NightHawk Reports Leta Arm Gold Project Drill Results

TORONTO, August 24, 2020 - Nighthawk Gold Corp. ("Nighthawk" or the "Company") (TSX:NHK)(OTCQX:MIMZF) is pleased to report assay results for three (3) drillholes (1,065 metres) completed at the Diversified Deposit ("Diversified"), part of the Leta Arm Gold Project ("Leta Arm") located within its Indin Lake Gold Property, Northwest Territories, Canada (Figure 1; Table 1).

An extensive 2020 program was planned for Leta Arm to continue testing priority targets at the Diversified and North Inca deposits, however, due to the Covid-19 shutdown (see press releases dated March 27, 2020 and June 24 2020), only three (3) holes were completed at Diversified and no drilling was carried out at North Inca.

Dr. Michael Byron, President and CEO commented, "Nighthawk's drilling to-date has explored the Leta Arm targets to limited depths and strike extents, yet yielded encouraging results including the recognition of broad mineralized widths which indicate a strong potential for significant zone expansion, and opportunities for new discoveries as drilling had not tested below 100 metres. With only three holes completed before the temporary suspension in April, we intend to resume drilling of this expanded program in early 2021, intensifying our exploration efforts along the 20 kilometres of mineralized Leta Arm stratigraphy, expanding known deposits and broadening our search for new discoveries. We continue to focus on the exploration of our regional targets alongside the advancement of the Colomac Gold Project as these regions of the Indin Lake Gold Camp have seen limited historical exploration despite the abundance of surface gold showings and shallow deposits. We look forward to providing additional information as it becomes available."

DRILLING HIGHLIGHTS:

• Hole DV20-01 intersected 5.10 metres of 3.59 grams per tonne gold ("gpt", "Au"), including 3.00 metres of 5.44 gpt Au;
• All 3 Diversified holes intersected mineralization testing the Main Zone to depth and extended it further north where it remains open.

Note: All assays are uncut (see Table 1)

Table 2. Diversified Drill Results - Summary Table (uncut)

* Lengths are reported as core lengths. True widths vary depending on drillhole dip; most holes are laid out to intersect the mineralized zone close to perpendicular therefore true widths are approximately 50% to 80% of core lengths.

Leta Arm Drill Summary

Leta Arm is located 16 kilometres southwest of Nighthawk's Colomac Gold Project ("Colomac"), Northwest Territories, Canada and straddles the Leta Arm Fault Zone ("LAFZ"), a north-south trending, well mineralized, regional deformation zone over 20 kilometres long and 500 metres wide, that hosts the North Inca, Diversified, Number 3, and Lexindin deposits. The historical Diversified Mine lies 1.3 kilometres north of the historical North Inca Mine with the Number 3 deposit situated between them, and the Lexindin deposit located an additional 1.2 kilometres north of Diversified (Figure 1). Collectively they occupy the southern 2.8-km section of the LAFZ. Exploration shafts and limited underground development were completed on the North Inca and Diversified deposits in the 1940's and early 1950's to explore multi-stage quartz veins characterized by high-grade gold mineralization.

Diversified Deposit

Nighthawk last drilled Diversified In 2018, where drilling targeted the steep northern plunge to the mineralized zones resulting in a new discovery where hole DV18-08 intersected 17.50 metres of 5.81 gpt Au, including 9.25 metres of 9.65 gpt Au, and 4.75 metres of 18.12 gpt Au (see press release dated July 5, 2018). Hole DV18-08B extended mineralization to depth, returning 7.75 metres of 3.66 gpt Au, including 5.50 metres of 5.05 gpt Au, and 2.50 metres of 10.65 gpt Au. This high-grade discovery effectively opened the deposit to the north and highlights the untested potential between this intersection and the Lexindin deposit, 1 km to the north. A number of holes were laid out to bracket the new discovery and test its northern extension along strike and to depth. However, only two of those holes were drilled (DV20-01, and 01B) before the program was suspended due to Covid-19. They were laid out to test an open area south of DV18-08 to try and establish continuity with the Diversified "Main Zone" mineralization to the south.

Hole DV20-01 intersected mineralization 120 metres below surface in intensely sheared turbidites returning 5.10 metres of 3.59 gpt Au, including 3.00 metres of 5.44 gpt Au, and 7.45 metres of 1.83 gpt Au, including 4.40 metres of 2.84 gpt Au. DV20-01B was drilled 50 metres below DV20-01 but did not encounter the same intensity of mineralization returning 1.75 metres of 1.52 gpt Au. Hole DV20-02 was drilled under the Main Zone just north of the shaft to test its depth extension and intersected new mineralization 250 metres below surface in turbidite hosted quartz veins returning 16.45 metres of 1.21 gpt Au, including 2.75 metres of 2.65 gpt Au.

Leta Arm remains a focus for the Company given its immense scale and degree of mineralization along its more than 20-kilometre length. It represents the type of target that could accommodate several deposits, some of which may advance to a point to be considered high-grade feed for a possible future Colomac mining operation, alongside the Damoti Lake Gold Project. The Indin Lake Gold Property hosts a number of similarly large prospects that will see significant exploration activity in next year's program.

Figure 1. Plan View of Diversified Drillhole Locations

Technical Information

Nighthawk has implemented a quality-control program to comply with best practices in the sampling and analysis of drill core. Drill core samples were transported in security-sealed bags for analyses at ALS Global Assay Laboratory in Vancouver, BC ("ALS Global"). ALS Global is an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory. Pulp and metallics assaying for gold was conducted on the entire pulverized sample.

As part of its QA/QC program, Nighthawk inserts external gold standards (low to high-grade) and blanks every 20 samples in addition to the standards, blanks, and pulp duplicates inserted by ALS Global.

About Nighthawk

Nighthawk is a Canadian-based gold exploration company with 100% ownership of a district-scale land position within the Indin Lake Greenstone Belt, located approximately 200 km north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Nighthawk has advanced its flagship asset Colomac, outlining a robust project with current Indicated Resources of 25.89 Mt with an average grade of 2.01 gpt Au for 1.67 Moz of gold and Inferred Resources of 5.71 Mt with an average grade of 2.03 gpt Au for 0.37 Moz of gold, with the majority of ounces contained within an underground resource. Near-term resource expansion opportunities exist proximal to the current resources, and additional upside exists throughout the +7km strike length of the host quartz diorite with a substantial opportunity at depth where the true width is known to expand significantly across a 3.5km-long section. Within this largely underexplored Archean gold camp, the Company has identified several high-priority targets within large regional deformation zones that are pregnant with gold mineralization and are known to host significant deposits which warrant additional exploration and follow-up.

The Company has an experienced and dedicated team with a track record of successfully advancing projects and is well funded and supported to complete its goals and objectives.

Qualified Person

Technical information related to the 2020 MRE was reviewed and approved by Marina Iund, M.Sc., P.Geo., Project Geologist and Carl Pelletier, P.Geo., Co-President Founder of InnovExplo who are independent Qualified Persons as defined by NI 43-101, with the ability and authority to verify the authenticity and validity of this data. The technical report supporting the 2020 MRE will be filed on SEDAR within 45 days of the date of that disclosure being July 28, 2020. Please refer to the Company's news release dated July 28, 2020 for further details.

Dr. Michael J. Byron, Ph.D., P.Geo., President & Chief Executive Officer of Nighthawk, who is the "Qualified Person" as defined by NI 43-101 for this project, has reviewed and approved of the technical disclosure contained in this news release.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Nighthawk Gold Corp.
Tel: 1-647-794-4313; Email: info@nighthawkgold.com
Website: www.nighthawkgold.com

Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange has neither reviewed nor accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, information with respect to the Company's continued exploration programs (including size and budget) and the ability to advance targets and the timing and results thereof; and future development and mining at Colomac and the ability for the high-priority regional targets to be advanced to a stage to be able to augment any milling feed at such time. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "does not anticipate", or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", or "will be taken", "occur", or "be achieved".

Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the information is made, and is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Nighthawk to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including risks associated with the exploration, development and mining such as economic factors as they effect exploration, future commodity prices, changes in foreign exchange and interest rates, actual results of current exploration activities, government regulation, political or economic developments, environmental risks, permitting timelines, capital expenditures, operating or technical difficulties in connection with development activities, employee relations, the speculative nature of gold exploration and development, including the risks of diminishing quantities of grades of reserves, contests over title to properties, and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined as well as those risk factors discussed in Nighthawk's annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2018, available on www.sedar.com. Although Nighthawk has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Nighthawk does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

SOURCE: Nighthawk Gold Corp.