Golden Queen Announces Initial Drill Results from the 2018 Main Pit 2 Infill Drilling Program

VANCOUVER, April 3, 2018

The drill results are part of the Company's 2018 Main Pit 2 Infill Drilling program. The holes GQ-824 through GQ-828 drilled to date have been successful in intersecting and geologically verifying existing shallow mineralized zones in and around the currently mined East Pit, and has also been successful in exploring for and intersecting deeper mineralized zones. In some cases, some new mineralized zones have been identified.

Each hole listed in the table below has intersected strong alteration envelopes and locally significant gold/silver mineralization associated with the Patience and Queen Esther zones, and has encountered the deeper Silver Queen target along with other mineralized zones.

Several key features have been initially observed in the drill cuttings of these five holes:

• There appears to be an interplay of the relatively high-grade Slusher vein with the lower-grade Patience zone. Some holes show distinct Slusher vein and Patience zones; while in other holes, these two zones appear to perhaps merge in a large swath of strong alteration;
• Several unnamed or unknown mineralized zones have been intersected to date, usually situated between the Patience and Queen Esther zones. Previous interpretations suggest that these zones may be subparallel to the Queen Esther structure, may be relatively flat-lying, and locally carry significant gold and silver grades (see accompanying table). Further work and interpretation must be completed to determine whether gold/silver grades encountered so far in these structures show good continuity from section to section. It is worthy to note that the current drilling program was designed to explore new areas around the Queen Esther and Silver Queen veins for potential ore zones that could expand the current pit design;
• The Silver Queen deep target appears, at least initially, to be locally composed of two fault splays. These two splays can locally merge (as in the case of the Silver Queen vein observed near surface), but underneath the East Pit these two Silver Queen splays appear to have a shallower dip than previously interpreted and they range, on average, from about 100'-120' apart. The grades from these two Silver Queen splays intersected underneath the central and western portions of the East Pit have been rather low and erratic, but the assays received and the structural integrity of the splays has been much stronger from underneath the east end of the East Pit (hole GQ-828). These structures appear to get stronger to the east and southeast; and
• Hole GQ-828 is also the hole that was planned to be the farthest east from the Main Pit 2 Infill Drilling Program. Other than the Patience and Karma zones, no major structures have been previously interpreted and projected onto the cross section that contains this hole. Significant zones of strong alteration and locally significant gold/silver mineralization below the Patience and Karma zones were encountered in this hole and this suggests that deeper mineralization does extend to the southeast from the East Pit. Future drilling should step out from this area in an east/southeast direction and continue to test for additional mineralization.

In general, the true thickness of the various mineralized zones is estimated at 75-95% of the mineralized interval in the drill hole. The table below highlights the assay results and initial observations to date: