NewCastle Gold Completes Drilling of a New Potential Production Water Well Within Permitted Mine Boundary

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - July 25, 2017) - NewCastle Gold Ltd. (TSX: NCA) ("NewCastle Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to report initial results from the water supply drilling program (the "Program") on its Castle Mountain gold project (the "Project"), located in San Bernardino County, California. These results follow positive initial water exploration results that were previously reported in the press release dated April 16, 2017. The Program involves drilling two large 12-inch diameter holes and installing 8-inch casing to develop production water wells, which will be followed by pump testing and monitoring.

This Program forms part of the ongoing hydrogeological investigations aimed at identifying additional sources of water as part of the pre-feasibility study scheduled for release at the end of 2017 and in support of potentially restarting the operation in 2018.

Water well CMM-W-2 was completed to total depth of 1,973 feet below ground surface, and intersected the water table at a depth of 450 feet. The target for this well is a deeply fractured area of bedrock identified by our geological team and tested in the previous program. Water well CMM-W-2 showed an average pumping rate of 169 gallons per minute ("gpm") during a five hour preliminary well test, and up to 200 gpm locally during the drilling of the well using the 'airlift' capacity of the drill rig.

Gerald Panneton, President and CEO commented: "We are very pleased with the preliminary results of this program as we went from 120 gpm in the previous water test well up to 200 gpm in the current water production well with the only change being the diameter of the hole being drilled. The previous diameter was 5.5 inches, compared to the latest 12 inches. After we complete the second production well (CMM-W-1), we will perform the long-term pump tests and subsequent monitoring. These two (2) new wells, along with our existing wells, could provide us with enough water to sustain the restart of the operation."

Water wells CMM-W-1 and CMM-W-2 were drilled along a 10 km long, north-south trending structure identified through satellite imagery, regional gravity surveys and subsequent surface geological mapping. Areas of highest groundwater water flow appear to coincide with this deep-seated feature. CMM-W-1 is in the vicinity of the JSLA backfilled open pit, and CMM-W-2 is located further south on the same structure. Preliminary results from CMM-W-2 indicate initial water flow rates exceeding 200 gpm during several occasions in the well's development, with an airlift average of 169 gpm during the final five hour development test. The pumping rate was limited by the compressor capacity of the drill, rather than the potential yield of the well, and the ultimate long-term capacity of the well has the potential to be higher. Additionally, during this five hour preliminary evaluation test, the water level in the well showed negligible drawdown. The location of the wells can be seen on the attached maps (Figures 1 and 2).