Mr. Pete Dougherty reports

ARGONAUT GOLD INTERSECTS 10.0 METRES AT 19.0 G/T GOLD AT MAGINO, INCLUDING 6.3 METRES AT 30.2 G/T GOLD IN SOUTH ZONE

Argonaut Gold Inc. has intersected 10.0 metres at 19.0 grams per tonne gold, including 6.3 m at 30.2 g/t Au and 3.1 m at 47.1 g/t Au, including 1.3 m at 112.0 g/t Au in the South zone, at its 100-per-cent-owned Magino property in Ontario, Canada. The South zone has now been intersected in numerous drill holes extending from the border between the Island gold mine and the Magino project westward over a strike length of 1.5 kilometres and remains open at depth and to the west.

The South zone follows the contact of the Webb Lake stock (granodiorite rocks) and volcanic rocks. Drill hole MA20-057 was designed to test the South zone at depth and below the western end of the planned Magino open pit in an area not previously drill tested. The hole intersected two zones of very high-grade gold mineralization of 3.1 m at 47.1 g/t Au and 10.0 m at 19.0 g/t Au. The best intercept, 6.3 m at 30.2 g/t Au (included within 10.0 m at 19.0 g/t Au), follows a series of aplite dikes (structures) along the contact of the granodiorite/volcanic rocks and shows the potential to connect to a previously drilled high-grade intercept in hole MA12-424, which intersected 7.6 m at 29.4 g/t Au approximately 275 m above hole MA20-057.

Pete Dougherty, president and chief executive officer, stated: "Our geology team at Magino has done remarkable work over the last two years in identifying the structural controls on the high-grade mineralization at Magino and has demonstrated this through an extremely high success rate of encountering high-grade gold at depth nearly everywhere we have targeted. With intercepts now known over a strike length of 1.5 kilometres and the fact that this remains wide open to the west and at depth, the South zone is another exciting zone that warrants much more follow-up drilling."

                                 SELECT DRILL RESULTS
  
Hole             From          To        Length           Grade*  Estimated true width
             (metres)    (metres)      (metres)         (Au g/t)              (metres)

MA20-054        732.0       735.0           3.0              8.3                   2.1
including       733.0       735.0           2.0             12.3                   1.4
MA20-055        705.0       707.0           2.0              4.4                   1.3
including       705.0       706.0           1.0              8.2                   0.7
MA20-056        782.0       787.0           5.0              4.1                   3.5
including       785.9       787.0           1.1             16.6                   0.8
MA20-057        178.8       186.0           7.2              3.2                   5.4
including       178.8       182.0           3.2              6.5                   2.4
and             633.9       637.0           3.1             47.1                   2.0
including       633.9       635.0           1.3            112.0                   0.8
and             713.0       723.0          10.0             19.0                   6.5
including       715.0       721.3           6.3             30.2                   4.1
and             730.0       733.3           3.3              5.0                   2.1
and             860.0       866.0           6.0              4.5                   2.9
including       860.0       861.0           1.0             17.8                  11.6
MA20-058        403.0       405.0           2.0              8.2                   1.6
including       404.0       405.0           1.0             14.8                   0.8

* Grade is uncut.
 

Brian Arkell, vice-president of exploration, commented: "We continue to encounter high-grade gold mineralization in several structural zones identified to date. We are now recognizing the potential for the mineralized system to not only extend at depth, but also to the west of the main Magino orebody. Evidence of this is drill hole MA20-058 that was a completely blind westward stepout some 200 metres from the main Magino deposit. Also, in our high-grade intercepts at depth, as we encountered in drill hole MA20-057, we continue to see a lot of visible gold, which is frequent in this style of mineralized system."

Visible gold in drill core from MA20-057 at Magino's South zone

Qualified person comments/quality control procedures

The preparation of this press release was supervised and approved by Brian Arkell, Argonaut Gold's vice-president, exploration, and a qualified person under NI 43-101. Mr. Arkell also reviewed the diamond drilling, sampling and on-site sample preparation procedures at Magino.

For sample analysis, the company utilizes a system of quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) that includes insertion and verification of standards, blanks, and duplicates consistent with industry standards.

The company has implemented a QA/QC program to ensure sampling and analysis of all exploration work is conducted in accordance with the CIM (Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum) Exploration Best Practices Guidelines. The entire drill hole is sampled and tagged by geologic personnel. Cores are then photographed and sawn in half by experienced geotechnicians, placed in numbered plastic bags and gathered in rice bags, which are sealed with tamper-proof security tags under the supervision of the project geologists. The other half of the core is retained for future assay verification and/or metallurgical testing. Other QA/QC procedures include the insertion of coarse blanks and Canadian reference standards for every 10th sample in the sample stream. Samples are bagged, sealed with numbered security tags and shipped to the Activation Laboratories facility, Thunder Bay, Ont., for sample preparation and assaying. The laboratory has its own QA/QC protocols, running standards, blanks and duplicate samples in each batch stream. Gold analysis is conducted by lead collection, fire assay with a gravimetric finish on a 50-gram sample. Metallic screen fire assaying is now completed using a 1.0-kilogram sample and two 50-gram fire assays of the pass (minus-100 mesh) pulverized material on all samples containing visible gold. Check assays are conducted at a secondary International Organization for Standardization-certified laboratory.

About Argonaut Gold Inc.

Argonaut Gold is a Canadian gold company engaged in exploration, mine development and production. Its primary assets are the El Castillo mine and San Agustin mine, which together form the El Castillo complex in Durango, Mexico, the La Colorada mine in Sonora, Mexico, and the Florida Canyon mine in Nevada, United States. Advanced exploration projects include the Magino project in Ontario, Canada, the Cerro del Gallo project in Guanajuato, Mexico, and the Ana Paula project in Guerrero, Mexico. The company holds several other exploration-stage projects, all of which are located in North America.

We seek Safe Harbor.