Argonaut Gold Announces Successful Result from its 2016 Drill Campaign at Magino

TORONTO, Jan. 11, 2017

Pete Dougherty, President and CEO commented: "One aspect of Magino that has over-shadowed its economic potential is the perception that the continuity of gold mineralization, especially the higher grade areas, required further definition.  Therefore, we designed a definition-drilling program focused on the initial two years of production with the aim of accomplishing three goals: upgrade this portion of the resource to a Proven Reserve category, test our existing model and de-risk the first two years of production, which is the estimated payback period for the project.  The team was able to execute the program on time and on budget, and these results will play a fundamental role in the upcoming feasibility study."

Tom Burkhart, Vice President of Exploration stated: "Drill results support the current block model and the interpreted geometry of mineralization.  Within the system, there are lenses and stockworks of high-grade gold that are important to the economics of the deposit.  It is impossible to know exactly where all these high-grade lenses lie, but what the recent 10 to 12 metre spaced drilling tells us is that the tighter we drill the Magino deposit, the more we validate that these high-grade lenses do occur and that their frequency is predictable.  In addition, the successful result of the 2016 drilling campaign increases our confidence in the strength of the overall resource."

Plan View Map of Key Highlight Hole Locations

Table 1 below illustrates key highlight holes from the drill program:

Table 1: Key Highlight Holes