Nighthawk Expands Drilling at Colomac Intercepts 36.10 Metres of 1.86 gpt Gold (Uncut), Including 6.75 Metres of 5.46 gpt Gold

TORONTO, March 23, 2020 - Nighthawk Gold Corp. ("Nighthawk" or the "Company") (TSX: NHK; OTCQX: MIMZD) is pleased to report assay results for the ten remaining holes (3,333 metres) of its 110 drillhole (40,834 metre) 2019 drill program (Table 1). Drilling was expanded into the central region of the Colomac Main sill ("Colomac Main"), including less explored portions of Zones 2.5, and 2.0, part of Nighthawk's Colomac Gold Project ("Colomac"), located within its Indin Lake Gold Property, Northwest Territories, Canada. All holes reported intersections of broad and continuous mineralization progressing to new depths within a largely untested area of Colomac Main.

Dr. Michael Byron, President and Chief Executive Officer said, "We have now reported on all of our 2019 program drillholes - our most productive campaign to-date. Drilling on the Colomac Main has continued to demonstrate a consistency in breadth and continuity of mineralization throughout all areas of the deposit. While the central 1-kilometre section of Colomac Main remains largely unexplored, with few holes below 250 metres vertical depth, our current holes have tested the sill well below previous intersections, successfully extending mineralization to new depths.

"Our 2019 drilling at Colomac has changed how we view the deposit. The recent discovery of the sill's dramatic widening of its mineralized portion to depth of up to 3 times its near surface true width represents an incredible opportunity that may result in the exponential growth of tonnage and contained ounces."

Colomac Drilling Highlights:

Zone 2.5

• Holes C19-47 and C19-47B bracketed a new discovery of higher-grade near-surface mineralization intersected by previous holes C18-27 and C18-27B (see press release dated November 19, 2018) about 325 metres south of the former producing open pit ("Pit 2.0", Figure 1).
• • Hole C19-47, which plotted above C18-27 and below historical shallow drilling, intersected 36.10 metres (26.00 metre true width) of 1.86 grams per tonne gold ("gpt", "Au"), including 6.75 metres of 5.46 gpt Au, and including 2.25 metres of 12.87 gpt Au (Figures 1, 2). Drilling on this section has traced relatively uniform and expansive mineralization from near surface to 260 metres depth where it remains open and unconstrained.
    
    
• Hole C19-45 was collared 50 metres south of hole C19-47 (Figure 1) to drill below previous holes C18-25 and C18-25B (see press release dated November 19, 2018), the first holes drilled in the area to explore beneath historical shallow intersections, confirming that strong mineralization exists and traced it to new depths.
• • C19-45 extended mineralization an additional 70 metres in depth to upwards of 250 metres below surface, intersecting 28.50 metres (13.00 metres true width) of 1.26 gpt Au, and including 13.00 metres of 1.66 gpt Au, and including 3.50 metres of 2.57 gpt Au (Figure 3).
    
    
• Holes C19-43 and C19-43B were drilled 130 metres north of C19-47 to infill a 150-metre gap in drilling between previous drilled series holes C19-06 and C19-09 (see press release dated May 28, 2019). Limited historical drilling had tracked shallow mineralization to 150 metres vertical depth.
• • Hole C19-43 undercut the area intersecting 19.75 metres (14.00 metres true width) of 1.25 gpt Au, including 8.00 metres of 1.78 gpt Au, and including 4.25 metres of 2.68 gpt Au (Figure 4).
  • The steeper hole C19-43B ran 120 metres below C19-43 and although it intersected 70 metres of downhole mineralization it returned moderate lower-grade intervals. Drilling on this section remains open below 350 metres depth.
    
    
• Holes C19-28, C19-28B, and C19-28C were drilled from a common setup within the southern part of the zone, 350 metres south of C19-47 to infill a 100-metre gap in drilling between previous series holes C19-25 (see press releases dated July 31, 2019) and series C18-23 (see press releases dated November 19, 2018).
• • The steeper hole C19-28C intersected 40.15 metres (15.00 metre true width) of 1.22 gpt Au, including 15.50 metres of 1.83 gpt Au, and including 6.00 metres of 2.64 gpt Au (Figure 5). Drilling on this section has extended near surface mineralization to 275 metres vertical depth where it remains open.
    
    
• Infill drilling of extensive near-surface gaps in coverage has confirmed historical intersections and established continuity of mineralization to depth, paving the way for additional discoveries within areas of the sill that remain largely unexplored.
  
  
• The abundance of historical higher-grade shallow intercepts is strong guidance that with continued drilling of these targets to depth, the opportunity exists for the discovery and delineation of additional gold zones.
  
  
• Drilling confirms the same style of robust mineralization characteristic of the host quartz diorite portion of the Colomac Main Sill is present within this lesser explored central region of the sill. Other areas of the sill drilled to greater depth show a pronounced widening of the sill's mineralized portion to depth. It's believed that the same general "wedge shaped" form is present within the central sill, and represents a new exploration opportunity.

Table 1. Colomac Drill Results – Summary Table (uncut)
The FULL ASSAY TABLE is available as a media document within this release as well as on the Company's website at https://www.nighthawkgold.com/news

The central region of the 9-kilometre-long Colomac Main remains largely unexplored below 250 metres from surface, however the documented abundance of higher-grade shallow intercepts indicates the potential for additional broad well-mineralized gold zones developing to depth.

Technical Information
Nighthawk has implemented a quality-control program to comply with best practices in the sampling and analysis of drill core. Drill core samples were transported in security-sealed bags for analyses at ALS Global Assay Laboratory in Vancouver, BC ("ALS Global"). ALS Global is an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory. Pulp and metallics assaying for gold was conducted on the entire pulverized sample.

As part of its QA/QC program, Nighthawk inserts external gold standards (low to high-grade) and blanks every 20 samples in addition to the standards, blanks, and pulp duplicates inserted by ALS Global.

About Nighthawk
Nighthawk is a Canadian-based gold exploration company with 100% ownership of a district-scale land position within the Indin Lake Greenstone Belt, located approximately 200 km north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Nighthawk is focused on advancing the Colomac Gold Project with a current inferred resource of 2.6 million ounces of gold (50.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.62 grams per tonne gold), as well as advancing its other regional gold deposits and showings within this largely underexplored Archean gold camp.

The Company has an experienced and dedicated team and is well funded to complete its goals and objectives over the next 12 months.

Qualified Person
Dr. Michael J. Byron, Ph.D., P.Geo., President & Chief Executive Officer of Nighthawk, who is the "Qualified Person" as defined by NI 43-101 for this project, has reviewed and approved of the technical disclosure contained in this news release. Please refer to NI 43-101 technical report "Technical Report and mineral resource estimate update on the Colomac Property of the Indin Lake Project", dated July 26, 2018, as filed under the company's profile on www.sedar.com.

Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange has neither reviewed nor accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Forward-Looking Information
This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, information with respect to the Company's continued exploration programs (including size and budget) and the ability to advance targets and the timing and results thereof; and the ability to expand the current resource at Colomac with additional drilling. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "does not anticipate", or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", or "will be taken", "occur", or "be achieved".

Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the information is made, and is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Nighthawk to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including risks associated with the exploration, development and mining such as economic factors as they effect exploration, future commodity prices, changes in foreign exchange and interest rates, actual results of current exploration activities, government regulation, political or economic developments, environmental risks, permitting timelines, capital expenditures, operating or technical difficulties in connection with development activities, employee relations, the speculative nature of gold exploration and development, including the risks of diminishing quantities of grades of reserves, contests over title to properties, and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined as well as those risk factors discussed in Nighthawk's annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2018, available on www.sedar.com. Although Nighthawk has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Nighthawk does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

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SOURCE Nighthawk Gold Corp.