Mr. Darin Wagner reports

BALMORAL INTERSECTS NEW, SHALLOW HIGH GRADE GOLD DISCOVERY; 5.80 METRES GRADING 10.51 G/T GOLD, MARTINIERE EAST, QUEBEC

Balmoral Resources Ltd. has discovered two new shallow zones of gold mineralization, down-plunge extensions to the Bug North and Lower Steep gold deposits, and the deepest high-grade gold results to date from its wholly owned Martiniere property, part of company's Detour Trend project in west-central Quebec.

"Today's results are like that gift that arrives in the mail after Christmas from your favourite relative -- worth waiting for and a great way to usher in the new year," said Darin Wagner, president and chief executive officer of Balmoral. "We got a very good bang for our drill dollars from these holes with two new shallow gold discoveries, extensions to the Bug North and Lower Steep gold deposits, continued confirmation of the ME-23 zone and our deepest high-grade gold intercepts to date."

Drill hole BLD-16-03, designed to extend the Lower Steep gold deposit to depth, intersected two new, near-surface gold zones. These two discoveries, which include an intercept of 5.80 metres grading 10.51 g/t gold within a broader 18.06-metre-wide gold zone (see associated table), are located at vertical depths of only 45 and 110 metres. The new discoveries occur in a largely untested area of the property, approximately 450 to 500 metres east of the Bug Lake gold trend. Winter drilling, anticipated to begin within the next three to four weeks, will follow up on these shallow gold discoveries and continue the delineation of the Bug Lake gold deposits.

BLD-16-03 also successfully extended the Lower Steep deposit returning multiple high-grade gold intercepts. These include high-grade footwall zone intercepts extending to the end of the hole at a vertical depth of 740 metres. This represents a 200-metre, or 37-per-cent vertical extension, to the known high-grade gold mineralization along the Bug Lake gold trend. These deep intercepts are part of an open-ended, 52-metre-wide zone of anomalous gold mineralization in which the hole terminated having reached the maximum capacity of the drill rig. All deposits along the Bug Lake gold trend, and the overall system, remain open to depth for continued expansion.

"Our widely spaced deep drilling to date has confirmed that the Bug Lake gold system, like most sizable gold systems in the Abitibi region, exhibits extensive vertical and down-plunge continuity. High-grade gold mineralization has now been intersected from the bedrock surface to a vertical depth of 740 metres," said Mr. Wagner. "It's a great problem to have when the gold in the hole continues beyond the depth capacity of your drill rig. The upcoming winter drill program provides the opportunity to continue to extend the deposits to depth with larger equipment."

Hole MDE-16-236 extended the Bug North gold deposit 90 metres down plunge, to approximately 460 metres, with an Upper Bug zone intercept of 11.71 metres grading 6.06 g/t gold, including 2.32 metres grading 27.74 g/t high-grade gold mineralization was also intersected in the hangingwall and Lower Bug zones. It also returned a number of shallow gold-bearing intercepts which may correlate with similar intercepts in the ME-23 gold zone 170 metres to the north, including an intercept of 6.91 metres grading 4.22 g/t gold at a vertical depth of less than 35 metres.

Hole                 From         To  Interval*       Gold
No.              (metres)   (metres)   (metres)      (g/t)

Lower Steep
deposit
BLD-16-02           66.90      67.25       0.35       7.70
                   287.59     288.00       0.41       5.47
                   675.78     676.50       0.72       9.29
BLD-16-03           29.15      41.62      12.47       0.55
including           38.00      38.76       0.76       3.89
                   138.79     156.85      18.06       3.84
including          140.20     146.00       5.80      10.51
which
includes           144.71     146.00       1.29      39.87
                   516.20     534.51      18.31       0.22
                   583.76     610.59      26.83       0.37
                   671.07     714.28      43.21       1.02
including          674.11     674.49       0.38       9.39
and                680.75     682.57       1.82       4.17
and                690.87     692.17       1.30       7.78
and                712.03     712.84       0.81       3.28
                   732.60     747.00      14.40       0.62
                   845.00     897.08      52.08       0.52
including          862.44     862.83       0.39      34.60
and                895.21     895.65       0.44       8.73
Bug North
deposit
MDE-16-236          26.52      32.02       5.50       3.42
including           27.23      30.25       3.02       5.58
                    39.03      45.94       6.91       4.22
including           44.31      45.94       1.63      11.58
                    55.66      61.43       5.77       1.77
                   300.07     311.17      11.10       0.77
including          307.98     308.58       0.60       9.13
                   322.33     334.04      11.71       6.06
including          329.30     331.62       2.32      27.74
                   341.18     362.16      20.98       1.50
including          354.99     362.16       7.17       3.20
which includes     360.20     362.16       1.96       7.75

* Reported drill intercepts are not true widths. At this 
time there are insufficient data with respect to the 
shape of the mineralization to calculate true 
orientations in space although the reported intercepts 
are estimated to range between approximately 55 and 80
per cent of true thickness. All values presented uncapped.
  

Drill hole BLD-16-02 was drilled beneath the projected plunge line of the Lower Steep deposit. It intersected several high-grade gold veins in a mixed sequence of sedimentary, intrusive and volcanic rocks. This rock sequence, located northeast of the main Bug Lake trend and immediately south of the Lac du Doigt fault system, has seen very little previous testing, but as indicated by the results from BLD-16-02, also has the potential to host high-grade gold mineralization.

Quality control

Mr. Wagner, PGeo, president and chief executive officer of the company, is the non-independent qualified person for the technical disclosure contained in this news release. Mr. Wagner has supervised the work programs on the Martiniere property since inception, visited the property on multiple occasions, examined the drill core from the holes summarized in this release, discussed, reviewed the results with senior on-site geological staff, and reviewed the available analytical and quality control results.

Balmoral has implemented a quality control program for all of its drill programs, to ensure best practice in the sampling and analysis of the drill core, which includes the insertion of blind blanks, duplicates and certified standards into sample stream. NQ-sized drill core is saw cut with half of the drill core sampled at intervals based on geological criteria including lithology, visual mineralization and alteration. The remaining half of the core is stored on-site at the company's Martiniere field camp in central Quebec. Drill core samples are transported in sealed bags to ALS Minerals' Val d'Or, Que., analytical facilities. Gold analyses are obtained via industry-standard fire assay with atomic absorption finish using 30-gram aliquots. For samples returning greater than five g/t gold follow-up fire assay analysis with a gravimetric finish is completed. The company has also requested that any samples returning greater than 10.00 g/t gold undergo screen metallic fire assay. Following receipt of assays, visual analysis of mineralized intercepts is conducted and additional analysis may be requested. ALS Minerals is ISO 9001:2008 certified and the Val d'Or facilities are ISO 17025 certified for gold analysis.

About Balmoral Resources

Balmoral is a well-financed, Canadian-based company actively delineating a series of high-grade gold deposits located along the Bug Lake gold trend on its wholly owned, 700-square-kilometre Detour Trend project in Quebec, Canada. The project also hosts Balmoral's Grasset Ni-Cu-Co-PGE (nickel-copper-cobalt-platinum-group-element) deposit and numerous other gold and base metal discoveries. Employing a drill-focused exploration style in one of the world's pre-eminent geological and mining jurisdictions, Balmoral is following an established formula with a goal of maximizing shareholder value through the discovery and development of high-grade, Canadian gold and base metal assets.

We seek Safe Harbor.