Asanko GOLD Acquires Large, Highly Prospective Miradani GOLD Project, Adjacent to Asanko GOLD MINE

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PRESS RELEASE

ASANKO GOLD ACQUIRES LARGE, HIGHLY PROSPECTIVE MIRADANI

GOLD PROJECT, ADJACENT TO ASANKO GOLD MINE

Highlights:

 Acquisition of large, highly prospective Miradani Project, adjacent to the Asanko Gold Mine

 Miradani Project sits on an existing mining lease, which will enable potential mineral resources to

be accelerated to production

 Historic trenching results include individual 1.5m trench samples assayed up to 47.3 g/t , which

indicate significant grade intersections

 Based on historic trenching and extensive artisanal workings, h uge potential to increase Asanko’s

resource base within trucking distance of the processing facility

 Three main targets identified, Miradani, Central, and Tontokrom , extending over 800m, 320m and

850m respectively, consisting of multiple mineralized zones of up to 37m each in width

 Drilling program on Miradani, Central and Tontokrom to commence in Q4 2017

 Targeting maiden Mineral Resource Estimate in H2 2018

Vancouver, British Columbia, September 22, 2017 – Asanko Gold Inc. (“Asanko” or the “Company”) (TSX,

NYSE American: AKG) is pleased to announce it has acquired ownership of the Miradani Mining Lease (the

“Miradani Project”), which is adjacent to the Asanko Gold Mine (“AGM”) in Ghana, West Africa (see

Figure 1) from AngloGold Ashanti . Acquisition costs of t he Miradani Project, which bear standard

Government of Ghana royalty interests, are not disclosed and are not material.

Covering an area of approximately 15 km2, the Miradani Project is on an existing mining lease (valid until

May 2025) which will enable potential mineral resources to be accelerated to production. The northern

boundary of the concession is located approximately 5.5 km south of the AGM’s processing plant on the

NE-SW Asankrangwa structural corridor. The underexplored Asankrangwa Gold Belt is about 7 km wide and

over 50 km long. The area is highly prospective with multiple geochemical anomalies aligning with the

structures interpreted from the airborne VTEM and magnetic surveys completed by Asanko in 2015 .

Asanko holds the largest land package on this Belt and it hosts all of the Company’s 5.1 million ounces of

reserves (see Figure 1).

Three significant initial target areas along the main structural trend, Miradani, Central, and Tontokrom,

have been identified . A phased drilling campaign is expected to commence in Q4 2017, with a view to

completing a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate in H2 2018. Historical trench and soil geochemistry data,

along with recent mechanized artisanal mine workings, indicate that each target area consists of multiple

parallel mineralized zones, individually ranging between 3m and 37m in width . Individual 1.5m trench

samples assayed up to 47.3 g/t.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Peter Breese, President and CEO, said “The Miradani Project is a

very exciting exploration project with huge potential to increase our resource base and contribute to our

future growth. Located next to our current operation and within trucking distance , the Miradani Project

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comes with the advantage of being on an existing mining lease , which means that we will be able to

accelerate the development timeline from resource delineation to production.

Historic trenching indicates there are at least three main zones of mineralization across the project area and

the extensive artisanal workings confirm gold is present. We have identified t hree drill ready targets which

we will start to drill in the coming quarter and we look forward to updating the market further during

H1 2018.”

Figure 1: Asanko Gold Mine Tenement Area

Geology

The Asankrangwa Belt is defined by NE-SW trending primary and secondary lineaments providing conduits

for gold bearing fluids and sites for metal deposition. The Miradani Project is underlain by the lower

Birimian system (metasediments) of the Kumasi Basin generally consisting shallow marine of siltstones,

sandstones, shales and volcaniclastics, and are intruded locally by sizeable mica -rich granitoid plutons. The

metasediments are regionally metamorphosed to greenschist facies and sometimes host disseminated

sulphides and carbonates. Pyrite, the most prevalent sulphide, is most often oxidized to limonite or leached

out leaving cubic casts. Metasediments of the Kumasi Basin have well developed schistosity parallel to

bedding and striking northeast usually between 25° - 35° and often dip steeply to either northwest or

southeast.

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Mineralization

Gold deposits found on the Asankrangwa Gold Belt are shear zone hosted orogenic gold de posits. Gold

mineralization is generally free gold within quartz carbonate veins hosted within marine sediments and

smaller granitic intrusions coincident with the structural corridors. Deposits generally occur at or near

intersections of deep crustal primary and secondary shear zones, or in flexures in the shear corridors. The

structural architectu re and controls on mineralization of the Asankrangwa Belt has been extensively

studied and interpreted by Asanko . T his understanding forms the basis for all prospectivity studies and

exploration targeting.

Major primary shear structures pass through the Miradani Project and the target areas are located at the

intersection of secondary structures . These primary structures are parallel to similar structures hosting all

of the other AGM deposits. The SW ( Miradani), Central, and NE (Ton tokrom) portions of the Miradani

Project are highly prospective and contain extensive historic gold in soil anomalies and fall at areas of

structural complexity. In addition to the Miradani targets , multiple other high priority exploration targets

have been identified in areas of coincident structural complexity and geochemical anomalies (see Figure 2).

Three walk up drill targets have been clearly defined from historic trenching and soil geochemistry results

as well as intensive mechanized artisanal mining.

Figure 2: Newly Acquired Miradani Tenement

All known mineralization on the Miradani Project is within 11.5 km of the A GM processing facility . The

project area contains 1 km of the Datano Shear corridor, host to th e Midras South exploration target, and

3.2 km of the Fromenda Shear corridor which hosts the Fromenda deposit. Along both shear zones, intense

levels of recent large scale, mechanized, a rtisanal mining are apparent. The Fromenda Shear in particular

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displays strong indications of multiple mineralized zones along the entire 3. 2 km strike within the Miradani

Project. Zones of large scale a rtisanal mining suggest impressive widths of mineralization in exce ss of 80m

in places. The e xtensive artisanal workings are on alluvial , colluvial, and hard rock deposits and the

depletion of oxide resources is expected in places. This trend, referred to as the Miradani Trend, is shown

in Figure 3.

Figure 3: The Miradani Trend showing the Miradani, Central Zone, and Tontokrom targets

Historic Work

Asanko has not had access to the full historical data or the QAQC around such data and therefore no

mineral resource or mineral reserve estimates can be inferred from the historic data presented below. The

historic work conducted on the Miradani Project area is supplied for information purposes alone . Asanko

will be conducting a comprehensive drilling program across the project area to delineate a Mineral

Resource Estimate.

The Miradani Project area has been a target for exploration since the beginning of the 2 0th century. From

1900-1914, Ashanti Rivers and Concession Limited did intensive exploration on the Miradani area but no

records of their work survived to this day except a map of an adit in which 10 -13dwts (1dwt=1.56 grams =>

15 – 17 g/t Au) gold was reported over 1m sampling intervals of quartz veins.

Between 1994-1996 Ashanti Goldfields Corporation (“AGC”) carried out soil geochemistry on a grid pattern

of 200/400 x 20 meters and various trenching programs along a 13.5 km strike across the Miradani and

Datano mining leases. Significant historic trench intercepts are shown in Table 1 in the Appendix.

Trench intercepts were generated using a 0.3 g/t Au cut-off, a minimum intercept of 3m, and no more than

3m of internal waste. Historical assay and QAQC information is not available but through ground

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confirmation, the locations of the trenches were verified. In addition to ground truthing, the fact that the

artisanal mine pits match exactly the mineralization intercepts and trends observed in the trench data

provides Asanko with no reason to doubt their accuracy and will act as a guide for follow up drill testing.

AGC were able to delineate a NE -SW trending anomaly consistent with their structural interpretations.

Following successful geochemistry programs, AGC completed 84 trenches covering 7 ,690m of length at

30m intervals over a 3. 2 km strike length and delineated three major gold mineralization horizons

extending over 350, 170m and 550m to the NE and SW. Up to five mineralized lense s ranging between 3

and 37m width and gold grades of 0.5g and 47.3g/t were encountered. Based on the 1996 trench sampling,

an inferred resource of 409,000 tonnes @ 2.5 g/t gold (33,000 o unces) was estimated from surface to 20m

depth.

During 2015 Asanko co mpleted a heli copter borne VTEM survey over the Asankrangwa Belt , including the

Miradani Project. 2D and 3D geological and geophysical i nterpretations and associated prospectivity and

targeting exercises of the Asankrangwa structural corridor highlighted the Fromenda shear zone , and

especially the Miradani/Tontokrom area as a highly prospective corridor.

Miradani Target

The Miradani target is the furthest south west target on the trend. 27 historical trenches were dug on the

Miradani target, of which 22 were crossed the trend. Of these, 15 recorded significant intercepts over a

strike of approximately 300m. Post trenching, mechanized artisanal mining has appeared to increase the

strike by an additional 200m, which will require further verification by the Asanko exploration team. Figure

4 below shows high definition Li dar pho tograph captured in November 2016 with the historic trench

locations and intercepts shown. The photo shows the extent of intensive mechanized artisanal mining

which has delineated areas of potential mineralization. Both the trench data and artisanal mine workings

indicate that there are multiple parallel trends at the Miradani target.

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Figure 4: Miradani target showing historical trench data and extent of mechanized alluvial mining

The Central Zone Target

The Central Zone Target, aptly located between the Miradani and Tontokrom t argets, has had 12 trenches

dug in the area, of which four were excavated on or near the trend (see Figure 5). Mechanized artisanal

mining activities have opened up 240m of continuous excavations. While the Central Zone target does not

appear to have the width of the other two targets, it appears to be continuous along stri ke. The Central

Zone is separated from the Miradani target to the southwest by a low l ying area which has subsequently

been filled with artisanal mining tailings and it is likely that it is an extension of the Miradani Trend.

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Figure 5: Central Zone Target showing historic trenches and extent of small scale mining operation

Tontokrom Target

The Tontokrom target has had the least amount of trenching, but the most amount of mechanized artisanal

mining. Five trenches were dug in the Tontokrom area, with four crossing or coming near to the

mineralized trend. Tontokrom has been subjected to organized and sustained small scale mechanized

mining activity for over 25 years. What remains of their activities is a benched pit estimated to be

approximately 30m deep and over 200m in strike (see Figure 6). The pit has since filled with water but

intensive small scale mining has continued on the edges and along strike indicating multiple zones of

mineralization and strike continuation . The Tontokrom deposit appears to be hosted within a granite

intrusion coin cident with the structure and in the sediments surrounding it which suggests analogies to

both Nkran and Akwasiso.

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Figure 6: Tontokrom Target showing historic trenches and extent of small scale mining operation

Drill Ready Targets

Asanko is optimistic about the large -scale potential of the Miradani Project based on the historic work by

AGC (now AngloGold Ashanti) as well as the large scale mechanized artisanal workings, which were focused

on alluvial, colluvial and in-situ mineralization. The first three exploration targets have been identified and

are “walk-up” drill ready targets, Miradani, Central and Tontokrom.

Following the recent government initiative to curb illegal mining in Ghana this year, all mechanized

artisanal mining has ceased on the Miradani Project. Community engagement is underway and this will be

completed ahead of the drill program, which is expected to commence in Q4 2017. A maiden Mineral

Resource Estimate is targeted for H2 2018.

Qualified Person Statement

Benjamin Gelber P.Geo, Manager: Generative Exploration is the Asanko Qualified Person , as defined by

Canadian National Instrument 43-101 (Standards of Mineral Disclosure), who has approved the preparation

of the technical contents of this news release.