Rugby Strengthens Board, Maintains Focus on Cobrasco Copper Project, Colombia

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rugby Mining Ltd. (“Rugby” or the “Company”) (TSX-V:RUG) is pleased to welcome Cecil Bond, CPA, CA, to the board as Executive Vice President, Finance. Cecil was previously CFO for Exeter Resource Corp. (“Exeter”) (sold to Goldcorp 2017 for C$247 million) and managed the corporate spin out of Extorre Gold Mines Ltd. (“Extorre”) (sold to Yamana in 2012 for C$430 million) from Exeter. Cecil was previously a director of, and VP Finance for Extorre.

Rugby continues to focus on the permit application necessary for drilling its 100% owned Cobrasco Project (“Cobrasco”) in Choco Province, western Colombia. As part of completing the application process, a further site visit is planned for the Department of Forestry later this month to view selected drill sites requested by the Company. All other permits required to drill Cobrasco, including agreements with local communities and a water permit are now in hand.

The 30km2 tenement includes Cobrasco North and South, which are situated approximately 100 kilometres southwest of Medellin in the Choco porphyry copper belt. This belt represents a continuation of the very productive Chilean and Peruvian copper belts. Cobrasco hosts both outcropping porphyry style copper mineralization and high priority geochemical and geophysical targets that have never been drill tested. The dimensions of the system are large, indicating potential for the discovery of a significant copper resource.

Cobrasco was first recognized in the 1980’s by a German government exploration program that discovered outcropping porphyry style copper mineralization supported by strongly anomalous copper stream sediment geochemistry. In the intervening 30 years no drilling has been conducted on the property due to, in large part, prevailing security issues. Cobrasco is located immediately north and south of the Comita Project*, a property currently under option to Rugby.

Paul Joyce, Rugby’s Chief Executive Officer, Director and a “qualified person” (“QP”) within the definition of that term in National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has verified the technical information that forms the basis for this news release.

*Currently Rugby has the option, expiring in October 2018 unless extended, to earn up to a 60% interest in Comita by incurring additional expenditures of approximately US$8 million and drilling a minimum of 10,000 metres on the project.

About Rugby
In addition to the Cobrasco copper project, Rugby controls a portfolio of gold and gold-copper projects in Colombia which have considerable potential for significant mineral discoveries. Rugby is an exploration company that benefits from the experience of its directors and management, a team that has either been directly responsible for world-class mineral discoveries or have been part of the management teams responsible for such discoveries.

For additional information you are invited to visit the Rugby Mining Ltd. website at www.rugbymining.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT
Certain of the statements made and information contained herein is “forward-looking information” within the meaning of the British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario Securities Acts. This includes statements concerning the Company’s plans at its projects including the expected timing of drilling programs, prospectivity, high grade potential and potential for mineral discoveries, the style or occurrence of the mineralization and drilling costs which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. The Company is required to meet certain requirements to maintain its options over some of its projects, including the Comita project. There is no certainty that it will be able to meet those requirements and in the event that it is not able to do so could lose the rights to such project. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking information, including, without limitation, the effect on prices of major mineral commodities such as copper and gold by factors beyond the control of the Company; events which cannot be accurately predicted such as political and economic instability, terrorism, environmental factors and changes in government regulations and taxes; the shortage of personnel with the requisite knowledge and skills to design and execute exploration programs; difficulties in arranging contracts for drilling and other exploration services; the Company’s dependency on equity market financings to fund its exploration programs and maintain its mineral exploration properties in good standing; political risk that a government will change, interpret or enforce mineral tenure, environmental regulations, taxes or mineral royalties in a manner that could have an adverse effect on the Company’s assets or financial condition and impair its ability to advance its mineral exploration projects or raise further funds for exploration; risks associated with title to resource properties due to the difficulties of determining the validity of certain claims as well as the potential for problems arising from the interpretation of laws regarding ownership or exploration of mineral properties in the Philippines and Colombia and in the sometimes ambiguous conveyancing characteristic of many resource properties, currency risks associated with foreign operations, the timing of obtaining permits to conduct exploration activities, the ability to conclude agreements with local communities and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in each of the Company’s management discussion and analysis and those contained in its financial statements for the year ended February 28, 2017 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available at www.sedar.com. In addition, forward-looking information is based on various assumptions including, without limitation, assumptions associated with exploration results and costs and the availability of materials and skilled labour. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

NEITHER 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 RELEASE