Ms. Tara Christie reports

BANYAN GOLD ANNOUNCES WORK PROGRAM UPDATES AT HYLAND AND AUREX-MCQUESTEN

Banyan Gold Corp. has provided an exploration program update on both of the Hyland gold and Aurex-McQuesten projects. Both these projects are undergoing active exploration this 2017 season with activities recently concluded at Aurex-McQuesten and the recent initiation of the program at the Hyland gold project.

Hyland gold project

The company has commenced its planned $1-million, approximately 4,000-metre diamond drilling program on the main and camp zones in the Hyland North portion of the property. Diamond drilling will primarily focus on the Hyland main zone with a view toward potential expansion of the existing inferred resource estimate of 396,468 ounces at 0.99 gram per tonne gold equivalent prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101. Moreover, drilling will also test mineralization targets in the camp zone including following up on the 2016 discovery in trench CZ-16-01 which returned 96 metres grading 0.64 gram per tonne gold from zero metres to 96 metres, including 56 metres grading 1.03 grams per tonne gold from zero metres to 56 metres of a broad fault zone consisting of predominantly gouge and brecciated clastic units of the Hyland formation (see company news release dated Nov. 3, 2016). Additionally, targeted surface trenches and soils geochemical surveys are planned for these areas with a concentration on the camp zone.

In the Hyland South area, exploration will continue to build out the district-scale mineralization potential of the Hyland gold property through reconnaissance to grid-level geochemical surveys designed to target areas deemed high-priority targets based on a recently completed full property structural analysis from 2016 acquired LiDAR (light detection and ranging), existing soils and stream geochemical surveys and detailed airborne geophysical interpretations. Many of these areas of interest have never been soil sampled and represent new mineralization targets on the growing Quartz Lake structural corridor.

The program is well supported by an existing 35-person camp, prepositioned drill, heavy equipment, fuel and a network of existing roads.

"At the end of the currently planned program, Banyan will still have over $1.2-million in the treasury and be in good position to follow up on a phase 2 program on Aurex-McQuesten or the Hyland gold project," said Tara Christie, president and chief executive officer.

Aurex-McQuesten gold project

The company has recently completed the phase 1 exploration program at the Aurex-McQuesten project. This inaugural exploration program on Banyan's newest project consisted of property-wide geochemical surveys, 122 metres of new trenching and reopening of 1,243 metres of historic trenches, along with a 1,420-metre diamond drill program from 10 holes.

The diamond drill program focused on the McQuesten showing area, a 1,000 m by 400 m wide zone of known gold and silver mineralization, where previous exploration results include drill intercepts of up to 120 m grading 1.36 g/t Au with intervals of up to 1.5 m grading 8.89 g/t Au (see company news release dated May 25, 2017).

The exploration target at the Aurex-McQuesten is near-surface gold mineralization in metasedimentary host rocks related to interpreted buried intrusive stocks. Structural traps are known to control intrusion-related gold-silver mineralization in this area and defined gold mineralization on the property occurs in sheeted quartz veins, silicified skarn horizons and quartz-monzonite dikes similar to mineralization at Victoria Gold's nearby Eagle gold project, as well as silver mineralization related to faults similar to those found at Alexco Resource Corp., Keno Hill district.

The combined Aurex-McQuesten properties consist of approximately 9,230 hectares and boasts exceptional infrastructure including highway road access, grid power lines and historic exploration access roads with nearby services out of Mayo, Yukon, 25 km to the south. Additionally, both Victoria Gold Corp. and Alexco Resource Corp. are strategic partners on this project, providing camp, geological and financial support.

Banyan will host a public webcast presentation at 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017, which may be accessed on-line. The presentation will be at the Greek Church small hall, 20 Hillcrest Rd., Holmdel, N.J., 07733. Please contact John Tumazos for an invitation should you wish to attend in person.

Technical information

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Paul D. Gray, PGeo, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Banyan Gold Corp.

Banyan is a well-financed growth-stage gold exploration company whose flagship property, the Hyland gold project, is approximately 70 kilometres northeast of Watson Lake, Yukon, along the southeast end of the Tintina gold belt. The main zone gold inferred resource, at a 0.6-gram-per-tonne-gold-equivalent cut-off, hosts a National Instrument 43-101 resource of 12,503,994 tonnes containing 361,692 ounces gold at 0.9 g/t and 2,248,948 ounces silver at 5.59 g/t for a combined gold and silver 396,468 ounces gold equivalent.

The newly acquired 9,230-hectare Aurex-McQuesten property, in close proximity to Victoria Gold's Eagle project and Alexco Resource's Keno Hill silver district, is highly prospective for structurally controlled, intrusion-related gold-silver mineralization in relation to quartz monzonite dikes of the Tombstone intrusive suite.

Mr. Gray of Banyan Gold is a qualified person within the meaning of such term as set forth in National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators, and has verified and supervised the preparation of all of the scientific and technical information contained in this news release.

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