Ms. Christina McCarthy of i-80 Gold reports

I-80 GOLD COMPLETES ACQUISITION - HIGH-GRADE FAD DEPOSIT

i-80 Gold Corp. has completed its acquisition of Paycore Minerals Inc., owner of the FAD property, which hosts the high-grade FAD deposit, located immediately south of, and adjoining, i-80's 100-per-cent-owned Ruby Hill property in Eureka county in Nevada.

This transaction was completed by way of a plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) and consolidates and enhances i-80's exposure to one of the world's premier re-emerging carbonate replacement deposit (CRD) districts, while also providing i-80 with 100-per-cent ownership of the FAD deposit, one of the highest-grade polymetallic deposits in North America. Once the current infill and expansion drill program is completed, the FAD deposit is expected to add to the company's impressive resource base.

Paycore's common shares are expected to be delisted from the TSX Venture Exchange within three to five business days. Pursuant to the arrangement, Paycore shareholders received 0.68 of an i-80 common share for each common share of Paycore held. Each Paycore warrant and Paycore option is exercisable for i-80 common shares, as adjusted in accordance with the exchange ratio under the arrangement.

Acquisition highlights:

• Consolidates the most productive part of the Eureka district: adds 1,468 hectares to land package;
• FAD deposit historical resource: 3,540,173 tonnes (t) at 5.14 grams per tonne (g/t) gold (Au), 196.46 g/t silver (Ag), 8.0 per cent zinc (Zn), 3.8 per cent lead (Pb);
• Positive results from Paycore drilling in 2022:
  • PC22-07:
    • 1.1 g/t Au, 155.5 g/t Ag, 22.0 per cent Zn and 1.5 per cent Pb over 12.5 metres (m);
    • 2.0 g/t Au, 231.6 g/t Ag, 6.3 per cent Zn and 3.7 per cent Pb over 44.8 m;
  • PC22-08:
    • 7.1 g/t Au, 376.3 g/t Ag, 6.3 per cent Zn and 10.3 per cent Pb over 14.8 m;
  • PC22-10:
    • 8.0 g/t Au, 79.0 g/t Ag, 10.0 per cent Zn and 1.0 per cent Pb over 27.4 m;
    • 1.8 g/t Au, 318.0 g/t Ag, 4.6 per cent Zn and 6.1 per cent Pb over 7.4 m.

Prior to the discovery of Carlin-type mineralization by Homestake at Ruby Hill in the 1990s, the Eureka district enjoyed a successful history (1864 to 1966) that resulted in some of the world's highest-grade CRD mines. The district produced approximately 1.6 million ounces (oz) of gold at an average grade of 0.8 oz per ton (27.4 g/t Au) and 39 million oz of silver at an average grade of 19.5 oz per ton (668.6 g/t Ag) from 2.0 million tons mined (also reported 625 million pounds (lb) lead at 15.6 per cent Pb), with most of the production from the original Ruby Hill mine, located on the FAD property. The FAD deposit is the downdip extension of the original Ruby Hill mine and was successfully expanded in a 2022 drill campaign with mineralization that remains wide open for expansion.

"The expanded land package at Ruby Hill will allow i-80 to aggressively pursue the optimization of the company's multiyear development plan and to realize its goal of creating one of the largest U.S.-focused diversified mineral producers," stated Matthew Gollat, executive vice-president of i-80 Gold. "As we complete work related to the restart of our two processing facilities, Lone Tree for gold and Ruby Hill for polymetallics, the addition of the FAD deposit to our impressive portfolio will be considered in our future sequencing plans."

"The FAD deposit represents one of North America's highest-grade undeveloped deposits that fits perfectly into our 2023 exploration program, where we have an expanded focus on defining polymetallic mineralization in the Eureka district to better assess the economic opportunity," stated Tyler Hill, senior geologist of i-80 Gold. "High-grade polymetallic deposits like FAD are rare, with grades that are expected to rival many of the world's premier polymetallic deposits like Agnico's LaRonde mine in Quebec."

The FAD deposit is located within the Hilltop corridor approximately 2.0 kilometres (km) south of the Hilltop discovery made by i-80 in mid-2022 and the property expands i-80's exposure along the favourable structure by approximately 2.5 km. In addition to continuing drilling at FAD, multiple drill rigs are aggressively defining and expanding mineralization at Hilltop, a series of high-grade CRD zones located on the south side of the Archimedes pit, where previously released results from 2022 drilling include 515.3 g/t Ag, 28.9 per cent Pb, 10.5 per cent Zn and 0.9 g/t Au over 28.3 m in hole iRH22-43 (upper Hilltop), 1.9 g/t Au, 631.3 g/t Ag, 7.4 per cent Zn and 33.0 per cent Pb over 18.3 m in hole iRH22-53 (upper Hilltop), 60.2 g/t Au, 908.7 g/t Ag, 1.1 per cent Zn and 15.7 per cent Pb over 10.0 m in hole iRH22-55 (upper Hilltop), and 12.3 per cent Zn over 39.6 m in hole iRH22-61 (east Hilltop) (see i-80's news releases dated Aug. 30, 2022, and Nov. 14, 2022).

"I would like to thank all of the Paycore shareholders for their support since Paycore started trading and we look forward to participating in the future success of i-80 Gold," commented Christina McCarthy, president and chief executive officer of Paycore Minerals.

A relogging program was completed on holes drilled by Paycore in 2022. During this program, an unsampled upper mineralized horizon was identified in several holes. These intervals were subsequently sampled, with highlight results included in the attached table.

FAD is one of several deposits within the Hilltop corridor, a plus-2.0-kilometre-long, alluvial-covered trend immediately south of the Archimedes pit that is believed to be host to multiple feeder fault structures and is largely untested by previous drilling owing to the alluvial cover. The Hilltop discoveries were made in the second half of 2022 exploration campaign while testing one of several brownfield exploration targets identified proximal to the Blackjack (skarn) deposit, confirming the company's belief that the Ruby Hill property could be host to multiple types of mineralization and several large-scale deposits. Additional high-grade CRD discoveries have been made in 2023, extending mineralization along the Hilltop fault over a strike length of approximately 750 metres.

Geophysical surveys completed at Ruby Hill have identified several highly prospective anomalies that are believed to have the potential to represent additional massive sulphide targets. Several of these anomalies will be tested in the 2023 drilling program. Additional geophysical surveys will be completed in the near future to cover the southern extension of the Hilltop corridor and the FAD property.

The Ruby Hill property is one of the company's primary assets and is host to the core processing infrastructure within the Eureka district of the Battle Mountain-Eureka trend, including an idle leach plant and an active heap leach facility. The property is host to multiple gold, gold-silver and polymetallic (base metal) deposits. The company has submitted for approval its plan to develop an underground mine at Ruby Hill with mineralization accessed via a ramp from the Archimedes open pit. Work is also progressing for the completion of updated mineral resource estimates (gold and polymetallic zones) and an initial economic study for the gold zones (only).

Quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) procedures

All samples were submitted to ALS Minerals, of Sparks, Nev., which is an ISO 9001 and 17025 certified and accredited laboratory, independent of the company. Samples submitted through ALS are run through standard prep methods and analyzed using Au-AA23 (Au; 30-gram fire assay; ALS) and ME-ICP61a (33-element suite; 0.4-gram four-acid/ICP-AES; ALS). Overlimit samples of Ag, Pb and Zn are analyzed by ore-grade methods comprising HF-HNO3-HClO4 digest, HCl leach and ICP-AES. Additional samples overlimit ore-grade methods are analyzed by acid dissolution and titration. ALS also undertakes its own internal coarse and pulp duplicate analysis to ensure proper sample preparation and equipment calibration. i-80 Gold's QA/QC program includes regular insertion of CRM standards (gold and polymetallic), duplicates and blanks into the sample stream with a stringent review of all results. For QA/QC regarding Paycore Minerals results, please see Paycore Minerals' Dec. 6, 2022, news release.

Qualified person

Tyler Hill, CPG-12146, senior geologist at i-80, is the qualified person for the information contained in this news release and is a qualified person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101.

About i-80 Gold Corp.

i-80 Gold is a well-financed, Nevada-focused, mining company with a goal of achieving mid-tier gold producer status through the development of multiple deposits within the company's advanced-stage property portfolio with processing at i-80's centralized milling facilities. i-80 Gold's common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the NYSE American under the trading symbol IAU and IAUX, respectively.

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