Aston Bay Commences Mobilization for Drill Program on Buckingham Gold Property in Virginia, USA

TORONTO, April 8, 2019 - Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSX-V: BAY; OTCQB: ATBHF) ("Aston Bay" or the "Company"), through its wholly owned subsidiary Blue Ridge Mining Inc. ("Blue Ridge" or "BRM"), is pleased to announce that in preparation for a planned 900 metre (m) diamond drill program on its Buckingham Gold Property located in Central Virginia, USA, a drill rig and all necessary equipment is being mobilized to site.

Drilling will be focused on an outcropping gold-bearing quartz vein with a strike length of over 150 m and an associated gold-in-soil anomaly that extends for over 900 m. Visible gold is present at surface in quartz vein outcrop and subcrop. Select rock chip grab samples from the outcropping quartz vein assayed up to 701 grams/tonne (g/t) Au (20.4 ounces per short ton). The associated gold-in-soil anomaly contains values up to 0.4 g/t Au in soil.

Three historical drill holes were completed over a strike distance of 80 meters along the vein outcrop area in 2016 (see March 4, 2019 Aston Bay press release). These yielded mineralized quartz vein intercepts of 15.57 g/t Au over 4.1m and 11.69 g/t Au over 3.1m (all drill depths and assay intervals are measured-down-the-hole depths and thicknesses; they do not represent true widths). The vein has been intercepted to a depth of 40 meters and mineralization is open along strike and down dip

In addition to the vein mineralization, a significant zone (27.4 m @ 0.4 g/t Au) of disseminated gold mineralization was intercepted in a metavolcanic rock below the quartz vein.

"The drill program is designed to confirm gold mineralization in the quartz vein, test the strike extent of the gold-bearing vein and also test other quartz veins subcropping on the property," stated Aston Bay CEO Thomas Ullrich. "In addition, we intend to target the disseminated gold mineralization encountered below the veins. This disseminated-style of mineralization has yielded significant economic deposits in similar aged rocks of the Carolina Island Arc terrain."

QUALIFIED PERSON

As per National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, Michael Dufresne, M.Sc., P.Geol., P.Geo., a Director of and a consultant to Aston Bay, is the Qualified Person for the Company and has prepared, validated and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release. The Company strictly adheres to CIM Best Practices Guidelines in conducting, documenting, and reporting its exploration activities on the Company's Aston Bay and Blue Ridge Mining Projects.

ABOUT ASTON BAY HOLDINGS LTD.

Aston Bay is a publicly traded mineral exploration company exploring for large, high-grade, copper, zinc and precious metal deposits in Nunavut, Canada and Virginia, USA. The Company is led by CEO Thomas Ullrich with exploration directed by Chief Geologist Dr. David Broughton, the award-winning co-discoverer of Kamoa-Kakula and Flatreef, in conjunction with the Company's advisor, Don Taylor, the 2018 Thayer Lindsley Award winner for his discovery of the Taylor Pb-Zn-Ag Deposit in Arizona.

The Company is 100% owner of the 1,024,345-acres (414,537-hectares) Aston Bay Property located on western Somerset Island, Nunavut, which neighbours Teck's profitable, past-producing Polaris (Pb-Zn) Mine just 200km to the north. The Aston Bay Property hosts the Storm Copper Project and the Seal Zinc Deposit with drill-confirmed presence of sediment-hosted copper and zinc mineralization.

The Company has also acquired the exclusive rights to an integrated dataset over certain prospective private lands at the Blue Ridge Project, located in central Virginia. These lands are located within a copper-lead-zinc-gold-silver mineralized belt, prospective for sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) and Broken Hill (BHT) type base metal deposits, as well as Carolina slate belt gold deposits. Don Taylor, who led the predecessor company to Blue Ridge and assembled the dataset, has joined the Company's Advisory Board and will be directing the Company's exploration activities for the Blue Ridge Project.

The Company's public disclosure documents are available on www.sedar.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Statements made in this press release, including those regarding the completion of the acquisition, management objectives, forecasts, estimates, expectations, or predictions of the future may constitute "forward-looking statement", which can be identified by the use of conditional or future tenses or by the use of such verbs as "believe", "expect", "may", "will", "should", "estimate", "anticipate", "project", "plan", and words of similar import, including variations thereof and negative forms. This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect, as of the date of this press release, Aston Bay's expectations, estimates and projections about its operations, the mining industry and the economic environment in which it operates. Statements in this press release that are not supported by historical fact are forward-looking statements, meaning they involve risk, uncertainty and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Although Aston Bay believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which apply only at the time of writing of this press release. Aston Bay disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by securities legislation. We seek safe harbour.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT:

Thomas Ullrich, Chief Executive Officer
thomas.ullrich@astonbayholdings.com
Telephone: (416) 456-3516

SOURCE: Aston Bay Holdings Ltd.