Aurvista Gold Appoints Matthew Hornor as the Corporation's New President and CEO

MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwired - May 23, 2017) - Aurvista Gold Corp.'s ("Aurvista" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:AVA)(OTCQB:ARVSF)(FRANKFURT:AV2) is very pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Matthew Hornor as the Company's President and CEO, effective immediately. Mr. Hornor is an executive leader with a proven track record in the legal, financial and business development arenas. He has extensive expertise in structuring and negotiating complex strategic partnerships and raising capital having worked within the Ivanhoe group of companies for over ten years.

Mr. Hornor recently served as the Vice President and Executive Vice President for Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. for 10 years (TSX:IVN). During his time at Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. he negotiated project financings for development projects with international banking syndicates, structured strategic alliances and directly negotiated equity capital raises totalling more than $450 million. Mr. Hornor also acted as Managing Director for Ivanhoe Capital Corporation for 10 years, and sat as Chairman for Ivanplats Holding SARL (owner of the Platreef project) for over 4 years.

While serving as the President and CEO of Kaizen Discovery Inc. from 2013 until 2016, Mr. Hornor successfully structured multiple resource project acquisitions, equity financings and delivered a collaboration agreement with ITOCHU Corporation, a prominent Japanese trading and investment house. Fluent in Japanese, Mr. Hornor began his mining career in Japan after first travelling there 27 years ago. Mr. Hornor makes frequent business trips to Tokyo, where he maintains strong relationships with top management at major corporations, mining companies, investment firms and trading houses.

Aurvista's President and CEO, Matthew Hornor, stated: "I am thrilled to join the Aurvista family. I believe that this project holds significant upside not just for the company's shareholders but for all its stakeholders, and I'm honoured to lead the company through this period of exploration and growth. I am proud of the dedication and commitment Aurvista's employees have demonstrated and am confident the time is right for that hard work to start paying dividends."

In a corresponding move, Mr. Jean Lafleur, M. Sc., P. Geo., will transition into the Vice-President, Exploration role and focus on managing the exploration programs necessary to bring the Douay Gold Project to the next level.

Aurvista's VP Exploration, Jean Lafleur, stated: "We are all excited to have someone of Mr. Hornor's caliber joining our team. His experience speaks for itself, and having his corporate, capital markets and project financing leadership will help us accelerate the Company's growth and true value. I look forward to leading our exploration team in Quebec and working with our group to define the ultimate extent of gold mineralization at Douay."

Corporate Update:

The Company has granted 3,300,000 incentive stock options (the "Options") to certain Officers and Consultants of the Company. The Options are exercisable at $0.30 per share for a period of five years from the date of grant, and vest 25% immediately and 25% on each of the next three anniversaries of the grant. The closing price of the Aurvista shares on the trading day prior to this press release, was $0.285.

Douay Gold Project and Company Profile:

Aurvista Gold Corp. is a leading junior gold exploration and development Company advancing the Douay Gold Project. Aurvista's 305 km2 Douay Gold Project hosts a large inferred gold resource with significant exploration upside along a 40 km segment of the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone in the prolific Abitibi Greenstone Belt of northern Quebec. Douay is located 55 km SW of the Matagami Base Metal Camp and ~140 km N of the Val-d'Or - Malartic Gold Camp (both in Quebec). The Company has 142,855,299 shares outstanding trading on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and OTCQB in the US. For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.aurvistagold.com.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS PRESS RELEASE.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions, uncertainties and management's best estimate of future events. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations and projections. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. When used herein, words such as "anticipate", "will", "intend" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to Aurvista Gold Corp.'s filings with Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com or the Company's website at www.aurvistagold.com.

Contact

Aurvista Gold Corp.
Mr. Joness Lang
+1 778 686 6836
jlang@aurvistagold.com
www.aurvistagold.com