Contact Gold expands Pony Creek land position by 30% through addition of 22 square kilometres

The Pony Creek gold property, located souh of Elko, Nevada. — Photo courtesy Contact Gold

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 13, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Contact Gold Corp. (the “Company” or “Contact Gold”) (TSX-V:C) is pleased to announce that it has completed staking and acquiring an additional 270 unpatented mining claims covering 22 square kilometres of prospective mineral tenure adjacent to the Pony Creek gold property (“Pony Creek”), located approximately 25 kilometres south of Elko, Nevada. Contact Gold now controls approximately 127 square kilometres (49 square miles) in the district (including the Dixie Flats and North Star gold properties).

“We are very pleased to significantly expand Pony Creek’s footprint by over 30%,” stated Vance Spalding, Vice President, Exploration of Contact Gold. “The land expansion announced today, further solidifies Pony Creek’s importance on the Southern Carlin Trend. The new claims cover prospective host rocks with strong exploration potential that have seen minimal exploration effort in the past. This land provides an excellent growth opportunity beyond the priority targets we are currently drilling at Pony Creek.”

At Pony Creek, the strategic expansion of the property focused on the east and south of the property following evaluation of key regional exploration targets in areas underlain by Pennsylvanian and Mississippian clastic and carbonate rocks known to host gold occurrences in the Railroad-Pinion district. In addition to staking new claims, Contact Gold acquired the Pony Spur property which covers a key N80W striking (Rain parallel) structural zone on the western boundary of Pony Creek.

Pony Creek is now comprised of a total of 1157 unpatented lode mining claims covering approximately 95.4 square kilometers (36.8 square miles) located squarely on the Southern Carlin Trend between the Railroad-Pinion district and Kinross's Bald Mountain mine.

North of Pony Creek, Contact Gold has also acquired the Poker Flats property, which is adjacent to Contact Gold’s Dixie Flats gold property (“Dixie Flats”) and Newmont Mining’s Emigrant Mine. Dixie Flats now comprises 324 unpatented mining claims covering 27.1 square kilometres (10.5 square miles) of prospective ground.

Total consideration for the acquisition of the Pony Spur and Poker Flats properties was US$75,000 in cash and 112,500 shares in Contact Gold, with no retained NSR.

For a map of the expanded Pony Creek land position, please click: http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/news/Pony-Creek-Land-update-September-13-2017-FINAL.pdf

The Pony Creek project hosts a previously identified Carlin-type gold system and numerous targets that have been the subject of intermittent past exploration campaigns. Pony Creek is Contact Gold’s focus in 2017, with core and RC drilling underway in the central zone of the property. The Company is collecting geological, geophysical and geochemical data to identify new exploration targets, and is currently focused on drilling in areas of previously drilled gold mineralization which have potential for expansion.

Assay results from the initial RC and core drilling programs are expected to arrive in early Fall 2017.

Contact Gold will also be issuing a total of 150,000 incentive stock options at an exercise price of $0.75 per share for a period of five years to certain employees and consultants to the Company. The incentive stock options will vest 1/3 on each successive anniversary of the date of grant.

Contact Gold is a gold exploration company focused on leveraging its properties, people, technology and capital to make district scale gold discoveries in Nevada. Contact Gold’s extensive land holdings are on the prolific Carlin and Independence gold trends which host numerous gold deposits and mines. Contact Gold’s land position is comprised of 28,082 hectares (281 square kilometres) of target rich mineral tenure which hosts numerous known gold occurrences, ranging from early- to advanced-exploration and resource definition stage.

Dixie Flats and Pony Creek are early stage exploration properties and do not contain any mineral resource estimates as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”). There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource estimate at Pony Creek, Dixie Flats, or on any of Contact Gold’s properties. Additional information about Pony Creek is summarized in a technical report entitled “Technical Report on the Pony Creek Gold Project, Elko County, Nevada, USA” dated April 18, 2017, and effective March 15, 2017), prepared by Michael M. Gustin, C.P.G. of Mine Developments Associates of Reno, Nevada (the “Technical Report”), which can be viewed under Contact Gold’s issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com