Argonaut Gold Appoints New Chief Operating Officer to Lead Pivotal Phase

TORONTO, February 1, 2023 /CNW/ – Argonaut Gold Inc. (TSX: AR) (the “Company”, “Argonaut Gold” or “Argonaut”) announced today Marc Leduc, P.Eng. was appointed as the company’s chief operating officer.

“Marc and I have worked closely together at Barrick Gold and most recently in a private company. I believe Marc has the right skillset to facilitate Argonaut’s repositioning into a lower cost North American gold company with significant organic growth opportunities,” he said Richard Young, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Marc will work with our team to complete and commission our flagship Magino mine in New York ontarioAssessing the potential for operational improvements and sulphide potential at Florida Canyon in Nevada and pursuing organic growth opportunities within our Mexican asset portfolio.”

Mr. Leduc’s career spans more than 40 years and encompasses all aspects of the mining cycle. He has been involved in the exploration, design, permitting, construction, commissioning and operation of gold mines, including many complex heap leach projects. Mr. Leduc is both a professional mining engineer and a geologist.

Since 2006, Marc has held senior positions at several public companies, including serving as interim President and CEO of NewCastle Gold, one of the companies that was part of a three-way merger to form Equinox Gold. At NewCastle Gold, Marc led the design team that redesigned the Castle Mountain heap leach project California into a mine with 4.2 million ounces of reserves and is expected to produce 218,000 ounces of gold per year. Marc was also an integral part of the design, permitting, construction and commissioning team at Barrick Gold’s Pierina mine in Peru, one million ounces per year heap leach operation. Additionally, Marc has worked on projects across America including Cerro San Pedro in Mexico, and Aurizona in Brazil. Most recently, Marc was COO at Kore Mining focused on the Imperial heap leach project based in California.

Marc Leduc stated, “Argonaut has significant organic growth potential as the Company transitions to a lower-cost producer in North America. Having worked with Richard in the past, I look forward to the opportunity to join the Argonaut team which is in the final stages of building and ramping up operations in the second quarter as well as optimizing and growing all of our operations and development assets .With a strong focus on open pit and heap leach gold operations, we will work together to continue to grow our portfolio of assets.”

Lowe Billingsleythe company’s current chief operating officer, is stepping down to pursue other opportunities but will assist with the transition and remain an advisor to the company through the first quarter of this year.

“On behalf of the company, I would like to thank Lowe for his contribution to Argonaut and wish him every success in the future,” said Mr. Young.

About Argonaut Gold

Argonaut Gold is a Canadian exploration, mine development and production gold company. The Company is in the final stages of construction of the Magino mine in Ontario, Canada. Magino will be the Company’s largest and lowest cost gold mine. Commissioning is scheduled for Q2 2023 followed by commercial production in Q3 2023. In addition, the Company has four operating mines including the Florida Canyon mine Nevada, United Statesthe El Castillo my and San Augustine mine that together form the El Castillo Complex in Durango, Mexico and the La Colorado mine clean sonoran, Mexico. The Company is also in the advanced exploration phase Cerro del Gallo Project and several other exploration stage projects, all located in North America. Additional information on the Company’s material properties is available in the reports listed below on the Company’s website or at www.sedar.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain “forward-looking statements” and “forward-looking information” under applicable Canadian securities laws relating to the business, operations and financial performance and condition of Argonaut Gold. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, statements related to: risks associated with adhering to the Magino Construction Project schedule; the completion of mineral reserve estimates; the timing and amount of estimated future production; the impact of inflation on exploration, development and production costs; estimated production and mine life of Argonaut’s various mineral projects; risk of employee and/or contractor strikes; timing of approval for changes to existing approvals; permitting and legal processes relating to mining permits and permits; the future price of gold; the estimation of mineral reserves and resources; success of exploration activities; the impact of COVID-19, government responses to COVID-19 and the effectiveness of such responses; and exchange rate fluctuations. Except for statements of historical fact regarding Argonaut, certain information contained herein are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often identified by words such as “plan,” “expect,” “project,” “intend,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” and other similar words, or statements about specific events or conditions “may,” “should” or “will” occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the time the statements are made and are based on a number of assumptions and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Many of these assumptions are based on factors and events beyond Argonaut’s control, and there are no assurances that they will prove to be correct.

These factors are discussed in more detail in Argonaut’s most recent Annual Information Form and Management’s most recent Discussion and Analysis filed on SEDAR, which also contain additional general assumptions related to these statements. Argonaut cautions that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive. Investors and others who base themselves on forward-looking statements should carefully consider the above factors, the uncertainties they represent and the risks involved. Argonaut believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, however, there can be no assurance that these expectations will prove to be correct and undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking statements contained in this press release. These statements speak only as of the date of this press release.

Contact for more information:

Argonaut Gold Inc.
Johanna Longo
Investor Relations
Telephone: 416 575 6965
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