VANCOUVER,  December 11, 2019 - Banyan Gold Corp. (the "Company" or "Banyan") (TSX-V: BYN) is pleased to announce results from the next four (4) diamond drillholes of  the recently completed 3,385m (26 hole) Phase 2 diamond drill program on the Company’s Aurex-McQuesten Gold Project near Mayo, Yukon.  Phase 2 drilling was designed to expand the strike length of the mineralization of Airstrip Block “1”, from 500 metres to >1 kilometre. These four holes, MQ-19-54 through 56 and MQ-19-64 extend and infill Airstrip mineralization over the first 250 metres east of this new zone from Block 1 and further validate the McQuesten Mineralization Geologic Model. 

East Airstrip Target returns broad intervals of gold mineralization including:

• 98 m of 0.71 g/t Au in MQ-19-54
• 53 m of 0.31 g/t Au in MQ-19-55
• 75 m of 0.47 g/t Au in MQ-19-56
• 45 m of 0.26 g/t Au in MQ-19-64

East Airstrip Target high grade highlights include:

• • 1.5 m of 7.77 g/t Au in MQ 19-54
  • 3.0 m of 4.76 g/t Au in MQ 19-54
  • 0.2 m of 16.9 g/t Au in MQ-19-56

“Airstrip Zone results continue to build out consistent, long intervals of near-surface gold mineralization within the host unit defined by Bayan’s geologic model.  Each successive drillhole in this new area meaningfully adds tonnage combined with higher-grade zones within a previously undrilled portion of the growing Airstrip Zone”, stated Tara Christie, President and CEO of Banyan.

Block “1” was defined at the Airstrip Zone in 2018, and outlines approximately 500 metres of strike length of a well behaved, ~90 m thick prospective lithological package preferentially mineralized with gold which exists near and on surface. These latest drillholes, together with previously announced drill holes MQ-19-52 and MQ-19-53 (See Company News Release of December 2, 2019) represent continued step out drill fence lines nominally spaced at 100m intervals along trend of the postulated Eastern extent of Block ”1”. This Phase 2 drill program tested an area approximately 400m east of Block “1” of the Airstrip Zone Mineralized trend.

Table 1: Drill hole highlights:

*True widths are estimated to be greater than 90% of the reported intervals

Holes MQ19-46, 52 through56 and MQ-19-64 (see News Release December 2^nd 2019) add 250m of continuous mineralization to the eastern boundary of block 1 mineralization. In addition to this increased mineralized strike extension, the mineralization remains open down dip.

Sections and plan maps of results will be made available on the Company website.

About Aurex-McQuesten

The Aurex-McQuesten property is just 40 km from Victoria Gold Corp.’s Eagle Gold mine and adjacent to Alexco Resource Corp’s highly mineralized Keno Hill Silver.  The Airstrip and Powerline Zones are located just off the main Yukon Government highway between Mayo and Keno. The property has numerous historic exploration roads and trails and has cell phone coverage. The 3-phase powerline from the hydroelectric dam in Mayo passes through the property, as well as, the switching station and spur power line to Victoria Gold. There is an existing airstrip on the property and the Mayo airport is a 20 minute drive on the highway from the property.

Technical Information

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.

Analytical Method

All drill core and RC splits collected from the 2019 Aurex-McQuesten program were analyzed at Bureau Veritas Minerals of Vancouver, B.C. utilizing the aqua regia digestion ICP-MS 36-element AQ200 analytical package with FA450 50-gram Fire Assay with AAS finish for gold on all samples. All core samples were split on-site at Banyan’s core processing facilities in Elsa, Yukon. Once split, half samples were placed back in the core boxes with the other half of split samples sealed in poly bags with one part of a three-part sample tag inserted within. All RC samples were split in the field with a 3-tier riffle splitter with 87.5% of the sample being stored in a reject poly bag and 12.5% of the sample in a submittal poly bag. Once split, both poly bags were sealed with one part of a three part sample tag inserted within.  Samples were delivered by Banyan personnel or a dedicated expediter to the Bureau Veritas, Whitehorse preparatory laboratory where samples are prepared and then shipped to Bureau Veritas’s Analytical laboratory in Vancouver, B.C. for pulverization and final chemical analysis. A robust system of standards, ¼ core duplicates and blanks, was implemented in the 2019 exploration drilling program and was monitored as chemical assay data became available.

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.

 (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.