Aris Gold issues statement about recent trading and activity

VANCOUVER, BC, April 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Aris Gold Corporation (Aris Gold or the Company) (TSX: ARIS) (OTCQX: ALLXF) received a request from the OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTC Markets) on April 19, 2021 to comment on recent trading and promotional activity related to Aris Gold's common shares. The Company believes the increased trading volume on April 19, 2021 prompted the OTC Markets to contact the Company. Aris Gold cannot predict with any certainty whether its active investor relations and outreach program, a summary of which is provided below, or its new corporate branding, disclosed growth strategy, investor marketing programs or activities, may have materially affected the recent trading activity in the Company's common shares.

Following the launch of Aris Gold on February 4, 2021, management embarked on an active investor marketing program to build brand awareness, increase visibility and importantly, increase share trading activity. The marketing program has included numerous calls and meetings with US and Canadian shareholders, bank analysts, bank and brokerage house sales desks, newsletter writers, and media. Since February 4, 2021 the Company has also attended a number of mining investment conferences including the BMO Global Metals and Mining Conference and the Red Cloud Pre-PDAC Conference in March, and the World Gold Forum during the second week of April. Finally, there has been significant public disclosure, both in press releases and in the Company's Canadian regulatory filings, summarizing the Company's successes, plans and strategy.

As part of its investor relations program, Aris Gold retained Red Cloud Financial Services, a full-service broker/dealer offering investor outreach, non-deal marketing, research coverage, and investment banking/advisory services to Canadian mining companies. Aris Gold management has made several presentations to Red Cloud's team and clients, including a webinar on April 15 that was widely viewed by retail and institutional shareholders. Red Cloud also published a research report on Aris Gold on April 5, 2021 which summarized the Company's annual financial results and was exclusively distributed to Red Cloud's client base which includes over 300 institutional accounts, 1,500 retail brokers, 150 private equity groups and 250 strategic mining investors.

Aris Gold also engaged Wealth Research Group LLC, an independent media company, to provide marketing services with a one-time media campaign. On April 15, 2021, Wealth Research Group, through other third-party service providers, commenced a one-time media campaign that includes written materials containing information from Aris Gold's public filings and publicly available investor presentation, together with discussions with management about the Company and its strategy. Management understands that on April 19, 2021 Wealth Research Group sent an email, through Future Money Trends and NAI, to its subscribers summarizing the Company's public disclosure and publicly available investor presentation. Wealth Research Group prepared the materials used in the media campaign from the Company's public filings and maintained editorial control over content. Aris Gold did not have any editorial control over the content other than to confirm factual matters related to the Company were correct.

In Aris Gold's opinion, none of the statements of fact related to Aris Gold made in the promotional materials distributed by Red Cloud or Wealth Research Group are materially false and/or misleading.

In addition, Aris Gold retained Renmark Financial Communications, a full-service investor relations firm representing small, medium and large cap public companies trading on all major North American exchanges. From its four offices in North America, Renmark's team of 30 investor relations professional reaches over 800 influential financial advisors per day.

In conjunction with the above-mentioned corporate changes the Company's new board of directors and management team led a C$85 million private placement financing. The financing was announced by the Company on November 23, 2020 and was priced at C$2.25 per unit with each unit comprised of one common share of the Company and one common share purchase warrant convertible to one common share at a price of C$2.75 until July 29, 2025. The purchase price for a unit represented a 14% premium to the closing price of the Company's common shares on the date prior to announcement. The common shares and share purchase warrants were subject to a four-month statutory hold period which expired on April 4, 2021 at which time approximately 37.8 million of the Company's common shares and the share purchase warrants became free trading.

Separately, on July 29, 2020, the Company completed a bought deal financing for aggregate gross proceeds of C$50 million. A total of 22,222,222 special warrants of the Company were sold at a price of CA$2.25 per special warrant. Each special warrant entitles the holder thereof to receive one unit of the Company on the exercise or deemed exercise of the special warrant, with each unit comprising one common share of the Company and one common share purchase warrant convertible to one common share of the Company until July 29, 2025 at a price of C$2.75 per common share (subject to adjustment in certain events). The price of the special warrants represented a 15% discount to the closing price of the Company's common shares on the date of issuance.

Since February 4, 2021, and to the knowledge of the Company, prior to that time, Aris Gold has complied with its reporting requirements in Canada and disclosure requirements of the OTCQX, including press releases and updates on the status of its business and operations at the Marmato Mine.

Following an inquiry with management, the directors, and control persons, Aris Gold can confirm that other than participation of certain directors and officers in the above-described C$85 million financing, none of its officers, directors or shareholders owning 10% or more of the Company's securities, have bought or sold shares since February 4, 2021 when the new board of directors and management team were appointed. To the best of the Company's knowledge, none of the third-party service providers mentioned above have sold or purchased the Company's securities in that time frame either.

Aris Gold routinely responds to inquiries from shareholders, potential investors and investment analysts and prepares its own investor relations materials. As such, Aris Gold urges its shareholder base and followers to review the Company's website (www.arisgold.com) and its filings on SEDAR. Any investor seeking to verify whether a publication was disseminated by Aris Gold can email [email protected].

About Aris Gold

Aris Gold is a Canadian mining company listed on the TSX under the symbol ARIS. The Company is led by an executive team with a demonstrated track record of creating value through building globally relevant gold mining companies. Aris Gold operates the Marmato mine in Colombia, where a modernization and expansion program is underway, and the Juby project, an advanced exploration stage gold project in the Abitibi greenstone belt of Ontario, Canada. Aris Gold plans to pursue acquisition and other growth opportunities to unlock value creation from scale and diversification.

Additional information on Aris Gold can be found at www.arisgold.com and www.sedar.com.

SOURCE Aris Gold Corporation