Mr. Matthew Lennox-King reports

CONTACT GOLD BEGINS 2023 DRILL PROGRAM AT GREEN SPRINGS GOLD PROJECT

The 2023 drill program has commenced at Contact Gold Corp.'s Green Springs gold project located on the prolific Cortez trend in northeastern Nevada.

The 2023 drill program will be the first program carried out as part of the $10-million (U.S.) earn-in agreement with Centerra Gold Inc., and comes on the heels of drill programs by Contact Gold that have consistently delivered intervals of high-grade oxidized gold mineralization and multiple gold discoveries.

"We are excited to be back drilling at Green Springs after very successful discovery and stepout programs in 2021 and 2022, with this year being the first with Centerra as our funding partner," said Matt Lennox-King, president and chief executive officer of Contact Gold. "Since we first acquired the project in 2019, we have consistently delivered high-grade, well-oxidized, near-surface drill intercepts in all target areas, along with bona fide discoveries at X-Ray and Tango. We fully expect to have an equally impactful program this year as we work through our priority drill targets."

2023 drill program

• Approved budget for the 2023 program is $1.85-million (U.S.) ($2.52-million (Canadian)):
  • Contact Gold is the project operator.
• Four thousand five hundred metres of reverse circulation drilling (RC), for an expected 45 drill holes, indicating the near-surface nature of gold mineralization at Green Springs.
• Drilling will focus on stepping out from existing zones of high-grade oxidized gold mineralization and testing new undrilled targets for new discoveries.
• First drill holes will be at the X-Ray zone, followed by the Echo zone at the southern end of the three-kilometre-long Green Springs mine trend. Both X-Ray and Echo host shallow, high-grade gold mineralization.
• Drilling is also planned at the Tango and Alpha zones which are located northeast and on trend with X-Ray, forming a 1.5 km trend of oxidized gold mineralization in drilling.

Key targets and intercepts

X-Ray zone

Gold mineralization at X-Ray is hosted within the Pilot shale, a key regional host unit across northeastern Nevada, including at the neighbouring Pan mine. The X-Ray zone is wide open for expansion, particularly to the south and west of the original discovery location where drill pads are currently being constructed. Alpha and Tango sit to the northeast of X-Ray, indicating the potential to define a significant corridor of gold mineralization. The discovery was drilled by Contact Gold in 2021, with following up drilling in 2022 returning exceptional results.

Highlights of previous drilling at X-Ray

• 1.66 grams per tonne Au over 28.96 metres, from a depth of 9.14 metres, in drill hole GS22-01:
  • Including 2.66 g/t Au over 15.24 metres.
• 1.95 g/t Au over 41.15 metres, from a depth of 15.24 metres, in drill hole GS22-04:
  • Including 3.71 g/t Au over 15.24 metres.

Echo zone

Gold mineralization at Echo is hosted within the Chainman shale, at the contact with the underlying Joanna limestone, and is also a well-known host rock across the northeast of Nevada. Contact Gold drilled numerous holes at Echo in 2019, 2020 and 2021, consistently hitting well-oxidized gold mineralization. Individual drill intervals at Echo run up to 20 g/t Au in well-oxidized rock. Echo is open for expansion to the south toward the Zulu target, with the Chainman shale dipping shallowly in that direction.

Highlights of previous drilling at Echo

• 2.24 g/t oxide Au over 35.05 m from a depth of 35 metres in hole GS20-14:
  • Including 3.14 g/t Au over 22.86 m.
• 2.36 g/t oxide Au over 70.10 m from a depth of 80.77 metres in hole GS19-07:
  • Including 4.09 g/t Au over 38.10 metres;
  • And including 8.05 g/t Au over 12.19 metres.

Qualified person and technical disclosure

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Vance Spalding, CPG, vice-president of exploration, Contact Gold, who is a qualified person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101.

Green Springs is strategically located seven km immediately east of the Gold Rock project operated by Calibre Mining Corp. and 20 km southeast of its Pan mine.

In December, 2022, the company entered into an earn-in agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary of Centerra providing Centerra the option to acquire a 70-per-cent interest in Green Springs for cumulative earn-in exploration expenditures of $10-million (U.S.) and aggregate cash payments to the company of $1-million (U.S.). For further details on the earn-in with Centerra and planned program for 2023 please see Contact Gold news releases dated Dec. 9, 2022, and April 5, 2023.

Green Springs is an early-stage exploration property and does not contain any mineral resource estimates as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource estimate at Green Springs. Additional information about Green Springs is summarized in the NI 43-101 technical report entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report for the Green Springs Project, White Pine County, Nevada, USA" prepared for Contact Gold, with an effective date of June 12, 2020, and dated Aug. 5, 2020, as prepared by John J. Read, CPG, an independent consultant and qualified person under NI 43-101, and can be viewed under Contact Gold's issuer profile on SEDAR.

About Contact Gold Corp.

Contact Gold is an exploration company focused on making district-scale gold discoveries in Nevada. Contact Gold's extensive landholdings are on the prolific Carlin and Cortez gold trends which host numerous gold deposits and mines. Contact Gold's land position comprises approximately 149 square km of target-rich mineral tenure hosting numerous known gold occurrences, ranging from early to advanced exploration and current gold resources.

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