Ashanti Gold Corp. Corporate Update

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 10, 2017) - Ashanti Gold Corp. (TSXV: AGZ) ("Ashanti" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an important corporate update on its gold exploration projects in West Africa.

Mali

The Phase 1 drill program for the Company's Kossanto East project (the "Project") announced on June 12, 2017 has now been completed. The program consisted of 53 holes, each between 100m to 150m deep, totaling 6,073-metres of reverse circulation drilling ("RC") on the Gourbassi East and Gourbassi West mineralized zones.These zones have been the subject of an historic resource estimate prepared for Alecto Minerals PLC by Wardell Armstrong in 2014 (see: http://www.alectominerals.com/operations/kossanto_east.html).

The Company's program was designed to expand areas of known mineralization as well as test the strike and dip continuity of mineralization within the limits of the historic resource estimate which encompasses an area approximately 50m x 800m at each of the Gourbassi East and Gourbassi West zones.At Gourbassi East, multi-stage gold-bearing quartz veins and veinlets crosscut silica-carbonate-altered rhyolitic rocks.At Gourbassi West, gold occurs in association with silicified felsic volcanic breccia.At both locations, gold mineralization is hosted by a thick sequence of felsic volcanic rocks inferred to occur near the top of the greenstone belt rocks that constitute the Birimian Kenieba Inlier of western Mali, eastern Senegal and eastern Guinea.

Samples have been sent to SGS Laboratory in Bamako, Mali, where they will be tested by standard 50 gram fire assay.Results are anticipated to be available in August, 2017.

Historical data

In 2014, Alecto Minerals PLC completed reverse circulation and diamond drilling programs to test previously identified mineralization at Gourbassi East and Gourbassi West.Key intercepts of gold mineralization from that historic program are shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1
Highlights of Historic Drill Intercepts

* Note all assay results represent intercept lengths and are not true widths.

Ghana

Following Ashanti's completed phase 1 drill program on the Anumso project in March 2017, the Company has sent material for metallurgical test work at Blue Coast Group in Parksville, B.C. Canada. The test work will establish gold recovery rates as well as be a first step towards building an optimal recovery methodology. In addition, Ashanti has commenced a soil sampling program to test for new mineralized zones along the two main conglomerate horizons running southwest to northeast on the Anumso license area. The Company is planning both trenching and a phase 2 drilling program for 3Q2017.

In June 2017, management meetings with regulatory authorities in Ghana regarding the Kinross/Red Back licenses demonstrated favorable progress and the Company is proactively working to perfect past license documentation imperfections needed to bring the licenses into good standing and trigger Ashanti's earn-in option with Kinross (see press release of February 15, 2017).

Grant of Incentive Stock Options, Settlement of Debt for Equity

Ashanti also announces that, pursuant to its Incentive Stock Option Plan, it has granted incentive stock options to directors and officers of the Company to purchase up to an aggregate of 300,000 common shares in the capital stock of the Company. The options are exercisable on or before July 10, 2019 at a price of $0.30 per share. The Company also intends to issue 200,000 shares to a consultant for past services rendered. This share issuance is subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange.

ABOUT ASHANTI GOLD

Ashanti is a gold-focused, exploration and development company with advanced projects in the northern Ashanti Belt of Ghana and the Kenieba Belt of Mali.The Company targets projects where existing work demonstrates attractive potential for near-term mine development and where it has a competitive advantage due to past work experience of the team and specific project know-how.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of
ASHANTI GOLD CORP.

"Tim McCutcheon"

Tim McCutcheon
CEO

For further information, please contact:

Ashanti Gold Corp.
2300 - 1177 West Hastings Street
Vancouver BC, V6E 2K3
Phone: 604-638-3847

Qualified Person

The information presented in this Press Release has been reviewed by Dr. Paul Klipfel CPG of Mineral Resource Services Inc. and a Qualified Person as defined by Canadian NI 43-101. Dr. Klipfel is not an Independent Person, as he is a shareholder of Ashanti.

Historical Data

The historical estimates of inferred resources at Gourbassi East and Gourbassi West were developed by Alecto Minerals PLC and are considered relevant by the Company. Ashanti is advised that such estimates are compliant with JORC rules of disclosure, however the Company has not independently verified such data, the Company's qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources, the Company is not treating the historical estimates as current mineral resources, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance thereon.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the anticipated content, commencement, timing and cost of exploration programs, anticipated exploration program results, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, the state of the financial markets for the Company's equity securities, the state of the commodity markets generally, variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located, variations in the market price of any mineral products the Company may produce or plan to produce, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required, including TSXV acceptance, for its planned activities, the inability of the Company to produce minerals from its properties successfully or profitably, to continue its projected growth, to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Company's latest interim Management Discussion and Analysis and filed with certain securities commissions in Canada. All of the Company's Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the technical reports filed with respect to the Company's mineral properties.