Press Release, Contact Gold Drills 2.24 g/t Oxide Gold over 35 Metres at the Green Springs Project, Nevada

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 12, 2021) -  Contact Gold Corp. (TSXV: C) (OTCQB: CGOL) (the "Company" or "Contact Gold") is pleased to report results for 5 additional drill holes from the 2020 drill program at the Green Springs gold property ("Green Springs"). Contact Gold completed 5,785 metres in 10 core holes and 31 reverse circulation drill holes during the fall of 2020. Results are pending for 31 holes as of the date of this release from the Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Golf and Echo Zones.

Key Points:

• Drilling infills gold mineralization in the northern part of Echo Zone and confirms that mineralization is well oxidized with the first cyanide assays from this high-grade pod located north of the area previously drilled by Contact Gold in 2019
• Gold mineralization intersected below the past-producing Charlie pit in the Pilot Shale horizon confirms Contact Gold's primary target concept that the unexplored Pilot Shale hosts gold mineralization beneath the Mine Trend at Green Springs

Drill Highlights:

Echo Zone:

• 2.24 g/t oxide Au over 35.05 m from a depth of 35 metres in hole GS20-14, 92% cyanide recovery
  • Including 3.14 g/t Au over 22.86 m from a depth of 42.67 metres
  • This intercept further extends the footprint of gold mineralization in the northern Echo Zone
• 1.49 g/t Au over 17.68 m from a depth of 38.1 m, in hole GSC20-01, 67% cyanide recovery
  • GSC20-01 represents the first core hole ever drilled at Green Springs providing invaluable subsurface structural and lithological data

More detailed modeling of high-grade pods in the Echo Zone have revealed an east-west fault control to gold mineralization that has previously been unrecognized and will be targeted during the next phase of drilling in 2021.

Charlie Zone:

• 0.28 g/t Au over 3.05 metres from a depth of 28.96 metres in hole GS20-08, 78% cyanide recovery
• 0.15 g/t Au over 3.05 meters from a depth of 163.07 metres, in hole GS20-07, 100% cyanide recovery - Pilot Shale hosted

Both Charlie drill holes were drilled from the bottom of the past producing open pit to target the Pilot Shale host horizon at the intersection of major northwest and east-west striking faults, delivering a significant gold intersection at the Pilot-Guilmette contact. This intercept provides further evidence, in addition to drilled mineralization at the Alpha and Bravo Zones, that the underexplored lower Pilot Shale horizon hosts gold mineralization beneath the Mine Trend and likely elsewhere on Green Springs. Due to the difficulty in completing RC holes through the cavernous Joana limestone, and in order to obtain more detailed geological information for targeting, the Company plans to drill more core holes going forward.

"The continued success of the team hitting well oxidized gold mineralization at Echo is extremely encouraging for the future of Green Springs," stated Matt Lennox-King, CEO of Contact Gold. "Most significantly, successfully targeting and intersecting oxidized gold mineralization in the Pilot Shale beneath the Charlie Pit represents a further proof of concept at Green Springs, that the Pilot Shale can host gold mineralization along the Mine Trend. My team has recently located the old blast hole maps from mining and just completed digitizing the gold assays from them in 3D, allowing them to more precisely project and target controls to gold mineralization at depth in the Pilot Shale."

2020 Green Springs drill hole results in this news release:

For a detailed plan map of the Echo zone, please click:
http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/news/20210111Echo.jpg
For a long section of the Echo zone, please click:
http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/news/20210112-EchoLS.jpg
For a detailed plan map of the Charlie zone, please click:
http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/news/20210112-Charlie.jpg
For a long section of the Charlie zone, please click:
http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/news/20210112-CharlieLS.jpg
For the status of all holes drilled, please click:
http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/news/GS-Drill-Results.pdf

About the Green Springs Project:

Green Springs is located near the southern end of the Cortez Trend of Carlin-type gold deposits in White Pine County, Nevada, adjacent to Fiore Gold's Pan Mine and Gold Rock Project and Waterton's Mount Hamilton deposit. The Green Springs property is 18.5 km2 encompassing 3 shallow past producing open pits and numerous targets that were not mined. Contact Gold's 2020 drill program stared at the Echo Zone and progressed through the Zulu, Charlie, Alpha, Delta Bravo and Golf Zones.

Contact Gold signed a purchase option agreement with Ely Gold Royalties ("Ely Gold") to acquire an undivided 100% interest in Green Springs in July 2019. Green Springs is an early-stage exploration property and does not contain any mineral resource estimates as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource estimate at Green Springs. Additional information about Green Springs is summarized in the NI 43-101 Technical Report entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report for the Green Springs Project, White Pine County, Nevada, USA" prepared for Contact Gold, with an effective date of June 12, 2020, and dated August 5, 2020, as prepared by John J. Read, C.P.G; an independent consultant and qualified person under NI 43-101, and can be viewed under Contact Gold's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Vance Spalding, CPG, VP Exploration, Contact Gold, who is a "qualified person" within the meaning of NI 43-101. Drill intercepts were calculated using a minimum thickness of 3.05 metres averaging 0.14 ppm gold and allowing inclusion of up to 4.57 metres of material averaging less than 0.14 ppm gold for low-grade intervals and higher grade intervals were calculated using a minimum thickness of 3.05 metres averaging 1.00 ppm gold and allowing inclusion of up to 4.57 metres of assays averaging less than 1.00 ppm gold. Gravimetric assays are used for all Fire Assays above 4.00 ppm gold. Cyanide solubility assays are completed on all Fire Assays greater than 0.1 g/t. True width of drilled mineralization is unknown, but owing to the apparent flat lying nature of mineralization, is estimated to generally be at least 70% of drilled thickness. The Cyanide recovery percentages are equally averaged by interval, and are not weighted by gold content per interval. Quality Assurance / Quality Control consists of regular insertion of certified reference standards, blanks, and duplicates. All failures are followed up and resolved whenever possible with additional investigation whenever such an event occurs. All assays are completed at Paragon; an ISO 17025:2005 accredited lab. Check assays are completed at a second, reputable assay lab after the program is complete.

About Contact Gold Corp.

Contact Gold is an exploration company focused on making district scale gold discoveries in Nevada. Contact Gold's extensive land holdings are on the prolific Carlin and Cortez gold trends which host numerous gold deposits and mines. Contact Gold's land position comprises approximately 140 km2 of target rich mineral tenure hosting numerous known gold occurrences, ranging from early- to advanced-exploration and resource definition stage.

Additional information about the Company is available at www.contactgold.com.

For more information, please contact: +1 (604) 449-3361
John Glanville - Director Investor Relations
Chris Pennimpede - VP, Corporate Development
E-mail: info@ContactGold.com

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to the anticipated exploration activities of the Company on the Green Springs property.

These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include: impacts arising from the global disruption by the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold, silver, base metals or certain other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.