sextensive land holdings are on the prolific Carlin and Cortez goldtrends which host numerous gold deposits and mines. Contact Gold’sland position comprises approximately 144 km 2 of target richmineral tenure hosting numerous known gold occurrences, ranging fromearly- to advanced-exploration and current gold resources.   PonyCreek is 100% owned by Contact Gold, and is strategically locatedimmediately south of Orla Mining Ltd.’s Railroad-Pinion Project, onthe Southern Carlin Trend (TSX: OLA).    The Company published afirst-time mineral resource estimate at Pony Creek in early2022.

Additional information about the Company is availableat www.contactgold.com .

For more information, please contact: +1 (604)449-3361

Matthew Lennox-King – President & CEO

E-mail: info@ContactGold.com

Neither the TSXV nor its RegulationServices Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of theTSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release. Nostock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authorityhas approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

Cautionary Note RegardingForward-Looking Information

This news release contains"forward-looking information" and "forward-lookingstatements" (collectively, "forward-lookingstatements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadiansecurities legislation. All statements, other than statements ofhistorical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based onexpectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this newsrelease. Any statement that involves discussions with respect topredictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives,assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always usingphrases such as "expects", or "does not expect","is expected", "anticipates" or "does notanticipate", "plans", "budget","scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates","believes" or "intends" or variations of suchwords and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results"may" or "could", "would","might" or "will" be taken to occur or beachieved) are not statements of historical fact and may beforward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-lookingstatements relate, among other things, to the anticipated explorationactivities of the Company at the Green Springs and Pony Creekproperties, and the completion of the earn-in by Centerra at GreenSprings.

These forward-looking statements arebased on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of theCompany at the time such statements were made. Actual future resultsmay differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known andunknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause theactual results, performance or achievements of the Company tomaterially differ from any future results, performance or achievementsexpressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors,among other things, include: fluctuations in general macroeconomicconditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spotand forward prices of gold, silver, base metals or certain othercommodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadiandollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national andlocal government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations andpolitical or economic developments (including those arising from theCovid-19 coronavirus outbreak); risks and hazards associated with thebusiness of mineral exploration, development and mining (includingenvironmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpectedformations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); inability to obtainadequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of lawsand regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employeerelations; relationships with and claims by local communities andindigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associatedwith mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineralexploration and development (including the risks of obtainingnecessary licenses, permits and approvals from governmentauthorities); and title to properties. Although the forward-lookingstatements contained in this news release are based upon whatmanagement of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to bereasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders thatactual results will be consistent with such forward-lookingstatements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to beas anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place unduereliance on the forward-looking statements and information containedin this news release. The Company assumes no obligation to update theforward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or otherfactors, should they change, except as required by law.

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