Xtra-Gold Resources Corp. (TSX: XTG) (OTCQB: XTGRF), is pleased to announce positive results for initial phase of an ongoing drill program designed to generate new resource expansion targets within the Zone 2 – Zone 3 maiden mineral resource footprint area, on the Company’s wholly-owned Kibi Gold Project, located in the Kibi – Winneba greenstone belt, in Ghana, West Africa. A total of 16 diamond core boreholes totaling 1,643 metres were completed by the Company’s in-house drilling crew on an intermittent basis from September 2019 to January 2020. The drill program is designed to follow up on early stage gold shoots / showings discovered by previous drilling / trenching efforts and to test prospective litho-structural gold settings identified by recently completed 3D geological modelling.

Highlights of today’s drill results are as follows and complete auriferous intercepts are listed in Table 1 below:

– 49 metres grading 1.1 grams per tonne (“g/t”) gold, including 1.42 g/t gold over 31.6 metres and 45.1 metres grading 1.51 g/t gold, including 2.24 g/t gold over 26.4 metres from down-hole depths of 47 metres and 32 metres in #KBDD19304 and #KBDD20306 respectively, on adjacent 25 metre spaced drill-fan patterns (Road Cut Zone);

– gold mineralization now traced over an approximately 110 metre strike length and to 90 metre vertical depth on the Road Cut Zone; with newly developing gold body lying within 65 metres of the southern margin (footwall) of the flagship Big Bend gold deposit;

– step-out drilling successfully traced gold mineralization over an approximately 200 metre strike length of the host diorite body to the southeast of the South Ridge gold deposit; including exploration significant drill intercepts of 1.5 metres grading 4.94 g/t gold and 6.2 metres grading 0.87 g/t gold in #KBDD19297 and #KBDD19303 respectively.

James Longshore, President and CEO remarked: “Recent core relogging and detailed 3D geological modelling of the maiden mineral resource footprint area as allowed our exploration team to gain a better understanding of the litho-structural controls of the gold mineralization. Through enhanced drill targeting we have now upgraded the Road Cut Zone to a potential resource expansion opportunity strategically located along the footwall of the Big Bend gold deposit. This new geological insight has also permitted us to identify several potential resource expansion targets for follow up drilling along the over 2.5 kilometre trend-length of the Zone 2 – Zone 3 Granitoid-hosted gold system.”

The Big Bend deposit has a current indicated mineral resource of 213,000 ounces of gold (2.72 million tonnes at an average grade of 2.44 g/t gold) and an additional inferred mineral resource of 27,000 ounces of gold (0.52 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.6 g/t gold). The Big Bend deposit, along with the East Dyke, South Ridge and Mushroom deposits in Zone 2 and the Double 19 deposit in Zone 3, form part of a maiden mineral resource estimate (October 26, 2012) on the Company’s Kibi Gold Project. In aggregate, these five gold deposits lying within approximately 1.6 kilometres of each other are estimated to encompass an indicated mineral resource of 3.38 million tonnes grading 2.56 g/t gold for 278,000 ounces of contained gold and an additional inferred mineral resource of 2.35 million tonnes grading 1.94 g/t gold for 147,000 ounces of contained gold (@ base case 0.5 g/t cut-off). The Zone 2 – Zone 3 maiden mineral resource represents the first ever mineral resource generated on a lode gold project within the Kibi Gold Belt. Gold mineralization is characterized by auriferous quartz vein sets hosted in Belt-type granitoids geologically analogous to other “Granitoid-hosted” gold deposits of Ghana, including Kinross Gold’s Chirano and Newmont Mining’s Subika deposits in the Sefwi gold belt. The above mineral resource estimate was filed in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) requirements with the Technical Report entitled “Independent Technical Report, Apapam Concession, Kibi Project, Eastern Region, Ghana“, prepared by SEMS Explorations and dated October 31, 2012, filed under the Company’s profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

The present drill results correspond to the initial 16 boreholes (1,643 metres) of an ongoing exploration initiative geared towards the generation of new resource expansion targets within the Zone 2 – Zone 3 maiden mineral resource footprint area of the Kibi Gold Project; with drilling designed to follow up on early stage gold shoots / showings discovered by previous drilling / trenching efforts (2008 – 2012) and to test prospective litho-structural gold settings identified by recently completed 3D geological modelling. The diamond core boreholes ranging in length from 51 metres to 139 metres were completed by the Company’s in-house drilling crew on an intermittent basis from September 24, 2019 to January 27, 2020. Holes reported today encompass #KBDD19294 – #KBDD20309, including: 8 holes (790.5 metres) on the Road Cut zone; 4 holes (468 metres) on the South Ridge – SE Extension target; 2 step-out holes (232 metres) on the South Ridge deposit; and 2 holes (152.5 metres) targeting a trench showing. Exploration significant auriferous intercepts are presented in Table 1 and a drill / compilation plan with collar details depicted in Figure 1, available at:

( Figure 1 Zone 2 Drill Plan Feb 26 2020)

The Road Cut Zone was subjected to follow up drilling (8 holes) with North-South drill targeting based on recent detailed geological modelling work. Previous drilling efforts primarily tested the Road Cut Zone with ESE-trending boreholes targeting the zone’s internal NNE-striking / WNW-dipping vein packages rather than the easterly trending / northerly dipping mineralization system. Mineralized intercept highlights from the original 2011 drilling include 30 metres grading 0.79 g/t gold, including 1.05 g/t gold over 19 metres from a down-hole depth of 34 metres in #KBDD11144; and 15 metres grading 0.79 g/t gold and 4 metres grading 2.14 g/t gold from down-hole depths of 3 metres and 60 metres respectively in #KBDD11174 (see the Company’s news releases of November 9, 2011 and December 15, 2011 respectively).

The present drilling tested the ENE-trending / steep northerly dipping Road Cut auriferous system over an approximately 100 metre strike length, including: three (3) south trending drill-fan patterns (-55^o / -75^o) at 25 metre spacing and two (2) northerly trending boreholes (scissor-pattern) designed to further define the geometry / attitude of the host diorite body and of the gold-bearing vein system. Mineralized intercept highlights include 49 metres grading 1.1 g/t gold, including 1.42 g/t gold over 31.6 metres and 45.1 metres grading 1.51 g/t gold, including 2.24 g/t gold over 26.4 metres from down-hole depths of 47 metres and 32 metres in #KBDD19304 and #KBDD20306 respectively, from the deeper (-75^o) boreholes on adjacent 25 metre spaced drill-fan patterns. #KBDD19301 corresponding to a north trending borehole (scissor-pattern) on the same section as the #KBDD19304 – #KBDD20305 drill-fan returned an intercept of 15.5 metres grading 1.05 g/t gold, including 1.6 g/t gold over 5.5 metres from a down-hole depth of 46 metres.

To date gold mineralization has been traced over an approximately 110 metre strike length and to a 90 metre vertical depth on the Road Cut Zone; with the newly developing gold body lying within 65 metres of the southern margin (footwall) of the Kibi Gold Project’s flagship Big Bend gold deposit. The Road Cut auriferous vein system is emplaced in a parallel diorite body exhibiting a similar NW to ENE flexure in strike-geometry has the flexure appearing to control the Big Bend deposit gold mineralization.

Step-out drilling (4 holes) successfully traced gold mineralization over an approximately 200 metre strike length of the host diorite body to the southeast of the South Ridge gold deposit. Of exploration significance are typical Kibi-type granitoid hosted gold mineralization intercepts produced by a drill-fan pattern (-60^o / -80 ^o) collared approximately 200 metres southeast of the South Ridge resource body, including: 5.2 metres grading 0.41 g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 62.8 metres in the upper #KBDD19302 hole; and 6.2 metres grading 0.87 g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 73 metres in the lower #KBDD19303 hole, approximately 25 metres down dip from the #KBDD19302 intercept. Hole #KBDD19297 corresponding to a 100 metre step-out from the South Ridge deposit returned 1.5 metres grading 4.94 g/t gold.

QA/QC

Yves P. Clement, P. Geo, Vice President, Exploration for Xtra-Gold is acting as the Qualified Person in compliance with National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”) with respect to this announcement. He has prepared and or supervised the preparation of the scientific or technical information in this announcement and confirms compliance with NI 43-101. All samples in this news release were analyzed by standard fire assay fusion with atomic absorption spectroscopy finish at the ISO 17025:2005 accredited Intertek Minerals Limited’s laboratory in Tarkwa, Ghana. Xtra-Gold has implemented a rigorous quality assurance / quality control program to ensure best practices in sampling and analysis of drill core, trench channel, and saw-cut channel samples, the details of which can be viewed on the Company’s website at www.xtragold.com.

About Xtra-Gold Resources Corp.

Xtra-Gold is a gold exploration company with a substantial land position in the Kibi Gold Belt. The Kibi Gold Belt, which exhibits many similar geological features to Ghana’s main gold belt, the Ashanti Belt, has been the subject of very limited modern exploration activity targeting lode gold deposits as virtually all past gold mining activity and exploration efforts focused on the extensive alluvial gold occurrences in many river valleys throughout the Kibi area.

Xtra-Gold holds 5 Mining Leases totaling approximately 226 sq km (22,600 ha) at the northern extremity of the Kibi Gold Belt. The Company’s exploration efforts to date have focused on the Kibi Gold Project located on the Apapam Concession (33.65 sq km), along the eastern flank of the Kibi Gold Belt. The Kibi Gold Project (Zone 2 – Zone 3) maiden mineral resource estimate produced by Xtra-Gold in October 2012 represents first ever mineral resource generated on a lode gold project within the Kibi Gold Belt. The NI 43-101 Technical Report entitled “Independent Technical Report, Apapam Concession, Kibi Project, Eastern Region, Ghana“, prepared by SEMS Explorations and dated October 31, 2012, is filed under the Company’s profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.