Argonaut Gold Exceeds 2012 Guidance with Gold Production of 108,081 Ounces

Q4 Gold Production of 25,805 Ounces at El Castillo; 6,195 Ounces at La Colorada

Toronto, Ontario – (January 17, 2013) Argonaut Gold Inc. (“Argonaut Gold” or the “Company”; TSX: AR), announced today that the Company achieved record gold production of 32,000 ounces during the 4th quarter ended December 31, 2012. This included 25,805 ounces at its 100% owned El Castillo Mine (“El Castillo”) in Durango, Mexico and 6,195 ounces at its 100% owned La Colorada Mine (“La Colorada”) in Sonora, Mexico. All dollar amounts are in US dollars except as otherwise noted.

FOURTH QUARTER 2012 HIGHLIGHTS: El Castillo

•  Record production of 25,805 gold ounces (+31% improvement over Q4 2011)

•  39,329 gold ounces loaded on the pad (+30% improvement over Q4 2011)

•  West Side Pad 8 construction moving forward; first cell to be loaded starting in Q2 of 2013

  La Colorada

•  Production of 6,195 gold ounces and 47,890 silver ounces

•  8,845 gold ounces and 815,219 silver ounces loaded on the pad

•  Phase 2 pad construction is 65% complete

•  Crushing circuit relocated and fully operational

o Final crushing circuit expansion scheduled for early in Q2 of 2013  Overburden removal commenced in the La Colorada/Gran Central pit

Financial

•  Year-end cash balance was $191 million as of December 31, 2012, of which C $115 million for warrant exercises was included

•  Fourth Quarter sales of 29,500 ounces of gold and 70,910 ounces of silver

  Full year 2012

 Total production of 108,081 ounces of gold (+50% over 2011) o El Castillo 87,712 ounces (+22% over 2011)
o La Colorada 20,369 ounces

El Castillo In Pit Sulphide Mineralization

 Over 360,000 gold ounces have been added to El Castillo’s in-pit resources. The additional sulfide mineralization is divided into two categories including non-silicified sulphides and silicified sulphides; this provides 22.6 million tonnes at a grade of 0.504 g/t. The majority of

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