Vancouver, Canada – October 6, 2016 – Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSX-V: BAY) (“Aston Bay” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that the Company has completed the summer exploration program at the Storm Property, Somerset Island, Nunavut and is providing a preliminary update. Further updates will be provided as results are received.

During the 2016 exploration season, the Company drilled 1,951.1 metres (m) of core in 12 drill holes and collected 2,005 soil samples over an area of approximately 120 km north-south and 20 to 40 km east-west on the property. Exploration drilling was conducted at a number of specific geophysical and structural targets in the vicinity of the 4100N Zone, the 2750N Zone, and at the Tornado and Hurricane target areas.

Assays for much of the drill core and soil samples are pending. The Company encountered visual copper mineralization in three of the 12 holes; results for these three holes have been received and a summary of the assays is provided in Table 1, below. All three of these holes intersected copper mineralization, potentially extending the 4100N Zone up to 225 m east and 100 m north of its known extent, with a best intersection of 16 m of 3.07% copper (Cu) and 12.26 grams per tonne (g/t) silver (Ag) in hole STOR1601D, starting at a downhole depth of 93 m. The drill hole intersection contains a higher grade zone of 8 m of 5.45% Cu and 22.73 g/t Ag (Table 1). The true widths of the intersected zones are unknown but are estimated to be approximately 75 to 100% of the core width intersected.

Table 1. Preliminary Results from the 2016 Drilling Program

Assays for the remaining core and soil samples are pending, with results expected within the next six to eight weeks. In addition, borehole electromagnetic (EM) surveys were conducted on several of the holes, and 60 core samples from the current program and historic core were taken for geophysical properties measurements.

“The significance of these mineralized intersections is greater than just a potential increase in the extent of the 4100N Zone,” stated Thomas Ullrich, COO and EVP Exploration for Aston Bay. “The drill program interrogated the historic geophysical database and successfully identified copper mineralization associated with an untested geophysical target. The knowledge gained from this, together with the borehole EM surveys and geophysical properties measurements, greatly increases our ability to effectively guide potential geophysical surveys and intelligent drill hole targeting for future programs at Storm.”

Further to Aston Bay’s news release dated May 31, 2016, the field season was funded pursuant to the Company’s Option Agreement with BHP Billiton (the “Option Agreement”).

Qualified Person

As per National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, Michael Dufresne, M.Sc, P.Geol., P.Geo., a Director and a consultant to Aston Bay, is the Qualified Person for the Company and has prepared, validated and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release. The Company strictly adheres to CIM Best Practices Guidelines in conducting, documenting, and reporting its exploration activities on the Storm Project.

Quality Assurance – Quality Control

Once received from the drill and processed, all drill core samples are sawn in half, labelled and bagged. The remaining drill core is stored in Yellowknife at a secure facility. Numbered security tags are applied to lab shipments for chain of custody requirements. The Company inserts quality control (QC) samples at regular intervals in the sample stream, including duplicate samples, blanks and reference materials with all sample shipments to monitor laboratory performance. The QAQC program was designed and approved by Michael Dufresne, the Qualified Person.

Drill core samples are submitted to ALS Geochemistry’s analytical facility in Yellowknife where the samples are initially prepped and then sent to North Vancouver, British Columbia for additional preparation and analysis. The ALS facility is accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard for precious and base metal assays and all analytical methods include quality control materials at set frequencies with established data acceptance criteria. The entire sample is coarse crushed with approximately 250 grams extracted and pulverized. Samples are initially analyzed using a 48 multi-elemental geochemical package by a 4-acid digestion, followed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS).

About Aston Bay Holdings Ltd.

Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSX-V: BAY) is a publicly traded mineral exploration company focused on the 976,066-acre (395,000-hectare) Aston Bay Property located on northwest Somerset Island, Nunavut. The Aston Bay Property hosts the Storm Copper project and has been optioned by BHP Billiton. Historical drilling has confirmed the presence of sediment-hosted copper and zinc mineralization on the property.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Benjamin Cox, Chief Executive Officer

Telephone: (360) 262-6969

For further information about Aston Bay Holdings Ltd or this news release, please visit our website at www.astonbayholdings.com.

About BHP Billiton Ltd.

Further information on BHP Billiton can be found at: bhpbilliton.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. 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 news release contains certain statements that may be deemed “forward-looking statements”. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words “expects”, “plans”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “projects”, “potential” and similar expressions, or that events or conditions “will”, “would”, “may”, “could” or “should” occur. 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 may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company’s management on the date the statements are made. In the event that management’s beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

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