Northern Gold Updates Garrison Property Resource

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Mar 3, 2014) -

• UPDATED GARRISON PROPERTY GOLD RESOURCE ESTIMATE (includes both Garrcon and Jonpol deposits):
  • MEASURED 521,000 OZ GOLD AVERAGING 1.07 G/TONNE,
  • INDICATED 676,000 OZ GOLD AVERAGING 1.40 G/TONNE,
    • MEASURED + INDICATED 1,197,000 GOLD AU AVERAGING 1.24 G/TONNE
    • INFERRED 808,000 AU GOLD AVERAGING 3.19 G/TONNE
• TIGHTENED RESOURCE CONSTRAINTS USING $US1250/TROY OZ GOLD PRICE AND UPDATED DRILLING RESULTS
• JONPOL HAS 237% INCREASE IN INDICATED GOLD OUNCES (150,000 TROY OZ GOLD)
• JONPOL DEPOSIT REMAINS OPEN TO THE EAST, WEST AND AT DEPTH
• GARRCON UNDERGROUND REMAINS OPEN AT DEPTH
• GARRCON DEPOSIT RESOURCE IS BROKEN INTO WHITTLE MODELED PIT SHELL AND UNDERGROUND BULK MINE RESOURCE
• GARRCON - ALL CATAGORIES SHOWED INCREASED GRADE
• UP TO 150,000 TONNE BULK SAMPLE FROM GARRCON TO BE MINED AND MILLED AT AN OFFSITE TOLL MILL, AS A PART OF NORTHERN'S 2014 ADVANCED EXPLORATION PROGRAM

Northern Gold Mining Inc. (TSX VENTURE:NGM) ("Northern Gold" or "the Company") announces the results of an updated resource estimate for its Garrison Property (Garrcon and Jonpol deposits). This NI 43-101 report, being independently prepared by A.C.A. Howe International Limited ("Howe") of Toronto, Ontario, was focused on tightening the model constraints to reflect current gold pricing and the latest infill and step out drilling completed by the Company since the last resource update announced on April 19, 2012. "Northern Gold's efforts have continued to confirm a significant gold resource at Garrcon, with both an open pit and underground potential. Geologic constraints from the infill drilling provided tighter mineralized domains, as well as the delineation of waste domains", according to Howe. A Whittle model pit shell was based on $US 1,250 per troy ounce gold pricing, 0.4 g/tonne block model cutoff, 55 degree pit wall slope, a top cut of 112 g/tonne Au (high grade domains) and 114 g/tonne Au (low grade domains) applied to individual (non-composited) assays, a resource database utilizing primary assays only (except where historic core was relogged and historic assays were duplicated, in which case the latter were used), domain specific directional ellipsoidal searches were used for block grades, and mine pit parameters developed in the 2011 PEA (Preliminary Economic Assessment, see press release June 23, 2011). Material within this optimized pit, and mineralization within 200 meters of surface have been categorized as open pitable resources. The open pitable resource comprises 29,200,000 tonnes grading 1.12 g/tonne containing 1,047,000 ounces of gold (measured and indicated), and an additional 1,700,000 tonnes grading 0.72 g/tonne containing 39,000 ounces of gold (inferred); all in-pit resources have an approximate stripping ratio of 1.8:1 (waste to resource). This optimized pit shell was further used to define those blocks below 200 metres, but outside of the pit shell and having a block model cutoff of 1.5 g/tonne, as being an inferred underground resource of 5,10,000 tonnes averaging 3.49 g/tonne and containing 577,000 ounces of gold. The full NI 43-101 Technical Report, along with plan and sections will be filed on SEDAR within 45 days.

"Northern Gold continues to progress its plans to develop a producing gold mine on its Garrison property, by de-risking the project. The updated Garrcon resource, despite significantly tightening the model constraints, showed increased grades in all three resource categories. This continues to demonstrate the robust nature of the deposit and its viability as an open pit mine, and an underground opportunity with unbounded depth potential. Plans, budgets and Mine Closure Plans (permits) are being prepared in support of mining and offsite toll milling of up to 150,000 tonnes from the Garrcon surface outcrop (see press release dated January 16, 2014). This "proof of concept" testing will provide valuable mining and milling "real world" data. Upon successful completion of the bulk sample testing a Feasibility Report will be prepared in the fall.", said Martin Shefsky, interim President & CEO of Northern Gold.

This is a summary table for the Garrison Property (Garrcon and Jonpol deposits). Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and by definition do not demonstrate economic viability. This mineral resource estimate includes inferred mineral resources that are normally considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated resource categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.

For this NI 43-101 resource update (as compared to the 2012 resource update) Howe reviewed the entire assay data set (the initial resource estimate as filed on SEDAR November 5, 2010, and the PEA filed on August 8, 2011, as well as the drill data listed in the June 5, 2012 SEDAR filling for the last resource update, and finally the latest infill and step out drilling including 54 historic drill holes (1985 to 2007), 256 Northern Gold drill holes and 18 drill hole extensions (2009 - 2012 - up to GAR-12-270) and determined that utilizing primary assays (except where historic assays are duplicated by Northern Gold new core logging and assay, in which as the latter is used), limits the potential for the introduction of systematic bias and the artificial 'smoothing' of assay grades by averaging. A top-cut of 112 g/tonne Au (high grade domains) and 114 g/tonne Au (low grade domains) was then applied to individual (non-composited) assays. Howe increased the block model cut-off grade from 0.3 g/tonne to 0.4 g/tonne. Based on Howe's statistical review (4,076 measurements) of ongoing specific gravity (SG) testing by Northern Gold, the average SG was increased slightly from 2.79 g/cm3 to 2.80 g/cm3 for the mineralized resource blocks. The new drilling (both in-fill and step-out) confirmed the uniformity of the mineralization, as well as identified "defined waste blocks"; all domain modeling is constrained by interpreted geology. Howe's domains were subjected to individual geostatistic review, which resulted in domain specific directional ellipsoidal searches used to estimate block grades (as opposed to omni-directional search in the previous two resource updates). The majority of these ellipsoidal searches are approximately 2:2:1 (x:z:y).

As detailed above, the Whittle model pit shell (optimized pit) was based on a 0.4 g/tonne Block model cutoff grade and optimized for $US 1,250/troy oz gold, 55 degree pit wall slope, and utilized the 2011 PEA pit mine parameters. The resultant resource estimate for the conceptual open pit has a waste to resource strip ratio of 1.8:1 (about 10% lower than the 2011 PEA of 2.0:1). The block cut-off grade for inferred underground (>200 m depth outside of the optimized pit shell) was 1.5 g/tonne. Note that mineral resource tonnes quoted are not diluted.

1. Mineral Resources are calculated with commercial mining software. Drill holes traces showing lithology and gold grade were reviewed in plan and cross section.
2. The resource estimate has been prepared by Leon McGarry, B.Sc., P.Geo., ACA Howe Geologist.
3. Cut-off grade for mineralised zone interpretation is 0.1 g/tonne.
4. Block cut-off grade for potential open pitable Mineral Resources is 0.4 g/tonne. Block cut-off grade for potential underground (>200 m depth) Mineral Resources is 1.5 g/tonne.
5. Top-cuts of 112 g/tonne Au (high grade domains) and 114 g/tonne Au (low grade domains) applied to individual (non-composited) assays.
6. Gold price for the purpose of the resource estimate is $US 1250 per troy ounce.
7. Zones extend up to 100 metres down-dip from the last intercept. Along strike, zones extend halfway to the next cross-section.
8. Minimum width is 5 metres, though in no place is the zone that narrow.
9. A specific gravity (bulk density) value of 2.8 is applied to all blocks - a representative value based on 4,076 measurements.
10. Wireframe constrained block model grade interpolation has been undertaken using Ordinary Kriging (OK).
11. Measured mineral resources are defined where three holes are used to estimate block grades and the average distance to samples was 36 metres or less. Indicated mineral resources are defined where three holes are used to estimate block grades and the average distance to samples was 73 metres or less.
12. Mineral Resource tonnes quoted are not diluted.
13. No mineral reserves are identified.
14. Tonnes and ounces have been rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the mineral resource estimate; therefore numbers may not total correctly.
15. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and by definition do not demonstrate economic viability. This mineral resource estimate includes inferred mineral resources that are normally considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated resource categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.
16. 1 troy ounce equals 31.10348 grams.
17. The volume/tonnes of volumetrically insignificant historical underground exploration workings have not been subtracted from this mineral resource

Jonpol Deposit Mineral Resources

This is the first "new" Jonpol deposit resource update for Northern Gold since the property was acquired from Val Gold in 2009, and the historic NI 43-101 technical report on the 1996-1999 Hillsborough Resources and Valgold 2005-2007 work was filed on SEDAR on October 29, 2009. In addition to new drilling completed by the Company (66 holes and 9 drill hole extensions (2011-2013)) the biggest change to the resource update was the use of geologically interpreted 3D wireframe block model grade interpolation that has been undertaken using Ordinary Kriging (OK). Domain specific directional ellipsoidal searches are used to estimate block grades, as opposed to the simple 2D longitudinal polygons. Furthermore a cut-off grade for mineralized zone interpretation of 3 g/tonne of gold over a minimum width of 1.5 metres was used in the new resource, verses a cut-off grade for zone interpretation of approximately 0.5 g/tonne of gold in the previous report. Unfortunately many of the historic holes lacked a downhole survey and have had to be assumed to have no deviation.

This has resulted in an indicated resource estimate with a 344% increase in resource tonnes (872,000 vs 253,100), but a 2.43 g/t decrease in grade (due to the change in the block model cutoff, and minimum mining width), and a 237% increase in gold ounces (150,000 oz Au vs 63,200 oz Au, a 86,800 oz increase). The inferred resource tonnage estimate decreased by 482,800 tonnes, but the average grade increased by 0.63 g/tonne to 5.56 g/tonne, resulting in a slight decrease in gold ounces (-54,540 ounces gold) to 192,000 ounces gold.

1. Mineral Resources are calculated with commercial mining software. Drill holes traces showing lithology and gold grade were reviewed in plan and cross section.
2. The resource estimate has been prepared by Leon McGarry, B.Sc., P.Geo., ACA Howe Geologist.
3. Mineralised zone interpretation based on a minimum grade of 3 g/tonne Au over a minimum true width of 1.5 metres.
4. Block cut-off grade for potential underground Mineral Resources is 3 g/tonne.
5. Top cut of 100 g/tonne Au applied to non-composited assays in the East Zone. No top-cut applied in other zones. In zones other than the East Zone, assay database grade distributions are not skewed by erratic high values and assays are generally well constrained by wireframes and drill hole distribution. In ACA Howe's opinion the use of a top cut will not significantly affect the results in these zones.
6. Gold price for the purpose of the resource estimate is $US 1250 per troy ounce.
7. Zones extend up to 50 metres down-dip from the last intercept. Along strike, zones extend halfway to the next cross-section.
8. A default average specific gravity (bulk density) value of 2.8 has been used.
9. Wireframe constrained block model grade interpolation has been undertaken using Ordinary Kriging (OK).
10. Indicated mineral resources are defined where the mineralized zones exhibited good continuity between drill holes on section and along strike and are informed by 3 or more holes spaced less than 50 metres apart.
11. Mineral Resource tonnes quoted are not diluted.
12. No Measured Resources or Mineral Reserves of any category are identified.
13. Tonnes and ounces have been rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the mineral resource estimate; therefore numbers may not total correctly.
14. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and by definition do not demonstrate economic viability. This mineral resource estimate includes inferred mineral resources that are normally considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated resource categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.
15. 1 troy ounce equals 31.10348 grams.
16. A bulk-sampling program on 4 sub-levels in the central part of the JP Zone was completed in 1996-97 with a total of approximately 50,640 tonnes extracted, which produced 13,564 ounces of gold for an average recovered grade of 8.3 grams of gold per tonne. This is comparable to a polygon some 80m in the along strike direction and 30m down dip believed to be centred on the position of the bulk sample, that outlines 78,400 tonnes at a grade of 5.3 for some 13,550 ounces of gold which has been discounted from the resource.

The Company has prepared an Advanced Exploration Closure Plan to dewater and rehabilitate the Jonpol decline. However at this time the economics of such an undertaking appear risky and the Company has chosen to focus its efforts on moving its Garrcon open pit forward, as noted above. The Jonpol remains strategically important to the Company as its mineralization remains open along strike (East - West) as well as at depth. Metallurgical testing done in 2013 (see press release of September 26, 2013) indicates that the only refractory ore is in the immediate area of the Shaft Zone. The recently acquired Lac Properties property to the west provides an opportunity to add significantly to this updated Jonpol resource. In addition the existing decline may provide exceptional access for not only the Jonpol vein deposit, but the Garrcon underground, the 903 Zone (to the south of the Jonpol shaft), and mineralized metasediments that are just now being explored between these two areas (see Hastings channel sample press release dated February 10, 2014).

To provide further information and continuity between the previous resource estimates prepared on the Garrison property and this updated resource, the following tables provide more detailed information:

The Garrison property mineral resource update information presented in this release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Ian Trinder, M.Sc, P.Geo., and Mr. Leon McGarry, B.Sc., P.Geo., of A.C.A. Howe International Ltd. of Toronto, Ontario. Mr. McGarry and Mr. Trinder are Independent Qualified Persons as defined under NI 43-101 regulations.

The technical aspects of this press release have been reviewed and approved by Michael Gross M.S. P. Geo., Northern Gold Mining Inc. consultant, who is the "Qualified Person" as defined by NI 43-101 for this 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 amalgamation with Victory Gold Mines Inc. and acquisition of the Lac Minerals Property add to the Company's regional consolidation strategy along the Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone.

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.