Ashanti Gold Announces First Drill Results from Anumso, Highlight Intersections Include 8m @ 1.46g/t and 6m @ 2.11 g/t

Vancouver, March 8, 2017 - Ashanti Gold Corp. (TSXV: AGZ) ("Ashanti" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a first set of results from its recent 20 hole, 2,000m reverse circulation drill program on the Anumso project, Ghana. Assays from seven of the twenty holes have been received and are consistent with previous drilling and support broader correlation of along strike and down-dip gold content from previous explorers. Ashanti's CEO Tim McCutcheon said "Ashanti filed a NI 43-101 report on Anumso in October 2016 and these first drill results are in line with the historic data in that report. Anumso has a historic gold resource of 250,000 ounces along 2 km of Banka conglomerate. Ashanti Gold is delighted with the results so far and is looking forward to the assay results from an additional 13 drill holes within the coming days."

Ashanti Gold's drill program was designed to verify and confirm gold mineralization as identified in historic drilling along 2.6 km of Banka conglomerate, the key gold-bearing stratigraphic unit of the Tarkwaian suite of rocks that overlie Birimian volcanic rocks of the Ashanti Belt, Ghana. Banka conglomerate consists of quartz pebbles and cobbles set in silt and mud matrix along with gold. This is the same rock unit that hosts the famous Tarkwa, Iduapriem, Teberebie, and Damang deposits approximately 135 km to the southwest where AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields Ltd. are currently producing gold. As an analog to Anumso, the Tarkwa Gold Mine (owned and operated by Gold Fields) is considered relevant, in that (i) at the Tarkwa Gold Mine the reserve grade is approximately 1.3 g/t and the strip ratio is approximately 6:1 (as per Gold Fields Ltd. presentation "Analysts Site Visit" May 2015), however there can be no assurances that the reserve grade and strip ratio for Anumso will also be similar; (ii) many of the mineralised and economic conglomerate strata at Tarkwa are identified by Gold Fields as being up to three meters thick. As such, the known widths of gold mineralization at Anumso are similar to what is being commercially mined by Gold Fields at Tarkwa. One difference is the slope of the strata, where Anumso dips more steeply than at Tarkwa.

Ashanti Gold has undertaken this initial drill program to assess that portion of Banket strata which has been previously tested by historic exploration. This represents 2.6 km of a total of ~10km of strike length of Banket conglomerate occurring within the Anumso concession. The remaining portion of this strata is untested or incompletely tested with a few isolated historic drill holes. Ashanti Gold wishes to investigate further the opportunities posed by these rocks.

All samples were collected over 1 m intervals and were collected from dry cuttings. Samples were collected from the drill site and transported to the company's secure camp and preparation facility where they were split using a standard universal splitter into lab samples of approximately 2 kg. Remaining material is retained for later resampling or checking. Samples were transported by the company to ALS laboratories in Kumasi where they were prepared and assayed using standard 50g fire assay technique.

Drill hole	from	to	interval	Au (g/t)
AGZ RC001	1	3	2	0.39
	24	30	6	1.15
	39	74	35	0.46
incl.	53	56	3	0.99
incl.	62	66	4	0.825
incl.	68	74	6	0.61
	86	92	6	0.35
	95	97	2	0.99
AGZ RC002	1	3	2	0.38
	16	32	16	0.44
	37	49	12	0.60
incl.	37	39	2	1.10
	60	71	11	0.51
AGZ RC003	7	9	2	0.57
	16	47	31	0.66
incl.	16	28	12	0.81
incl.	21	23	2	1.51
incl.	42	47	5	1.14
	71	79	8	0.26
AGZ RC004	4	22	18	0.80
Incl.	4	12	8	1.46
incl.	4	6	2	4.44
	30	47	17	0.64
incl.	30	34	4	1.84
	53	57	4	0.29
AGZ RC005	4	7	3	0.87
	29	35	6	2.11
	38	72	34	0.64
	45	50	5	1.31
	66	70	4	1.38
	78	79	1	1.05
	83	87	4	0.40
AGZ RC008	12	13	1	2.62
	23	26	3	0.57
	32	44	12	0.80
incl.	32	34	2	1.41
	63	66	3	0.40
AGZ RC012	16	19	3	0.30
	30	34	4	0.42
	40	62	22	0.58
incl.	40	48	8	0.70
incl.	46	48	2	1.13
Incl.	60	62	2	1.94
	68	72	4	0.30
	78	80	2	0.60

ABOUT ASHANTI GOLD

Ashanti is a gold-focused, exploration and development company with projects in the northern Ashanti Belt of Ghana and the Kinieba Belt of Mali. The Company targets projects where it has a competitive advantage due to past work experience of the team and specific project know-how.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of
Ashanti Gold Corp.

"Tim McCutcheon"

Tim McCutcheon
CEO

For further information, please contact:
Ashanti Gold Corp.
2300 — 1177 West Hastings Street
Vancouver BC, V6E 2K3
Phone: 604-638-3847

Qualified Person

The information presented in this Press Release has been reviewed by Dr. Paul Klipfel CPG (AIPG certification #10821) of Mineral Resource Services Inc. and a Qualified Person as defined by Canadian NI 43-101. Dr. Klipfel is not an Independent Person, as he is a shareholder of AGZ.

Historical Data

The historical estimates of resources at Anumso were developed by Goldpat PLC; and are considered relevant by the Company. AGZ is advised that such estimates are compliant with JORC rules of disclosure, however the Company has not independently verified such data, the Company's qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources, the Company is not treating the historical estimates as current mineral resources, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance thereon.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information

NEITHER THE 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.

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the anticipated content, commencement, timing and cost of exploration programs, anticipated exploration program results, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, the state of the financial markets for the Company's equity securities, the state of the commodity markets generally, variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located, variations in the market price of any mineral products the Company may produce or plan to produce, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required, including TSXV acceptance, for its planned activities, the inability of the Company to produce minerals from its properties successfully or profitably, to continue its projected growth, to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Company's latest interim Management Discussion and Analysis and filed with certain securities commissions in Canada. All of the Company's Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the technical reports filed with respect to the Company's mineral properties.