Northern Gold’s Infill Drilling Improves Resource Confidence at Garrcon

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Below, we’ve included a map showing the location of the Great Bear Project in Ontario, Canada. The project is located within the Archean aged (2.5+billion years old) Abitibi Greenstone Belt, an economically important region that hosts major crustal fault systems associated with base and precious metal deposits. The deposits itself is a low grade (~1 g/t) gold deposit which the company is hoping to prove up as a large tonnage open pit mine.[/box]

Drill assay highlights for the drill holes include:

• 4.79 g/t Au over 10.0m (181.0 to 191.0m) GAR-12-207
• 38.35 g/t Au over 8.0m (287.0 to 295.0m) GAR-12-213
• 4.79 g/t Au over 7.0m (293.0 to 300.0m) GAR-12-237
• 7.90 g/t Au over 5.0m (572.0 to 577.0m) GAR-12-261

Martin Shefsky, President and CEO of Northern Gold, comments: “These results represent the balance of the drilling program at Garrcon. Mineralized intercepts from infill drilling in the upper portions of the main Garrcon deposit confirm previous drilling and should increase resource confidence. New higher grade mineralized intercepts below the existing resource show potential for resource expansion.”

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Below, we’ve included a map showing the location of drill-hole collars at the Garrcon Gold Deposit.[/box]

Garrcon Shaft Zone

Drill holes GAR-12-206, 207, 213, 246, 251, 252, 254 were vertical and angled infill drill holes in the central portion of the Garrcon Shaft Zone. The vertical holes targeted deeper mineralization below the proposed pit floor to investigate down dip potential as seen in holes GAR-12-204, 205 (press released May 9, 2012 and January 31, 2013, respectively). Grades in the upper portions of these holes largely agreed with previous drilling and will increase resource confidence; several higher grade intercepts intersected below the proposed pit floor show potential for deeper mineralized zones. The intersection of bonanza type grades in hole GAR-12-213 exhibits one of the richer portions within the deposit.

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]The bonanza-type grade in hole GAR-12-213 was obtained from a vertical hole. There is a real risk when drilling vertical holes that their trajectory may be parallel or very oblique to the mineralization. If this happens the apparent thickness or downhole length of the mineralized zone may appear quite thick. In other words, the greater-than-an-ounce grade they obtained from drilling could be quite thin, i.e. less than 1 metre. If this is so then the interval may not be a true bonanza zone as there may not be sufficient volume to it. Sometimes, exploration companies will purposely drill parallel to the zone of mineralisation just to see what the grade variability is like within the mineralized zone. Of course, vertical holes are fine when drilling relatively flat lying mineralized zones because they intersect at right angles giving correct thicknesses.[/box]

Garrcon North Zone/Green Zone

Drill holes GAR-11-172, GAR-12-226-228, 237, 250, 253, 270 were drilled to target mineralization around the periphery of the Garrcon deposit in the North Zone and/or Green zone horizons. Numerous narrower zones of mineralization were intersected.

Garrcon East

Drill holes GAR-12-261, 266-268 were angled drill holes designed to test the strike extension of shaft zone type mineralization along the footwall of the Destor-Porcupine fault. Each of the holes intersected deep gold mineralization in metasediment near the contact. This is largely viewed as the down plunge extension of the Garrcon shaft zone and has extended the total strike length to 1,600 metres.

Drill holes GAR-12-242X and 229 tested shallow mineralization along the Garrcon north contact but intersected only anomalous values.

Table 1 – Garrcon Assay Results * – These results are significant drill assays from 21 drill holes on the Garrcon Deposit.

Notes

• reported intervals are downhole lengths and not true widths. High grade assays are cut to 34.28 g/t Au
• NSV – no significant values
• intervals may be rounded to the nearest 0.1 metre
• *hole GAR-12-242X is an extension of GAR-12-242 starting at 189 metres and extended 108 metres for a total length of 297 metres

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]The high grade assays are “cut” to 34.28 g/t Au. This smoothes the data somewhat, reducing the spikiness of the data set. By doing this a more consistent and reliable resource model can be generated. Gold assays commonly suffer from the “nugget effect”. This is because gold tends to be deposited as coarse clumps rather than as fine dispersed particles.[/box]

Table 2 – Location and Initial Orientation of Drill Holes

The Garrcon drill plan and cross sections will be posted on the Company’s website at: http://northerngold.ca/golden-bear-project/garrcon-deposit.

Quality Assurance/Quality Control

Northern Gold has implemented comprehensive, industry standard quality-assurance, quality-control protocols for diamond drilling, core recovery, handling, sampling, shipping and assaying. Details of these best practice principals can be viewed on the Company’s website at: www.northerngold.ca/QA-QC.php.

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]This is a good idea providing a link to Northern Gold’s QA/QC protocols. However, upon review of this document a couple of things stood out. Northern Gold states that they routinely drill with an NQ size. Drill-core comes in various sizes including; PQ which is 85.0 mm in diameter, HQ is 63.5 mm and NQ is 47.6 mm. Northern Gold claims that the NQ drill-core size provides a good sample size. However, this may not be the case if the gold is coarse and not evenly distributed through the drill-core. When it comes to reducing the “nugget effect” caused by coarse gold, larger sample sizes are always recommended. Normally, HQ should be used unless there is good technical reason why it can’t. Likewise for the fire assays, a 50 g aliquot would’ve been better than a 30 g aliquot. The larger sample sizes minimise the “nugget effect” providing more reliable resource modelling. Northern Gold may have made these choices to reduce their exploration costs but this could have affected data quality.[/box]

The technical aspects of this press release have been reviewed and approved by Gary Nassif, M.Sc., P.Geo., Manager Exploration Services of Northern Gold and the “Qualified Person” as defined by National Instrument 43-101 for the Golden Bear Project.

About Northern Gold

Northern Gold is a TSXV-listed gold company based in Toronto, Ontario. The Company’s main focus is the exploration and development of its prospective mineral properties at the Golden Bear Project in the Larder Lake Mining Division, northeastern Ontario. Northern Gold has a portfolio of advanced exploration projects, including the Jonpol and Garrcon Deposits and the Buffonta Property. Recent transactions, including the Harker-Holloway Property option, the amalgamation with Victory Gold Mines Inc. and the acquisition from Lac Properties, add to the Company’s regional consolidation strategy along the Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone.

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CAUTIONARY STATEMENT: 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. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved of the information contained herein. This news release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements are characterized by words such as “plan”, “expect”, “project”, “intend”, “believe”, “anticipate”, “estimate” and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions “may” or “will” occur. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, Northern Gold’s strategic partnership and issuances of securities, and is based on, among other things, the opinions and assumptions of management considered reasonable as of the date of this news release. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required regulatory approvals, changes in equity markets, fluctuations in commodity prices, and other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, including those risks set out in Northern Gold’s public documents filed on SEDAR. Although Northern Gold believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Northern Gold disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.

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