January 18, 2021 – Equinox Gold Corp. (TSX: EQX, NYSE American: EQX) (“Equinox Gold” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce positive drill results from the Piaba Underground target (“Piaba UG”) and the Genipapo target (“Genipapo”) at the Company’s 100%-owned Aurizona Gold Mine (“Aurizona”) in Brazil.

“The 2020 Piaba underground drill program delivered exceptional results, with 96% of the holes intersecting significant gold mineralization. Drilling extended over 3 km of strike of the currently 4 km-long Piaba deposit and tested depths up to 1 km below surface,” said Scott Heffernan, EVP Exploration for Equinox Gold. “These results further strengthen the Company’s conviction that the Piaba underground deposit presents a substantial opportunity to both extend the mine life and increase annual production at Aurizona. Drilling at the Genipapo target also continues to demonstrate the potential to define open-pit, near-surface saprolite resources that could further extend the Aurizona mine life.

“The Company has planned a $7.3 million exploration program for 2021 at Aurizona, including 49,000 metres of drilling, with the objective of further expanding the Piaba resource and advancing the numerous high-priority, high-potential near-mine and regional targets in the Aurizona district. In addition, a prefeasibility study is underway to assess the potential to operate an underground mine concurrent with the existing open-pit mine, with completion of the study targeted for late 2021.”

Piaba Drill Highlights1 (Figure 1)

5.56 grams per tonne gold (“g/t Au”) over 24.0 metres (“m”) including 9.85 g/t Au over 11.0 m in D696
96.8 g/t Au over 1.0 m in D698
4.18 g/t Au over 11.0 m and 6.15 g/t Au over 11.0 m including 55.3 g/t Au over 1.0 m in D708
2.58 g/t Au over 19.2 m in D713
8.24 g/t Au over 6.0 m and 3.43 g/t Au over 15.0 m in D722
3.62 g/t Au over 9.0 m and 4.42 g/t Au over 11.0 m in D730
4.35 g/t Au over 37.0 m including 7.16 g/t Au over 10.0 m in D737
9.10 g/t Au over 6.0 m in D742
Genipapo Drill Highlights1 (Figure 3)

1.43 g/t Au over 25.0 m and 1.41 g/t Au over 90.0 m including 11.0 g/t Au over 4.0 m in P630
3.15 g/t Au over 19.0 m including 6.22 g/t Au over 9.0 m in P631
1.10 g/t Au over 20.0 m in P638
1.63 g/t Au over 17.0 m in P650
17.7 g/t Au over 5.0 m in P662
For a complete table of Piaba UG drill results, click here
For a complete table of Genipapo drill results, click here

1 Core lengths not corrected to true widths; assays are not capped.

Piaba Underground Deposit

A total of 23,916 m in 52 holes (Figure 1) were drilled in 2020 to increase confidence in the continuity of mineralization, expand the underground mineral resources and upgrade the classification of the resources from Inferred to Indicated to support completion of the prefeasibility study. Every hole intersected gold mineralization and 47 of the 49 holes, for which assays have been received thus far, intersected significant gold mineralization. The 2020 drill program tested the deposit to depths of 1,000 m below surface and results to date have shown that the deposit remains open at depth (Figure 2).

About Equinox Gold

Equinox Gold is a Canadian mining company with seven operating gold mines and construction underway at an eighth site, a multi-million-ounce gold reserve base and a clear path to achieve one million ounces of annual gold production from a pipeline of development and expansion projects. Equinox Gold operates entirely in the Americas, with two properties in the United States, one in Mexico and five in Brazil. Equinox Gold’s common shares are listed on the TSX and the NYSE American under the trading symbol EQX. Further information about Equinox Gold’s portfolio of assets and long-term growth strategy is available at www.equinoxgold.com or by email at ir@equinoxgold.com