VANCOUVER, October 2, 2019 - Banyan Gold Corp. (the "Company" or "Banyan") (TSX-V: BYN) has commenced a 3,500 metre diamond drill program to follow-up on the compelling results returned earlier this season from the “Airstrip” Zone and the new discovery at the “Powerline” Zone, both on the Aurex-McQuesten Project, Yukon Territory.

This second-phase drilling campaign has a two-fold exploration focus:

1) Expansion of the drill defined strike length of the “Airstrip” Zone from the current 500 metres to >1 kilometre; with a target of doubling the interpreted mineralization volume; and

2) Step-out drilling at the “Powerline” Zone, a new discovery of a modelled parallel, structurally controlled zone of gold mineralization located one-kilometer south of the south “Airstrip” zone.

“The Powerline Discovery of 2019 represents an entirely new, but genetically related area of potentially broad, near-surface gold mineralization at Aurex-McQuesten.”, stated Tara Christie, President and CEO of Banyan. “This area, has the potential to greatly increase the gold mineralization footprint on the Project and could meaningfully add tonnage to the mineralized gold zones known on the Property.  Powerline’s discovery and the systematic drill-out of the Airstrip Zone currently underway is the result of applying Banyan’s geologic model and increases the potential of locating additional near-surface gold mineralization of the Property.”

The Airstrip Zone displays four distinct styles of mineralization:

1. Sheeted quartz veins with pyrite-pyrrhotite+/-arsenopyrite +/-chalcopyrite
2. Pervasive disseminated pyrrhotite
3. Stratabound retrograde skarn (actinolite-chlorite) altered horizons with semi-massive to massive pyrrhotite+/-arsenopyrite+/-sheelite+/-chalcopyrite 
4. Quartz-calcite-siderite breccias and veins with sphalerite-galena+/-pyrrhotite

This evidence of multiple phases of mineralization reflects a well mineralized gold system on the project as is expected in a prolifically mineralized system such as the greater Keno Hill – Dublin Gulch District.

The Fall 2019 drill program is expected to be completed before mid-November and the results from this work program are anticipated to be developed into a maiden 43-101 compliant, near surface, bulk-tonnage gold resource by the Banyan team over the winter.  The area’s existing infrastructure affords year-round access and greatly aids all aspects of exploration, and has been important for nearby development and production activities at Alexco and Victoria Gold.

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Paul D. Gray, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

Banyan Financing

Banyan Gold Corp. is pleased to announce that subject to final TSX approval it has closed the first tranche of $705,120 of a non-brokered private placement that will finalize before October 15, 2019 with up to $1.106 Million in total. This is part of two concurrent financings to raise up to $1.75M, including common shares, flow through shares and charity flow through

The first tranche Private Placement consists of both flow through shares and Units as described below.

7,015,909 Flow-Through shares (within the meaning of Subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act (Canada)) are being purchased at a price of $0.055 per share for gross proceeds of $385,875.

5,804,450 Units are being purchased for gross proceeds of $319,245, priced at $0.055 per Unit consisting of one share and 1/2 of a purchase warrant, each full warrant being exercisable for a period of 18 months from closing into one common share at a price of $0.09 per share subject to an acceleration clause note below.

The warrants, which form part of the non-flow through units, may have their expiry time accelerated at any time prior to the expiry of the Warrants if the volume weighted average trading price of the Corporation's shares on the TSX Venture Exchange is greater than 15 cents for 20 consecutive trading days, at which time the Corporation may give notice in writing to the Warrant holders within 10 days of such an occurrence that the Warrants shall expire on the 30th day following the giving of such notice.

Net proceeds will be used on the fall exploration program on the Aurex-McQuesten Project and for general working capital.  The remainder of the financing, which will consist of both flow through shares and non-flow through Units will be completed within the next two weeks to an overall total of $1,106 Million.

Banyan also wishes to announced that it will be raising up to $644k via Charity Flow Through Units priced at $0.077 per Unit.  The Units (up to 8,363,864 in total) will consist of 1 flow through share (within the meaning of Subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act (Canada)) and one half of a share purchase warrant exercisable at $0.09 for a period of 18 months from closing with the same acceleration clause as noted above.  Due to the mechanics of this financing it will be closing at a later date within the next two weeks and be backed by industry partners.

The shares issued will be subject to the customary four month and one day hold period.  No commissions will be paid for the offering.  The shares were offered for sale on a private placement basis pursuant to applicable exemptions from the prospectus and registration requirements.

Certain insiders of the company participated in the first tranche of the private placement. Such participation represents a related party transaction under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 -- Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions, but the transaction is exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 as neither the fair market value of the subject matter of the transaction, nor the consideration paid, exceed 25 per cent of the company's market capitalization. The private placement was approved by all of the independent directors of the company. Pursuant to the private placement, members of the board of the company subscribed for units in an aggregate amount of $22,000.

A video commentary of this news release by Banyan CEO Tara Christie can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QOa6USKhb8&authuser=2 or on the Company website.

About Banyan Gold

Banyan Gold is focused on gold exploration projects that have the geological potential, size of land package and proximity to infrastructure that is advantageous for a mineral project to have potential to become a mine. Our Yukon based projects both fit this model and our objective is to gain shareholder value by advancing projects in our pipeline.

The Hyland Gold Project, located 70km NE of Watson Lake, Yukon, along the southeast end of the Tintina Gold Belt is a sediment hosted, structurally controlled, intrusion related gold deposit, with a large land package (over 125 sq. km), with the resource contained in the Main Zone area (900x600m) daylighting at surface and numerous other known surface gold targets. The Main Zone oxide zone is amenable to heap leach open pit mining, with column leach recoveries of 86%. The project has an existing gravel access road.

The Hyland Main Zone Indicated Gold Resource Estimate, prepared in accordance with NI 43-101, at a 0.3 g/t gold equivalent cutoff, contains 8.6 million tonnes grading 0.85 g/t AuEq for 236,000 AuEq ounces with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 10.8 million tonnes grading 0.83 g/t AuEq for 288,000 AuEq ounces.

(1) Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate.

(2) Mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.3 g/t AuEq. AuEq grade is based on $1,350.00/oz Au, $17.00/oz Ag and assumes a 100% recovery. The AuEq calculation does not apply any adjustment factors for difference in metallurgical recoveries of gold and silver. This information can only be derived from definitive metallurgical testing which has yet to be completed.

The 9,230 ha Aurex-McQuesten Property lies in close proximity to both Victoria Gold's Eagle Project and Alexco Resource's Keno Hill Silver District and is highly prospective for structurally controlled, intrusion related gold-silver mineralization in relation to the Tombstone intrusive suite.  The property hosts numerous known gold targets and Banyan has developed a mineralization model at the McQuesten “Airstrip” Gold target, located adjacent to the main Yukon highway and just off the main access road to the Victoria Gold open-pit, heap leach Eagle Gold mine. The Property benefits from a 3-phase powerline, existing Yukon Energy Corp. switching power station and cell phone coverage.

Banyan trades on the TSX-Venture Exchange under the symbol “BYN”. For more information, please visit the corporate website at www.BanyanGold.com or contact the Company.

ON BEHALF OF BANYAN GOLD CORPORATION

(signed) "Tara Christie"

Tara Christie

President & CEO

For more information, please contact:

Tara Christie                                                    David Rutt   

Tel: (888) 629-0444                                         Tel:  (888) 629-0444

Email: tchristie@banyangold.com                  Email: drutt@banyangold.com

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT: Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. This news release contains forward-looking information, which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, Banyan’s objectives, goals or future plans, statements regarding exploration expectations, exploration or development plans and mineral resource estimates. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, uncertainties inherent in  resource estimates , capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, enhanced risks inherent to conducting business in any jurisdiction, and those risks set out in Banyan’s public documents filed on SEDAR. Although Banyan believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Banyan disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.

Statements in this news release regarding Banyan Gold which are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as “may”, “will”, “expect”, “estimate”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “believe” and “continue” or the negative thereof or similar variations.