Auryn Resources and North Country Initiate Exploration and Commence Drilling on the SW Region of the Committee Bay Gold Project

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jul 8, 2015) - Auryn Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:AUG)(GGTCF) ("Auryn"), and North Country Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE:NCG) ("North Country") are pleased to announce the initiation of a $4 million 2015 summer exploration program at the Committee Bay Gold Project ("Committee Bay") located in Nunavut, Canada. The 2015 exploration program will focus on existing drill-ready targets as well as new areas identified through a recently completed prospectivity analysis on the southwest region of the Committee Bay belt.

The completion of geological, geophysical, and geochemical analysis on the existing data from the Committee Bay project has resulted in the identification of several targets that are collectively considered as potential deposit "footprints" (please see Figure 1). These targets will be the focus of Auryn's and North Country's near-term exploration efforts in the Committee Bay belt. Further analysis across the central and northeast regions of Committee Bay are expected to be completed by Q4, 2015.

The focus of the summer program is to bring an innovative exploration approach to the Arctic with the goal of maximizing operational efficiencies to reduce the cost of drilling and regional exploration work. The exploration program will be comprised of 3,000 to 5,000 metres of rotary air blast ("RAB") drilling utilizing a light weight mobile drill, drone aerial imagery acquisition at 10 cm resolution across the entire project area, 60 line km of IP geophysics, structural mapping, and a till sampling program utilizing bulk cyanide leach methodology.

Shawn Wallace, President and CEO of Auryn stated, "The results of the comprehensive analysis completed to date further confirms the high prospectivity for gold exploration at the district scale Committee Bay project. This study reinforces our belief that this is an area that is vastly underexplored with numerous additional targets to be identified."

Brian Budd, President of North Country stated, "We are pleased to recommence joint exploration at Committee Bay where North Country's past exploration successes have established its significant gold endowment. Through collaboration with our partners we look forward to testing new and existing areas, methods and technologies during the 2015 campaign in order to unlock the full potential of the belt in 2016 and beyond."

The planned exploration program will focus on known and newly identified targets in the West Plains and Raven areas. Previous drilling highlights from these areas are listed in Table 1 below. The RAB drilling will focus on expanding known mineralized trends along strike as well as testing newly identified targets areas. Ground IP geophysical surveys and till sampling will be conducted across newly identified target areas prior to drill testing.

Notes:

¹ Drill hole intersections are recorded as down the hole lengths. True thicknesses of intersections are unknown.

* Please see press releases dated ²August 25^th, 2005, ³October 6^th 2006, and ⁴May 19^th, 2005 filed on Sedar under Niblack Mineral Development Inc.

On Behalf of Auryn Resources

Shawn Wallace

On Behalf of North Country Gold

Brian Budd

About the Committee Bay Gold Project

Committee Bay comprises one of a number of Archean aged greenstone belts occurring within the larger Western Churchill province of north-eastern Canada. The character and history of rock packages, and the timing and nature of mineralization occurring across the belt is considered to be equivalent to that of other significant gold bearing Archean greenstones within the same province, which host deposits such as Meadowbank and Meliadine.

About Auryn Resources and North Country Gold

Auryn is a junior mining exploration company focused on delivering shareholder value through project acquisition and development. The Company's management team is highly experienced with an impressive track record of success in the discovery, development, financing and monetizing of mining assets for shareholders.

On June 30, 2015, Auryn and North Country announced that they have entered into a letter agreement pursuant to which Auryn will acquire North Country under a plan of arrangement (the "Arrangement"). The consideration for 100% of the North Country shares which Auryn does not already own will be the issuance of approximately 13.8 million Auryn shares valued at approximately $20.4 million based on $1.48 per share volume weighted average price of Auryn shares on the TSXV for the 20-day period ending June 29, 2015. Under the proposed Arrangement, North Country shareholders will receive one Auryn share for each ten North Country common shares held at the time of completion of the Arrangement. The acquisition price represents a premium of 65.5% to the volume weighted average price of North Country shares on the TSX Venture Exchange for the 20-day period prior to June 30, 2015 and a 48% premium to the June 29, 2015 closing price of North Country (June 29, 2015 being the last trading day prior to announcement of the transaction).

Completion of the Arrangement is principally subject to negotiation of a definitive Arrangement agreement, special majority approval by North Country security holders, as well as TSX Venture Exchange approval and Alberta Queen's Bench Court approval. Full details of the Arrangement will be set out in North Country's information circular which will be prepared in respect of the meeting of security holders to consider the Arrangement. North Country intends to mail the information circular within the next 45 days. The transaction is expected to close before the end of September 2015. No broker's or success fees are payable in connection with the transaction.

The content of this news release and the technical disclosure has been reviewed and approved by Michael Henrichsen, COO, P.Geo., who is Auryn's Qualified Person as defined by NI 43‐101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. A detailed description of project's QA/QC program is provided on North Country's website at www.northcountrygold.com.

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 release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the company expects are forward-looking statements. Although the company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. The principal factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements in connection with this news release include the uncertainty of North Country shareholders approvals, and the outcome of regulatory and judicial approvals. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company's continuous disclosure filings that are available at www.sedar.com.

Auryn Resources Inc.
Jay Adelaar
Manager of Investor Relations
778.729.0600 / TF 1.800.863.8655
778.729.0650
www.aurynresources.com