Argonaut Gold Intersects 7.0 Metres at 13.3 g/t Gold at Magino’s South Zone

• South Zone:
  • MA21-070 with 7.0m at 13.3 g/t Au and 8.0m at 5.1 g/t Au;
• Elbow Zone:
  • MA21-063 with 8.0m at 7.7 g/t Au, including 1.1m at 36.8 g/t Au;
  • MA21-064 with 3.0 m at 6.7 g/t Au, including 1.0 m at 18.4 g/t Au;
  • MA21-065 with 19.0m at 3.7 g/t Au, including 2.0m at 14.8 g/t Au;
  • MA21-066 with 3.5m at 8.0 g/t Au;
  • MA21-067 with 6.0m at 6.5 g/t Au, including 2.0m at 17.7 g/t Au; and
  • MA21-068 with 26.0m at 1.7 g/t Au, including 1.0m at 7.7 g/t Au.

The 2021 drilling program is primarily focused on tightening the drill spacing to approximately 40 m (upper portion) and 80 m (lower portion) within the Elbow Zone from the bottom of the planned pit to a vertical depth from surface of around 1,000 m. The secondary focus of the program is to continue to drill test previously discovered high-grade gold structures within the South Zone, Central Zone, Scotland Zone, #42 Zone and Sandy Zone as well as other prospective showings located elsewhere on the Magino property. Argonaut plans to drill approximately 25,000 metres on these targets this year, is currently drilling with four diamond drill rigs and anticipates completing the program during the fourth quarter of 2021.

Pete Dougherty, President and CEO stated: “The goal of our 2021 program is to tighten the drill spacing within the Elbow Zone to the point where we can evaluate the resource potential of this important structure. Due to the exploration team’s success to date at discovering high-grade gold structures below and adjacent to the planned open pit, we have numerous highly prospective drill targets.”

The South Zone follows the southern contact of the Webb Lake Stock (granodiorite rocks) and volcanic rocks (Figure 2). Drill holes MA21-070 (7.0m at 13.3 g/t Au and 8.0 m at 5.1 g/t Au) and MA21-071 (9.5m at 3.7 g/t Au) were designed to test the South Zone as follow up holes to previously reported intercepts MA20-057 (10.0m at 19.0 g/t Au) and MA12-424 (21.0 m at 11.0 g/t Au including 7.6m at 29.4 g/t Au). This zone contains two parallel vein systems within a structure that has an approximate true width of 25 metres that mimics the trend of a nearby aplite dyke, appears to transect eastward into the volcanic rock package for an apparent strike length of 1.5 km to the eastern property boundary. Drill holes MA20-057 and MA20-070 intersected the gold-bearing vein system down-plunge for an estimated apparent true width ranging between 3.4m to 4.8m. With only three holes completed at depth to define this zone, additional drilling perpendicular to the vein system is required to accurately define the width of the vein systems that comprise the South Zone.

Infill definition drilling of the Elbow Zone continues to define numerous high grade gold zones within this steeply east plunging structure where oriented core and the collection of structural measurements on significant vein systems continues to test the continuity of gold mineralized veins that define this important zone. Close to 17,000 metres of drilling is still needed to complete the Phase 1 definition drilling program. Drilling within the Elbow Zone continues to intersect exciting gold values (MA21-063 of 8.0 m at 7.7 g/t Au; MA21-067 of 2.0 m at 17.7 g/t Au).

Brian Arkell, Vice President of Exploration commented: “We are continuing to develop a better understanding on the structural controls on the high-grade mineralization at Magino and are now in the process of early-stage resource definition drilling on the Elbow Zone. With the extremely encouraging initial high-grade gold results at depth within the Elbow and South Zones, we are very excited about our success in defining a series of high-grade gold mineralized structures below the Magino planned open pit.”

Table 1: Drill Results From the On-Going Drill Program