Nighthawk Announces Appointment of Richard Roy as the Vice President of Exploration

TORONTO, January 4, 2021 - Nighthawk Gold Corp. ("Nighthawk" or the "Company") (TSX:NHK)(OTCQX:MIMZF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Richard Roy as the Vice President of Exploration effective January 1, 2021. Dr. Michael Byron (the former President & CEO and a current member of the Board of Directors) will also provide consulting services during this transition. Nighthawk also announces engaging the services of Denise Lockett of Lockett Consultation Services Inc., who will manage the Company's stakeholder relations including licensing and permitting support.

Richard Roy brings over 30 years of experience in the mineral resource industry across three continents including extensive experience with underground deposits. Prior to joining Nighthawk, he most recently held the position of Vice President New Ventures with Endeavour Mining Corp. upon the completion of the $1.6 billion acquisition of Semafo Inc. in March 2020. Prior to that, Mr. Roy spent almost 11 years with Semafo Inc. (as the Exploration Manager and subsequently holding the position of Vice President Exploration), where he focused on target selection and prioritization, and was part of the acquisition team looking at opportunities of a variety of grassroots to late-stage level projects. Mr. Roy has designed and implemented successful exploration programs and mine feasibility programs in Mexico and North America, including Nunavut, working for companies such as Aur Resources, Placer Dome and several other junior companies. He has been involved in the discovery of several gold deposits that ultimately reached the mining stage. Mr. Roy holds a B.Sc. in Geology from Concordia University in Montreal and is a member of the Ordre des Géologues du Québec and is a Qualified Person in accordance with NI 43-101 regulations.

Keyvan Salehi, President & CEO commented, "Richard brings a wealth of geological expertise having worked on grassroots, brownfield, and operating projects throughout the course of his career. Richard will assume responsibility for targeting, prioritizing, and planning our exploration programs at our flagship Colomac Gold Project and our high-grade, high-priority regional targets, as well as managing our camp operations. We are very pleased to welcome Richard to the team as we embark on one of our most aggressive exploration campaigns to date. His experience in managing remote exploration sites and managing up to 100 people with multiple reporting requirements will be beneficial to us as we look to significantly increase our efforts on our Indin Lake Gold Property. We also wish to welcome Denise Lockett (a former resident of Yellowknife, bringing over 30 years of experience in stakeholder relations, licensing and permitting), to provide support pertaining to stakeholder engagement within the Northwest Territories."

Richard Roy, Vice President of Exploration commented, "I am extremely excited to embark on this venture with Nighthawk. The Indin Lake Gold Property has all the key ingredients typically seen in world-class gold mining camps, namely regional-scale structures, pervasive and widespread hydrothermal alteration, and a variety of mineralization styles. The Company's previous exploration efforts have transformed Colomac and advanced a number of high-priority regional targets illustrating the robust nature of the camp. I look forward to joining the dedicated management team as we advance our core asset towards the PEA stage, in addition to maintaining focus on all the exciting regional opportunities within our land package in order to achieve our long-term plans of building one of Canada's next top tier gold mining camps."

About Us

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 Mineral Resource Estimate on the 100% owned Indin Lake Gold Property (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. Please refer to the NI 43-101 technical report "NI 43-101 Technical Report and Mineral Resource Estimate for the Indin lake Gold Property, Northwest Territories, Canada", dated September 11, 2020, as filed under the company's profile on www.sedar.com.

Dr. Michael J. Byron, Ph.D., P.Geo., member of the Board of Directors, 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

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 2020 MRE. 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, 2019, 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.