Red Pine drills 32.16 g/t gold over 2.91 metres (true width) at its Wawa Gold Project

TORONTO, Jan. 03, 2019 - Red Pine Exploration Inc. (TSX-V: RPX) ("Red Pine" or the "Company") announces new results from its confirmation drilling in the higher-grade zones of the Surluga Deposit and from the drilling on the Minto Mine South Project. With the recent high-grade gold discoveries in the Jubilee Shear, including 5.28 g/t gold over 14.55 metres (true width) in SD-17-173 (January 22, 2018) and 4.99 g/t gold over 17.6 metres (true width) in SD-18-228 (October 23, 2018), Red Pine’s infill drilling results continue to support the potential for a higher-grade underground resource accessible using the existing underground infrastructures of the Surluga Mine.

Drilling highlights (Table 1):

• Intersection of high-grade gold in the current resource footprint of the Surluga Deposit:
  ° Hole SD-18-234 contains 32.16 g/t gold over 2.91 metres (true width);
  ° Hole SD-18-231 contains 3.17 g/t gold over 6.23 metres (true width) including 6.51 g/t gold over 1.87 metres (true width).
• Discovery of high-grade quartz veins in the Minto Stockwork:
  ° Hole SD-18-189 contains two high-grade quartz veins with 16.47 g/t gold over 1 metre and 14.11 g/t gold over 1.1 metres.

Quentin Yarie, President and Chief Executive Officer of Red Pine stated, "Our drilling results are confirming that a higher-grade resource accessible using the underground developments of the Surluga Mine is possible at the Surluga Deposit. We are now nearing the completion of the first phase of our infill drilling program, and in many of the holes completed so far, we have observed visual indicators that are typically associated with zones of stronger gold mineralization. We can now better understand what controls the formation of high-grade mineralization zones and this will help us in our exploration model for the other gold structures of the Wawa Gold Corridor.”

*Assay results in the Minto Stockwork presented as core length. Additional drilling is necessary to constrain the geometry and true width of the zones forming the Minto Stockwork

Figure 1. Plan map of drilling results is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ea5c4f40-392b-439a-b263-b661e31d1c8b

Infill and confirmation drilling in the Jubilee Shear Zone
Red Pine’s 2018 diamond drill program, from July to December 2018, targeted strategic areas in the Surluga Deposit where recent geological modelling suggested that high-grade mineralization could be discovered. Drilling results received to date support the potential for the Surluga Deposit to host a higher-grade gold resource, accessible using the underground developments of the Surluga Mine. Gold assays results for 23 holes completed in the Surluga Deposit are still pending. The Company remains on track to deliver an updated resource estimation for the Surluga Deposit in early Q2 2019.

Wawa Gold Project Background
Since December 2014, Red Pine's exploration work has involved the ongoing sampling of 42,000 m of historic core that was never sampled by previous operators of the project, and exploration drilling campaigns. To date, the Company has completed over 58,000 m of drilling and made four discoveries along the extension of the Surluga Deposit¹: the Surluga North Zone; the Hornblende-William Zone; the Minto Mine South Zone and; the Grace-Darwin Zone. These are part of the Wawa Gold Corridor, a gold-mineralization zone that extends for more than 5 kilometres.

Red Pine’s on-going drill program is designed to potentially expand the size of the existing inferred gold resource and connect the other zones of gold mineralization along the newly-discovered Wawa Gold Corridor.

On-site Quality Assurance/Quality Control (“QA/QC”) Measures

Drill core samples were transported in security-sealed bags for analyses to Activation Laboratories Ltd. in Ancaster, Ontario. Individual samples are labeled, placed in plastic sample bags and sealed. Groups of samples are then placed into durable rice bags and then shipped. The remaining coarse reject portions of the samples remain in storage if further work or verification is needed.

Red Pine has implemented a quality-control program to comply with best practices in the sampling and analysis of drill core. As part of its QA/QC program, Red Pine inserts external gold standards (low to high grade) and blanks every 20 samples in addition to random standards, blanks, and duplicates.

Qualified Person
Quentin Yarie, P Geo. is the qualified person responsible for preparing, supervising and approving the scientific and technical content of this news release.

About Red Pine Exploration Inc.
Red Pine Exploration Inc. is a gold and base-metals exploration company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Company's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "RPX".

Red Pine has a 60% interest in the Wawa Gold Project with Citabar LP. holding the remaining 40% interest. Red Pine is the Operating Manager of the Project and is focused on expanding the existing gold resource on the property.

For more information about the Company visit www.redpineexp.com

Or contact:
Quentin Yarie, President & CEO, (416) 364-7024, qyarie@redpineexp.com

Or Mia Boiridy, Investor Relations, (416) 364-7024, mboiridy@redpineexp.com

¹NI 43-101 inferred resource of 1,088,000 ounces of gold at a 1.71 grams per tonne (g/t) using a 0.40 g/t gold cut-off grade for pit-constrained and 2.50 g/t gold cut-off grade for underground-constrained resources, contained in 19.82 million tonnes open along strike and at depth. The Cut-off grades are based on a gold price of US$1,250 per ounce and a gold recovery of 95 percent (Mineral Resource Statement, Surluga-Jubilee Gold Deposit, Wawa Gold Project, Ontario, SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc (effective May 26, 2015)).

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This News Release contains forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may”, “should”, “expects”, “plans”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “estimates”, “predicts”, “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our or our industry’s actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

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