TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Dec. 20, 2016) - Red Pine Exploration Inc. (TSX VENTURE:RPX) ("Red Pine" or the "Company") has received results for holes sampled as part of its sampling program of historic core at its Wawa Gold Project. The Company has also completed two additional boreholes (SD-16-44 and SD-16-45) of its on-going exploration program.

Highlights from the Sampling Program include:

• 6.38 metres @ 14.94 g/t gold in hole U0590L3, including 109 g/t over 0.86 metre in previously un-sampled core, and 20.27 metres @ 2.63 g/t gold in U0678L5 (Figure 1 and Table 1);
• The discovery of additional gold in three gold zones in the hanging wall of the Surluga Deposit; and
• An increase in the gold weighted average (sum of individual intercepts gold grade times length) for 10 of the 25 sampled holes, and an average increase of the intersection length in 7 of the 25 holes (Table 1).

Highlights from the on-going Drilling Program include:

• Visible gold¹ at three separate locations in the hanging wall of the Jubilee Shear Zone (hole SD-16-44) (Figure 1);
• Visible gold¹ in a quartz vein in the hanging wall of the Jubilee Shear (hole SD-16-45) (Figure 1);
• Visible gold¹ in 4 discrete locations in the Jubilee Shear Zone between 148.5 and 160.7 metres (hole SD16-45) outside the current pit constrained resource.

Quentin Yarie, President and Chief Executive Officer of Red Pine states, "We are quite surprised to see that material containing up to 109 g/t gold was left un-sampled in the Surluga Deposit. This illustrates the untapped potential of the Surluga Deposit left by the partial sampling of the main ore structure by previous operators. We are also pleased to see that the core sampling program continues to have positive impacts on the gold weighted average for some of the sampled holes.

The observation of visible gold¹ in multiple quartz veins in the hanging wall of the Jubilee Shear Zone, in both SD-16-44 and SD-16-45, indicate the potential of the hanging wall of the deposit to host gold mineralization. The observation of multiple spots with visible gold¹ in the Jubilee Shear Zone in SD-16-45 indicates that this hole may have intersected an extension of the high-grade core of the Surluga Deposit."

Sampling of historic core
Red Pine's current sampling of 42,000 metres of historic drilling (from 318 underground and 119 surface drill holes) continues to define additional gold in many of the historic boreholes that intersected the Jubilee Shear Zone, host of the Surluga Deposit² - a 1.088 million ounces inferred resource. The Company concluded that the sampling gaps left in the Surluga Deposit were negatively impacting the inferred resource since all these un-sampled intervals were assigned a value of 0 g/t gold in the last resource statement. The spatial distribution of the historic boreholes with notable gold weighted average increases will positively change the current deposit model (Figure 1).

On-going Drilling Program
The on-going diamond drill program is focussed on expanding the Surluga Deposit to the north. Hole SD-16-44 targeted the Surluga Deposit in the area where the core sampling program identified 109 g/t gold over 0.86 metre in previously un-sampled material in hole U0590L3 (Fig. 1). Hole SD-16-44 successfully intersected the Jubilee Shear Zone between 143.03 and 192 metres⁴, as well as the Surluga Road Shear Zone between 221.25 to 245.78 metres⁴. In addition, hole SD-16-42 intersected two zones of quartz stringers, one between 37.8 and 52 metres⁵ and the other one between 58.32 and 65.37 metres⁵. Each zone of quartz stringer includes one vein observed to contain visible gold¹. Hole SD-16-44 also intersected a quartz vein with visible gold¹ at 2.78 metres.

Hole SD-16-45 is drilled from the same location as SD-16-44 and targeted the interpreted extension of a high-grade zone in the northernmost extension of the Surluga Deposit (Figure 1). Hole SD-16-45 successfully intersected the Jubilee Shear Zone 40 metres up-dip of SD-16-44, along the same section. In the Jubilee, visible gold¹ was observed at four different locations at 148.1m, 153m, 155.88m and 160.72m.

Table 1 - Before and after³ intersections above 0.2 g/t gold

Other Activities at the Wawa Gold Project
Red Pine continues to sample historic core. The Company expects additional results from its on-going exploration program in the coming weeks.

On-site Quality Assurance/Quality Control ("QA/QC") Measures
Drill core samples are transported in security-sealed bags for analyses at Activation Laboratories Ltd. in Timmins, Ontario. Individual samples are labeled, placed in plastic sample bags and sealed. Groups of samples are then placed into durable rice bags that are then shipped. The remaining coarse reject portions of the samples remain in storage at the Activation Laboratories Ltd. in Timmins, Ontario if further work or verification is needed.

Red Pine has implemented a quality-control program to comply with best practices in the sampling and analysis of drill core. As part of its QA/QC program, Red Pine inserts external gold standards (low to high grade) and blanks every 20 samples in addition to random standards, blanks, and duplicates.

Qualified Person
Quentin Yarie, P Geo. is the qualified person responsible for preparing, supervising and approving the scientific and technical content of this news release.

About Red Pine Exploration Inc.
Red Pine Exploration Inc. is a gold and base-metals exploration company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Company's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "RPX". 

Red Pine has a 30% interest in the Wawa Gold Project and has entered into a Joint Venture Agreement with Citabar LLP and Augustine Ventures Inc. The Wawa Gold Project is now owned by Citabar/Red Pine/Augustine in the ratio of 40%, 30% and 30%, respectively. Under the terms of the JVA, Red Pine is the Operating Manager and continues to explore and advance the current gold resource on the property.

Red Pine and Augustine have entered into a definitive agreement (November 14, 2016) to consolidate their ownership of the Wawa Gold Project.

For more information about the Company visit www.redpineexp.com.

¹Gold visible with the naked eye - "visible gold"

²NI 43-101 inferred resource of 1,088,000 ounces of gold at a 1.71 grams per tonne (g/t) using a 0.40 g/t gold cut-off grade for pit-constrained and 2.50 g/t gold cut-off grade for underground-constrained resources, contained in 19.82 million tonnes open along strike and at depth. The Cut-off grades are based on a gold price of US$1,250 per once and a gold recovery of 95 percent (Mineral Resource Statement*, Surluga-Jubilee Gold Deposit, Wawa Gold Project, Ontario, SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc (effective May 26, 2015)). The report is available on www.SEDAR.com under Red Pine's profile.

³Before results are entirely historical and are based on assay results obtained during drill programs conducted between 1961 and 1989 by previous operators of the Wawa Gold Project. After results represents the combination of the historical results with the new assay results obtained by Red Pine Exploration as part of its sampling program. Red Pine's sampling of the core involves re-measuring the historical boreholes and sampling the un-sampled core pieces left in the historical intersections. A full QA/QC program is implemented as part of Red Pine sampling program. All the sampled historical boreholes with the new sample locations are also systematically photographed as part of the sampling protocols.

⁴Drilling intersections in the Jubilee Shear Zone and Surluga Road Shear Zone are estimated to be greater than 85% true width.

⁵As they were just discovered, the true width of the stringer zones remain unknown.

Cautionary Statement

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This News Release contains forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may", "should", "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "estimates", "predicts", "potential" or "continue" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.

Figure 1. Overview of the historic drill holes with weighted average increase and 2016 drill holes: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/RPX1220.jpg