C:CC - Contact Gold Provides 2023 Outlook for the Green Springs and Pony Creek Projects

(TheNewswire)

Vancouver, BC - TheNewswire - January 24, 2023 - Contact Gold Corp. (the “Company” or “Contact Gold”)(TSXV:C ) ( OTC:CGOLF) is pleased to provide an initialoutlook for its 2023 exploration program, and recap a very successful2022.

The Company plans to continue advancing the GreenSprings oxide gold project in partnership with Centerra Gold Inc. (“Centerra”) (TSX: CG)(NYSE:CGAU) , and has begun planning a return toits Pony Creek gold project with a view to expanding the existing goldresource.

• 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.  TheCompany is operator of Green Springs and will lead exploration underCenterra’s US$ 10 million earn-in.

• Pony Creek is 100% owned by Contact Gold, and isstrategically located immediately south of Orla Mining Ltd.’sRailroad-Pinion Project, on the Southern Carlin Trend (TSX: OLA).   The Company published a first-time mineral resource estimate at PonyCreek in early 2022.

“2022 marked a turning point for Contact Gold and ourGreen Springs gold project.  With some of the top oxide gold drillintercepts in the western USA, and the US$10 million Earn-in dealsigned with Centerra, we have solidified Green Springs as one of thetop exploration stage gold assets in Nevada.” said Matt Lennox-King,President and CEO of Contact Gold.  “At Pony Creek we released a maiden resource estimate in early 2022, andhave multiple permitted targets identified anddrill-ready. With significant leverage to arising gold price environment, we look forward to designing andexecuting an exploration program at Green Springs funded by and inconcert with Centerra, and to the resumption of resource expansiondrilling later in the year at Pony Creek.”

Green Springs

Centerra Agreement

On December 9th, 2022 Contact Gold announced that ithad entered into an earn-in agreement with a wholly-owned subsidiaryof Centerra on the Company’s Green Springs oxide gold projectlocated on Nevada’s Cortez Trend.  Pursuant to the Earn-inAgreement, Centerra has an option to acquire a 70% interest in GreenSprings for cumulative earn-in exploration expenditures ofUS$10,000,000 and aggregate cash payments to the Company ofUS$1,000,000. The first-year work commitment of US$1,500,000 isguaranteed, and the Company has already recovered costs related toactivity at Green Springs in December 2022 and January 2023.

Contact Gold will remain project manager at GreenSprings, with exploration led by Contact Gold’s Vice President ofExploration, Vance Spalding.  The next phase of exploration,including follow-up drilling is expected to commence in Q1 2023. TheCompany has identified multiple drill targets, and the necessarypermitting to begin the 2023 program is already in place. Planning forthe 2023 program is in an advanced stage, and is expected to be rolledout in the coming weeks.

For further details on the earn -in with Centerra please seeContact Gold news release dated December 9 th , 2022 https://www.contactgold.com/_resources/news/nr-20221209.pdf

For a location map of the Green Springs project,please click:

http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/news/nr-20220913-Contact-Gold-Project-location-map.jpg

2022 Green Springs drillinghighlights:

The Green Springs property is 18.36 km 2 encompassing 3shallow past producing open pits and numerous targets that were notmined.  Gold mineralization at Green Springs is hosted within thesame Chainman Shale and Pilot Shale units hosting Gold Rock and Pan.The Green Springs project produced high-grade oxide gold from two openpits in the 1980’s, and is host to multiple, near-surface CarlinType gold zones and exploration targets.

The Company completed an impactful step-out drillingprogram at Green Springs in 2022, focussed on expanding the footprintof the high-grade oxide X-Ray and Tango zones, discovered by ContactGold in 2021.  A total of 2,123 metres were completed in 23 holes,with an average downhole depth of 92 metres.

• X-Ray Zone

  • 1.66 g/t Au over 28.96metres , from a depth of 9.14 metres, in drillhole GS22-01

  • Including: 2.66g/t Au over 15.24 metres

  • 0.82 g/t Au over 35.05metres , from a depth of 9.14 metres, in drillhole GS22-02

  • Including: 1.32g/t Au over 16.76 metres

  • 1.95 g/t Au over 41.15metres , from a depth of 15.24 metres, in drillhole GS22-04

  • Including: 3.71g/t Au over 15.24 metres

• Tango Zone

  • 0.51 g/t Au over 30.48metres , from a depth of 4.57 metres, in drillhole GS22-09

  • Including: 1.02g/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

PonyCreek Project:

The Company’s Pony Creek project is located on thesouthern Carlin Trend, and ties on to the southern boundary of OrlaMining’s feasibility-stage South Railroad gold project.  In January2022, Contact Gold announced a maiden resource estimate for PonyCreek, totalling 433,000 inferred pit constrained ounces of gold at anaverage grade of 0.52 g/t Au, hosted within a near surface Carlin typegold system.  The potential for resource expansion at Pony Creek isexcellent, with incremental step out and infill growth opportunities,along with large scale undrilled exploration targets.  The Companylooks forward to completing a resource expansion program in 2023.

Pony Creek Global Mineral ResourceEstimate (MRE) as at January 11, 2022

*Tons, tonnes and ounces rounded tothe nearest 1,000, and may not add due to rounding.

**Mixed lower cutoff grades areutilized depending upon recoveries for oxide, transitional andnon-oxide material, using 0.15 g/t Au lower cutoff for oxide materialand 0.22 g/t Au for transitional and non-oxidized material.

***Inferred Mineral Resources arenot Mineral Reserves. Mineral resources which are not mineral reservesdo not have demonstrated economic viability. There has beeninsufficient exploration to define the inferred resources tabulatedabove as an indicated or measured mineral resource, however, it isreasonably expected that the majority of the Inferred MineralResources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources withcontinued exploration. There is no guarantee that any part of themineral resources discussed herein will be converted into a mineralreserve in the future. The estimate of mineral resources may bematerially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, marketing, orother relevant issues. The mineral resources have been classifiedaccording to the Canadian Institute of Mining (CIM) DefinitionStandards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (May, 2014) andCIM Estimation of Mineral Resources & Mineral Reserves BestPractices Guidelines (2019).

****The recommended reportedresources have been constrained within a US$1,600/oz gold optimizedpit shell.

For further detail on the Pony Creek MRE see Contact Gold newsrelease dated January 11, 2022 .

Portfolio properties

Showcase Minerals:

The Company has entered into a purchase optionagreement on the non-core Dixie, North Star, and Woodruff projectswith Showcase Minerals Inc. (“Showcase”)(SHOW:CSE), a newlyCSE-listed exploration company.  Showcase has the option to earn a100% interest in the projects over a multi -year period.

In connection with the agreement, Contact Gold wasissued 225,646 common shares of Showcase (“Showcase Shares”)representing 2% of the issued and outstanding shares of Showcase.  Tokeep the option in good standing, Showcase must continue to makeannual issuances of Showcase Shares to maintain at least theCompany’s 2% shareholding, and make certain cash payments to theCompany on the anniversaries of the agreement.

Should Showcase complete the purchase option, ContactGold will receive additional Showcase Shares taking its ownership to a5% shareholding in Showcase.

Annual equity incentive awards

On January 23, 2023, the Company awarded stock optionsto directors, officers, employees and certain consultants to theCompany to purchase an aggregate of 2,950,000 common shares in theCompany, with an exercise price of $0.025 per share. The Options weregranted pursuant to the Company’s Option and Incentive Plan (the"Incentive Plan") and will expire five years from the dateof grant, and vest in thirds over the course of three years. The Boardalso awarded officers and employees of the Company an aggregate of225,000 Restricted Share Units ("RSUs"). The RSUs, issued inaccordance with the Incentive Plan, vest in thirds over the course ofthree years, and expire December 31, 2026. The Company expects tocontinue its practice of awarding deferred share units tonon-executive directors on a quarterly basis in satisfaction ofdirector fees.

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 arecompleted at Paragon; an ISO 17025:2005 accredited lab.  Check assaysare completed at a second, reputable assay lab after the program iscomplete.

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 .

Contact Gold satisfied the remaining steps to completethe purchase option of Green Springs with Ely Gold Royalties Inc., nowa subsidiary of Gold Royalty Corp. shortly after entering into theEarn-in with Centerra, and currently holds a 100% interest in theproject.

Additional information about Pony Creek is summarizedin the NI 43-101 technical report entitled “Technical Report andMaiden Mineral Resource, Pony Creek Property, Elko County, Nevada,USA”, effective and signed February 24, 2022 was prepared inaccordance by Michael Dufresne, M.Sc., P.Geol., P. Geo., and Fallon T.Clarke, B.Sc., P.Geo., of APEX Geoscience, based in Edmonton,Alberta.

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.

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, the completion of the earn-in by Centerra at GreenSprings, or the completion of the earn-in by Showcase at the Dixie,North Star, and Woodruff projects.

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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