Ms. Tara Christie reports

BANYAN DRILLS 1.09 G/T GOLD OVER 40 METRES AND LINKS POWERLINE AND AUREX HILL ZONES, AURMAC PROPERTY, YUKON

Banyan Gold Corp. has released diamond drill assay results from the next eight diamond drill holes received from the 2020 exploration program at Powerline and Aurex Hill, AurMac property, Yukon.

Highlights from these new analytical drill results include:

• 0.69 gram per tonne gold over 38.3 metres from 65.1 metres in AX-20-46;
• 1.09 g/t Au over 40.0 metres from 52.5 metres in AX-20-47;
• 0.91 g/t Au over 20.5 metres from 7.0 metres in AX-20-54.

"These results, along with our previous and historical results, demonstrate that the AurMac mineralized system extends over 2.5 km including Powerline and Aurex Hill," stated Tara Christie, president and chief executive officer. "Our team is now positioned to target interpreted higher-grade areas within this rapidly developing portion of the property -- yet another target to allow Banyan to build additional near-surface resources and confirm our belief in the multimillion-ounce potential of the AurMac property."

Powerline zone

The Powerline deposit lies approximately one kilometre south of the Airstrip deposit of the AurMac property and shares all the infrastructure of Airstrip. Importantly, Powerline is open to expansion in all directions and represents another near-surface bulk-tonnage minable target at AurMac. At a 0.20 g/t Au cut-off, the pit-constrained, inferred mineral resources are 6.6 million tonnes at an average gold grade of 0.61 g/t for a total of 129,019 ounces of gold.

Phase 1 2020 drilling at Powerline includes drill holes AX-20-41 through to AX-20-51, with highlighted results from holes AX-20-46 through to AX-20-51 in the associated table. These holes were drilled along the access trail constructed into the Aurex Hill zone. Results for this phase of drilling demonstrated that gold mineralization at the Powerline is part of a much larger gold system than captured in the 2020 Powerline deposit resource model. As the 2020 drilling progressed south and east from the Powerline deposit there was a transition from stratigraphically controlled gold mineralization to structurally controlled gold mineralization with discordant sheeted quartz-arsenopyrite veins interpreted to host the bulk of the gold mineralization intercepted in these holes.

Aurex Hill

Drilling at Aurex Hill includes drill holes AX-20-52 through to AX-20-57 and was designed to test a previously undrilled, strong gold-in-soil anomaly of approximately 1,000 m by 400 m, located just north of the historic Aurex Hill drilling. This first-ever drilling of this area identified an on/near-surface zone of pervasive oxidation to depths of about 40 m coincident with extensive discordant sheeted quartz-arsenopyrite veins. As these veins and oxidized zone correspond with the coincident Au-in-soil anomaly, it has opened up a large target area for exploration under the 10 square kilometres of anomalous Au in soils to be prospective for on-surface, bulk-tonnage gold mineralization.

        2020 HIGHLIGHTED DIAMOND DRILL ANALYTICAL RESULTS

Hole ID            From           To          Interval*           Au
                    (m)          (m)                (m)        (g/t)

AX-20-46           65.1        103.4               38.3         0.69
including          65.1         68.0                2.9         1.57
including          79.5         81.1                1.6         1.32
including          92.7         94.1                1.4         2.02
including          95.6         96.9                1.3         3.95
including          98.9        100.4                1.5         1.68
AX-20-47           14.0         15.5                1.5         1.03
and                52.5         92.5               40.0         1.09
including          73.0         74.5                1.5         1.88
including          89.5         89.9                0.4         92.3
and               115.0        131.5               16.5         0.38
including         124.0        125.5                1.5         1.75
and               186.5        192.0                5.5         0.62
including         191.0        192.0                1.0         2.27
AX-20-49           13.7         19.8                6.1         0.26
and                32.0         48.5               16.5         0.35
and                76.2        142.1               65.9         0.23
including         124.1        125.3                1.2         2.50
AX-20-50           93.9        116.5               22.6         0.39
including          95.5         96.0                0.5         1.77
AX-20-51           20.5         22.0                1.5         0.63
and                61.3         67.5                6.2         0.55
and                76.0         97.0               21.0         0.42
including          76.0         76.2                0.2         4.96
including          85.0         86.5                1.5         2.65
including          91.0         92.0                1.0         1.15
and               118.0        131.0               13.0         0.29
AX-20-52           24.0         33.5                9.5         0.38
and                65.5         67.0                1.5         1.21
and                80.8        116.5               35.7         0.20
including          99.5        100.5                1.0         1.23
and               123.4        137.0               13.6         0.35
including         123.4        123.6                0.2         4.82
including         135.5        137.0                1.5         1.01
and               154.5        175.0               20.5         0.29
AX-20-53           17.5         34.0               16.5         0.27
and               105.0        106.0                1.0         1.65
and               115.0        115.2                0.2         2.18
AX-20-54            7.0         27.5               20.5         0.91
including          14.0         21.3                7.3         1.35
including          24.0         25.0                1.0         1.65
including          25.9         27.5                1.6         1.37
and                56.1         58.6                2.5         0.43
and                83.4        116.5               33.1         0.32
including          83.4         83.8                0.4         5.94
including         116.2        116.5                0.3         4.75

* True widths are estimated to be greater than 90 per cent of the 
reported intervals.
Drill hole AX-20-48 was abandoned due to technical drilling issues.

Summary of high-grade intervals include:

• 3.95 g/t Au over 1.3 metres in AX-20-46;
• 92.3 g/t Au over 0.4 metre in AX-20-47;
• 4.96 g/t Au over 0.2 metre in AX-20-51;
• 5.94 g/t Au over 0.4 metre in AX-20-54;
• 4.75 g/t Au over 0.3 metre in AX-20-54.

Analytical method

All drill core splits collected from the 2020 AurMac program were analyzed at Bureau Veritas Minerals of Vancouver, B.C., utilizing the aqua regia digestion ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) 36-element AQ200 analytical package with FA450 50-gram fire assay with AAS (atomic absorption spectroscopy) finish for gold on all samples. All core samples were split on site at Banyan's core processing facilities. Once split, half samples were placed back in the core boxes with the other half of split samples sealed in poly bags with one part of a three-part sample tag inserted within. Samples were delivered by Banyan personnel or a dedicated expediter to the Bureau Veritas, Whitehorse, preparatory laboratory where samples are prepared and then shipped to Bureau Veritas's analytical laboratory in Vancouver, B.C., for pulverization and final chemical analysis. A robust system of standards, one-quarter core duplicates and blanks was implemented in the 2020 exploration drilling program and was monitored as chemical assay data became available.

Upcoming catalysts:

• Jan. 13, 2021 -- Vancouver Resource Investment Conference;
• Jan. 21, 2021 -- AME Roundup 2021 -- virtual presentation;
• Q1 2020 -- drill results from 2020 program;
• Q1 2020 -- resume drilling at AurMac property.

Qualified person

Paul D. Gray, PGeo, vice-president of exploration for the company, is a qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release.

COVID-19 update

Banyan has taken pro-active measures to protect the health and safety of its employees and communities from COVID-19 and exploration activities in 2021 will have additional safety measures in place, following and exceeding all the recommendations made by the Yukon's chief medical officer.

About Banyan Gold Corp.

Banyan's primary asset, AurMac, is adjacent to Victoria Gold Corp.'s new Eagle gold mine in Canada's Yukon, which announced commercial production on July 1, 2020. The AurMac initial resource of 903,945 ounces Au was announced in May, 2020. Banyan's major strategic shareholders include Osisko Gold Royalties, Sprott Funds, Alexco Resource Corp. and Victoria Gold. Banyan is focused on gold exploration projects that have the geological potential, size of land package and proximity to infrastructure that are advantageous for a mineral project to have potential to become a mine. Its Yukon-based projects both fit this model and its objective is to gain shareholder value by advancing projects in its pipeline.

We seek Safe Harbor.