Banks Island Gold Ltd. Reports Significant Progress at Yellow Giant

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/09/13 --

--  Camp installed, dock and barge landing constructed
--  Road Access (6.8km) to four mineral deposits completed.
--  Plant site located/developed and DMS plant refurbishment on schedule.
--  Mine Portals at Bob, Tel, and Disco Zones complete.
--  Surface drilling with Company crew achieving 95m/day productivity.

Banks Island Gold Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: BOZ) (the "Company") is pleased to report an update of its recent developments, activities, and exploration plans for the Yellow Giant Gold Property, located on Banks Island, British Columbia.

The Company is actively exploring and developing the Yellow Giant Property. The Company is basing its operations from a 35man floating camp anchored in Wreck Bay. The road building and earthworks required for commencing underground mining and installation of the planned process plant are now complete.

Banks Island Gold has completed 1,955m of exploration diamond drilling since April 13th and is currently drilling at the Bob Zone along strike and at depth. Assays are pending and will be reported as received.

Road Building

The Company is pleased to report that road building at Yellow Giant is complete. Over the last three months the Company has constructed 6.8km of access road, including a 2.1km road from Tel Zone to the Bob Zone and a 4.7km road from Tel Zone to the Kim and Discovery Zones. The road building contractor, K&D Contracting Ltd, achieved excellent productivity during this period, averaging approximately 86m of advance per day. In addition, the Company has prepared mine portals at the Bob, Tel, and Discovery Zones, upgraded the barge landing at Supply Point, and built level areas for future buildings and infrastructure. The Company has achieved unprecedented access across areas of highly prospective geology on the mineral claim and established access to all four zones with known mineral resources.

To view the Photo of Tel Zone Portal, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/boz509-Pic1.pdf.

Exploration Diamond Drilling

The Company mobilized its newly purchased diamond drill to site in early April. The Company's employees commenced exploration diamond drilling on April 13th. After a four day period for commissioning of equipment and crew orientation, the exploration diamond drill crew has ramped up and is achieving an average of 95m drilled per day. Since April 13th the Company has completed 10 drill holes totaling 1,955m of diamond drilling in the Tel Area (RustyRoch Zone) and Bob Zone. Exploration diamond drilling over the next month will focus on drilling Bob Zone at depth, testing geophysical targets at the Crossbreak Zone, and testing of geochemical anomalies at Long Lake.

Dense Media Plant

The refurbishment of the Company's Dense Media Plant is ongoing and all components have been engineered and procured. The bins, feeders, and conveyors are currently being manufactured in Lindsey, Ontario. The plant is currently expected to be near completion by mid-June and will be shipped to the Yellow Giant site in July 2013.

Mr. Mossman, President and CEO of the Company stated; "Banks Island Gold is grateful to its shareholders, employees, and contractors who have allowed such rapid progress on the Yellow Giant project. With road access established over the Property and productive employees on our diamond drill crew, we can now undertake the expanded exploration and development work which we feel is warranted at Yellow Giant."

Mr. Benjamin Mossman, P.Eng, CEO of Banks Island Gold is the qualified person who reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.

The Company is a junior mining resource exploration company focused on exploring for and developing economically viable mineral resources. The Company's mineral properties are located in British Columbia. For more information, please refer to the Company's website at www.banksislandgold.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Benjamin W. Mossman, P.Eng, President, Director, & Chief Executive Officer

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, constitute "forward-looking statements" and include any information that addresses activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including the Company's strategy, plans or future financial or operating performance and other statements that express management's expectations or estimates of future performance.

Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. These statements, however, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed, implied by or projected in the forward-looking information or statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include but are not limited to: risks related to the exploration and potential development of the Company's project, the actual results of current exploration activities, conclusions of economic evaluations, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, future prices of gold, as well as those factors discussed in the sections relating to risk factors of the Company prospectus dated September 30, 2011 filed on SEDAR.

There can be no assurance that any forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to revise or update these forward-looking statements after the date of this document or to revise them to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated events.

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Banks Island Gold Ltd.

Benjamin W. Mossman, P.Eng.

President, Director, & Chief Executive Officer

604-245-0066
www.banksislandgold.com