The winter 2017 program will consist of a minimum 35,000 m of diamond drilling using seven drill rigs. Four drill rigs are now fully operational on the Arrow Deposit directed at continued expansion as well as delineation drilling.? The remaining three drill rigs are on site, and will commence drilling on or before January 26, 2017 with one additional rig to be added on to Arrow (total of 5 rigs dedicated to Arrow expansion and delineation drilling), one rig on the northeast ZTEM target (600 m northeast of Arrow), and one rig on the southeast VTEM target (400 m southeast of Arrow). The winter 2017 program is budgeted at C$14M and is fully funded with cash on hand of approximately C$70M.

Three Primary Objectives of the Winter 2017 Drill Program:

  1. Growth of the Arrow Deposit through continued aggressive step-out drilling focused on expanding known mineralization.? This includes identifying new zones of mineralization by drilling large, untested portions of all of the shears at Arrow both laterally and along strike.
  2. Continued infill drilling at Arrow to tighten drill spacing from more than 50 m by 50 m down to 25 m by 25 m spacing in preparation of development studies and planning.
  3. Assessment of high priority regional targets that are in close proximity to the Arrow Deposit including targeting potentially new shear zones northwest and southeast of Arrow.

Continued expansion of the Rook I camp, environmental and engineering studies will be carried out in conjunction with the winter drill program.? The Rook I camp has undergone infrastructure expansion to accommodate increased exploration/development activity and personnel.??

Leigh Curyer, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "The team is thrilled to begin the eagerly anticipated winter 2017 drill campaign. This program is directed at further expanding and defining Arrow together with testing high priority regional targets beyond the updated Arrow mineral resource estimate scheduled for late Q1/Q2 (which is based on drilling completed to the end of 2016). In addition, environmental and engineering studies are advancing throughout 2017 which will be incorporated into the various feasibility studies in the future."

Drilling at the Arrow Deposit:

Five drill rigs will be utilized on the Arrow Deposit with drilling to focus on resource expansion and the discovery of new lenses in large untested areas of all the mineralized shears (A1 to A5). ?In addition, tightening drill hole spacing (25 m by 25 m) in proximity to strongly mineralized zones within the A2 and A3.? All rigs at Arrow will utilize Devico directional drilling technology.?

Drilling Regional Targets within the Patterson Corridor:

Targeting will focus on the recent ZTEM anomalies that correlate strongly with existing target areas in close proximity to the Arrow Deposit.? Drilling will focus on geophysical signatures that have similarities to that of the Arrow Deposit, and include but are not limited to: ZTEM resistivity lows, offset and broken VTEM conductors, strong low or steep gradient in the magnetic and gravity data. These include potentially targeting new shear zones northwest of the A1 shear and southeast of the A5 shear (see Figure 1).

Project Development Activities:

NexGen is rapidly advancing Arrow towards development whilst expanding the resource base.? Camp facilities will continue to expand in 2017 to accommodate these activities although most major preparations ahead of development activities were undertaken in 2016 including completion of a 13km all-weather access road.? Geotechnical, hydrogeological, metallurgical, community consultation, and environmental studies are continuing concurrently with the winter drill program and beyond.? These studies will form the basis of further development work including development studies and permitting activities.

Technical Information

All scientific and technical information in this news release has been prepared by or reviewed and approved by Mr. Garrett Ainsworth, P.Geo., Vice President – Exploration & Development for NexGen. Mr. Ainsworth is a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), and has verified the sampling, analytical, and test data underlying the information or opinions contained herein by reviewing original data certificates and monitoring all of the data collection protocols.