Nighthawk Approves Plans to Expand Exploration Program for 2021

TORONTO, August 31, 2020 - Nighthawk Gold Corp. ("Nighthawk" or the "Company") (TSX:NHK)(OTCQX:MIMZF) is pleased to announce that the board of directors of the Company has approved plans to increase the 2021 exploration program on the Colomac Gold Project ("Colomac"), as well as some of its high-priority regional targets within its 100% owned Indin Lake Gold Property, Northwest Territories, Canada. Nighthawk will commence camp modifications this year which will include, installation of additional sleeper tents; a second core shack; expanding camp operational facilities including a larger generator to address the additional power needed to support an operation of up to five (5) drills that will generate between 70,000 metres to 75,000 metres of drilling.

The Company's 2020 exploration program is underway with three drills and an expected 25,000 metres of drilling where approximately 20,000 metres would be focused at Colomac. In addition, two of the high-priority regional targets, the Leta Arm Gold Project ("Leta Arm") and the Treasure Island Gold Project ("Treasure Island") are being drilled this year and will be expanded during the 2021 program. Nighthawk has confirmed with Major Drilling, the Company's third-party drilling contractor, that the fifth drill will be arriving on site before the end of September, to be ready to start the 2021 program with five (5) active drills.

Dr. Michael Byron, President and CEO commented, "With the completion of the recent financing, we are able to finalize our 2020 exploration program and set ourselves up to significantly increase our exploration efforts next year and aggressively advance Colomac alongside some of our high-priority regional targets. At Colomac this year, we have focused drilling on areas lying immediately outside of the current resource, identified as the Exploration Target, where the opportunity exists to add upwards of 1.5 million ounces to the current resource. This would require anywhere from 50,000 to 75,000 metres of drilling, and we are on track to complete 20,000 metres at Colomac in 2020.

With five drills in operation, we could complete up to 75,000 metres of drilling in 2021 which would allow us to greatly accelerate resource growth opportunities within the Colomac Main and Goldcrest sills and test some of the other targets within the Colomac Gold Project area, some of which have never been drilled by us. Equally as exciting as the continued advancement of Colomac, a growing multi-million-ounce gold project, is the ability to upsize our efforts on two of our more prominent regional targets. Both Leta Arm and Treasure Island and their associated deposits, lie within large deformation zones that possess geology favourable for hosting significant gold deposits. We have barely explored the true potential of these systems, as nothing has been drilled below 200 metres depth. With the support from our shareholders and strategic partners, we are very keen to embark on this next phase of exploration in order to unlock the untapped potential of our land position."

2020 Exploration Program

An extensive exploration program was planned for 2020 that was initiated in late March, but all operations were temporarily suspended on April 5 due to the rapidly developing Coronavirus pandemic. When exploration activities resumed in mid July, timelines were condensed with efforts streamlined to drilling some of the Exploration Target opportunities at Colomac, testing Treasure Island mineralization along strike and to depth, including the first holes at the recently discovered Seadog showing (located 1.7 km northwest of the Main Zone along the island's northern boundary), and a small program at Leta Arm to follow up on previous drilling at the Diversified deposit. Field exploration has also made great progress with extensive outcrop stripping, mapping, and channel sampling programs at Andy Lake and Colomac's 24 and 27 deposits, as well as detailed prospecting and mapping at Treasure Island, Laurie Lake, and the northern portions of Leta Arm. All such activities are fundamental to developing a better understanding of the mineralization controls at each of these prospects prior to drill testing the best candidates, and to the continued exploration for new surface showings and expansion of known showings.

2021 Exploration Strategy

At Colomac, the Company will focus on realizing the Exploration Target, where with an estimated 50,000-75,000 metres of additional drilling it is reasonable to expect that between 1.00 to 1.50 Mozs of gold at grades between 1.8 gpt Au and 2.0 gpt Au could be added to the current resource by drilling the extensions of currently defined mineralized zones at depth and laterally (see press release dated July 28, 2020). With approximately 20,000 metres of drilling slated to be completed at Colomac this year, the Company is well underway to completing the desired number of metres to achieve this target. The incredible resource expansion opportunities at depth, across the 3.5km strike length from Zone 3.5 northwards to Zone 1.5 remains a focus given the deposit's significant increase in true width to depth, and especially in-light of the underground bulk mining opportunity. The Company is also planning additional follow up drilling at Colomac's Goldcrest and Grizzly Bear deposits and will test the 24 and 27 deposits (which have never been drilled by Nighthawk).

In 2021, drilling at Leta Arm and Treasure Island, two high-priority regional targets, will be expanded to follow up on previous positive results and continue to test their growth opportunities along strike and to depth. Leta Arm and Treasure Island are situated within large deformation zones where geological mapping and surface sampling have confirmed the fertility of these regional targets and their potential to host significant deposits.

Leta Arm

Leta Arm, located 16 kilometres southwest of Colomac, is hosted within the Leta Arm Fault Zone, a 20-km deformation zone. Nighthawk carried out its first drill program at Leta Arm in 2011 targeting the four known gold deposits within a 2.8-km area (North Inca, Diversified, #3, and Lexindin), and in 2018 followed up with a second campaign to expand on some of the previous intersections and to test new areas within and along strike of the deposits. These programs were successful in confirming the style and nature of high-grade mineralization noted in historical reports and showed the potential to expand known deposits along strike and to depth, confirming the untapped prospectively of this extensive deformation zone. Some highlights of those programs are shown in Table 1. To-date, the Company has only focused its exploration efforts on this 2.8-km long section of the southern part of the mineralized corridor that is host to the 4 gold deposits. While the Company has stepped out to a limited extent along strike and successfully confirmed that the four Leta Arm gold deposits are part of the same mineralized system, the remainder of the 20-km long target is still largely unexplored and remains one of the Company's prime targets given its well mineralized nature.

Table 1. Select Leta Arm Drilling Highlights - 2011 and 2018 Programs

Treasure Island

Treasure Island, located 11 kilometres north of Colomac, lies along the eastern end of the Treasure Island-Laurie Lake Mineralized Corridor, a 7-km long underexplored pathway that hosts several high-priority gold showings and deposits. Previous drilling tested the Main Zone and East Zone, two well mineralized shallow deposits that lie along the southern shore of Treasure Island. Drilling results from the 2011, 2018 and 2019 programs support that the high-grade nature of the Main Zone exists throughout the 700 metres of mineralized stratigraphy that separates it from the East Zone, essentially linking the two deposits that remain open along strike and to depth. Highlights from those three programs are presented in Table 2. Drilling in 2020 is aimed to follow up on the previous programs and test areas west of the Main Zone to establish a westward extension to the mineralization, establishing the mineralized corridor's expansion potential, and to explore the two deposits to greater depths as nothing has been drilled below 200 metres. Treasure Island remains largely untested, as does the 4 kilometres that separates Treasure Island from Laurie Lake to the west.

Throughout the entire Indin Lake Gold Property expressions of size in terms of the scale of mineralized systems, and regional structures that help localize mineralization, are clearly evident. With no shortage of targets to pursue, 2021 will see regional exploration efforts significantly intensify to expand known deposits and showings while broadening the search for new discoveries.

Table 2. Select Treasure Island Drilling Highlights - 2011, 2018, 2019 Programs

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. The technical report supporting the 2020 MRE will be filed on SEDAR within 45 days of the date of that disclosure being July 28, 2020. Please refer to the Company's news release dated July 28, 2020 for further details.

Dr. Michael J. Byron, Ph.D., P.Geo., President & Chief Executive Officer of Nighthawk, 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

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 planned 2021 exploration program and the ability to fund such a program; and 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.