Drilling Update for the Great Northern Gold Project, Australia

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jan 8, 2015) - Rugby Mining Ltd. ("Rugby" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:RUG) is pleased to announce preliminary gold results from recently completed drilling at the Great Northern Gold Project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The program, comprising five drill holes for a total of 1,191 metres ("m"), was conducted at the Wingina prospect to test for depth extensions to the high grade footwall gold zone. Five reverse circulation / rotary pre-collared drill holes and four diamond drill tails were drilled. Unfortunately, due to excessive hole deviation and difficult ground conditions, only one hole (RWG002) was successfully drilled to the target depth.

Preliminary gold assays have been received for all the drill holes and include the following significant results:

• RWG002 61.5m @ 1.14 g/t gold from 196.4m*
  
  
• RWG003 1.0m @ 14.49 g/t gold from 255.3m
  
  
• RWG005A 10.0m @ 2.59 g/t gold from 266.0m
  and 3.0m @ 5.15 g/t gold from 301.0m

*assumed 3.4 metres of no core recovery assayed 0.0 g/t gold

Rugby's President and CEO, Paul Joyce stated "We are encouraged that our initial drilling on the Wingina prospect has shown a continuation of gold mineralisation at depths below the historical shallow oxide mineral resource (not compliant with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101")).

"Given the large size of the property at 714 km², and the number of undrilled geophysical and geochemical targets, Rugby will focus on defining shallow oxide and underlying high grade deposits to supplement the historical (non-NI 43-101 compliant) Wingina gold resource.

"Magnetic anomalies in areas adjoining the known high grade gold mineralisation remain untested. One such target, the Crescent magnetic anomaly, is scheduled for follow up and geochemical sampling is underway to better define the potential target (Figure 1). With the number of shallow targets available for testing and difficult drilling conditions at Wingina, further deep drilling is not planned at this time."

Please click here for the drill hole location plan, a list of all drill intercepts above 1.0 g/t gold and table of drill hole details. All results are preliminary as assays are being verified with check samples to be assayed at another independent laboratory.

Rugby has an option to earn an 80% interest in the Great Northern Gold Project from Australian listed company, De Grey Mining Ltd..

Quality Control and Assurance

Blanks and certified standards were inserted into the sample stream as part of Rugby's quality assurance and control program, as prescribed by NI 43-101 requirements. Core samples were cut in half-lengths using a diamond saw, with one half retained in secure storage for logging, and the other half sent to Genalysis Laboratory Services lab in Perth, Western Australia for mineral analyses.

All samples were prepared using Genalysis' SP66 method (drying, crushing, and pulverizing), and assaying for gold by Genalysis' FA50/OE04 technique in which a 50g charge was split from each sample for fire assay with an ICP-OES finish. Check-assaying is currently underway at ALS Laboratory Services, Perth. Both ALS and Genalysis are independent and ISO-9001:2000 certified laboratories with no association to Rugby. For more information on Quality Control and Assurance please click here.

Francisco Montes, Rugby's Chief Geologist and a "qualified person" ("QP") within the definition of that term in National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has verified the technical information that forms the basis for this news release.

About Rugby

Rugby is an emerging mineral resource company focussed on a portfolio of projects having considerable potential for significant mineral discoveries. Rugby benefits from the experience of its directors and management, a team that has either been directly responsible for world-class mineral discoveries or have been part of the management teams responsible for such discoveries.

Cobrasco and Comita Projects, Colombia: Rugby owns 100% of the Cobrasco project, subject to a 1% NSR and has an option to earn up to 60% of the adjacent Comita project in western Colombia. Both projects host undrilled large scale porphyry copper-molybdenum-gold targets which were recognised during a joint German-Colombian government sponsored exploration program conducted in the mid-1980's. No systematic exploration or drilling has been conducted since that time. Rugby currently awaits final permitting approval for a proposed drilling program at Cobrasco.

Mabuhay Project, Philippines: The Company holds an option to acquire up to 80% of the Mabuhay project in Surigao Province. The Company considers the project to have excellent potential for the discovery of both epithermal gold deposits and gold-copper porphyry systems. An application for an Exploration Permit ("EP") is currently awaiting approval. Unfortunately, in common with almost all other mining permits in the Philippines, the delay has been considerable. To minimise expenditures, the project will remain under care and maintenance until the EP is granted.

For additional information you are invited to visit the Rugby Mining Ltd. website at www.rugbymining.com

RUGBY MINING LIMITED

Paul Joyce, President and CEO

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT

Certain of the statements made and information contained herein is "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario Securities Acts. This includes statements concerning the Company's plans at its projects including the expected approval of permits required for exploration, timing of drilling programs, high grade potential at the Great Northern Gold Project, potential for mineral discoveries on its projects and drilling costs which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking information, including, without limitation, the effect on prices of major mineral commodities such as copper, gold and iron by factors beyond the control of the Company; events which cannot be accurately predicted such as political and economic instability, terrorism,
environmental factors and changes in government regulations and taxes; the shortage of personnel with the requisite knowledge and skills to design and execute exploration programs; difficulties in arranging contracts for drilling and other exploration services; the Company's dependency on equity market financings to fund its exploration programs and maintain its mineral exploration properties in good standing; political risk that a government will change, interpret or enforce mineral tenure, environmental regulations, taxes or mineral royalties in a manner that could have an adverse effect on the Company's assets or financial condition and impair its ability to advance its mineral exploration projects or raise further funds for exploration; risks associated with title to resource properties due to the difficulties of determining the validity of certain claims as well as the potential for problems arising from the interpretation of laws regarding ownership of mineral properties in the Philippines and in the sometimes ambiguous conveyancing characteristic of many resource properties, currency risks associated with foreign operations, the timing of obtaining permits to conduct exploration activities, the ability to conclude agreements with local communities and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in each of the Company's
management discussion and analysis including those contained in its year-end financial statements for the year ended February 28, 2014 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available at www.sedar.com. In addition, forward-looking information is based on various assumptions including, without limitation, assumptions associated with exploration results and costs and the availability of materials and skilled labour. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.