Northgate Minerals Corp (NXG)

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Northgate Minerals Discovers High Grade Mineralization in a Previously Untested Area at its Stawell Gold Mine

Northgate Minerals Corporation (TSX: NGX, NYSE Amex: NXG) is pleased to report that surface diamond drilling at its Stawell Gold Mine has intersected high grade gold mineralization approximately 1.6 kilometres ("km") south of the existing mine workings.

Hole SD649A Highlights

- Hole SD649A intersected multiple gold bearing intervals which
include:
- 13.7 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold over 5.45 metres ("m"),
including 25.0 g/t gold over 2.2 m; and,
- 15.4 g/t gold over 2.5 m.
- The mineralization is consistent with the Stawell Golden Gift style
ore zones, which in total have produced over 600,000 ounces of gold
during the past decade.
- The drill intersections are several hundred metres above the GG6 zone
that is currently being mined and the nearest drilling is 440 m to
the north and 360 m to the south of the current intersections.

Ken Stowe, President and Chief Executive Officer, remarked, "The three holes drilled so far in this part of the property have confirmed the presence of a gold bearing basalt dome, which is the key geologic feature at Stawell. If the follow-up drilling over the next nine months outlines a broad enough zone of mineralization, the area is sufficiently close to existing infrastructure that it could be drilled off and conceivably brought into production within the next two to three years. Exploration at Stawell in the coming months will be particularly exciting as we follow up on hole SD649A, as well as the recently announced Northgate Gift discovery."

2010 Diamond Drill Program

Magneto telluric ("MT") geophysical surveys were conducted in late 2009 over the southern part of the Stawell mining lease between the historic Wonga surface deposits and the current underground Magdala and Golden Gift orebodies. The MT surveys defined what appeared to be the margin of a basalt body at depth, representing a continuation of the Golden Gift dome to the south of the current mine area.

The 2010 diamond drilling program in the southern part of the Stawell Mine Lease was designed to confirm the presence of the Golden Gift basalt dome in this area and test for the presence of gold mineralization, which is associated with basalt domes in other areas of the property.

The first hole in the program, SD648, was collared 100 m north of the Wonga Pit and intersected 1.4 g/t gold over 2.9 m on the eastern flank of the Golden Gift basalt dome. While the intercept was not economically significant, the host sediments closely resembled those of the Albion Formation, which hosts the Magdala and Golden Gift orebodies. A daughter hole, SD648W1, was drilled with no significant result. Hole SD649A was then collared 270 m northwest of hole SD648 and intercepted a strongly mineralized zone at 1,157.8 m below surface, which has a down dip projection of 120 m to the Wildcat Porphyry (a post mineralization structure that offsets the Magdala and Golden Gift deposits). The hole contains multiple intercepts (see table 1), the most significant of which are 13.7 g/t over 5.45 m and 15.4 g/t over 2.5 m. The zone remains open up dip and mineralization remains untested up to 440 m north and 360 m to the south of the current intersections. The nearest underground workings are approximately 1.6 km to the north at a depth of approximately 870 m.

Overview of Stawell Gold Mine Magdala & Gift Area

The dominant geological feature at Stawell is the 1.2 km wide Magdala basalt volcanic dome surrounded by gold-bearing sedimentary formations. Historical and current mining occurs in four distinct settings: iron-rich sediments stratigraphically above the basalt (basalt flank); at the sediment-basalt contact; areas of sediment bounded by basalt (locally termed "waterloos"); and, in quartz lode shear structures paralleling the plunge and dip of the basalt dome. Later stage intrusion style gold also occurs and was historically mined at the Wonga underground and open pit operations. Figure 1 illustrates a longitudinal view of the current reserves and the location of Hole SD649A.

Figure 1 - Stawell Gold Mine Longitudinal Projection

www.northgateminerals.com/Theme/Northgate/files/Releases/Fig1STG.gif

Table 1: Assay Results from Hole SD649A

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Gold Mineralisation
Hole ID From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Assay (g/t) Style
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SD649A 1240.7 1243.5 2.8 2.5 Waterloo
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SD649A 1278.45 1283.9 5.45 13.7 Waterloo
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including 1281.7 1283.9 2.2 25.0
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SD649A 1291.2 1293.7 2.5 15.4 Waterloo
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SD649A 1304.7 1305.9 1.2 1.4 Basalt Flank
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SD649A 1312.6 1315.5 2.9 1.3 Basalt Flank
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SD649A 1328.1 1329.4 1.3 1.2 Intrusion
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Future Exploration

As a consequence of the very encouraging results to date, a second drill will be added to the program almost immediately to more rapidly evaluate the extent of the mineralization in the area of hole SD649A. Current plans are to drill two daughter holes using the SD649A parent hole and to drill two additional parent holes, one north and one south of the discovery hole along strike, each with three to four daughters. These holes should be complete by the middle of 2011 at which point Northgate will evaluate whether mineralization in the area is sufficiently robust to support drifting across to the zone to complete resource definition drilling.

Quality Control - Analyses and Sample Location

The quality assurance/quality control and other analytical and testing procedures for sample analysis and drill hole survey
methodology were those reported in the Canadian National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") compliant Technical Report filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) on October 22, 2008.

Qualified Persons

The program design, implementation, quality assurance/quality control and interpretation of the results are under the control of Northgate's geological staff, which includes a number of individuals, each of who are qualified persons as defined under NI 43-101 and is supervised by Steve Harper, Senior Exploration Geologist (Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy). Mark Haydon (Australian Institute of Geoscientists), Stawell Gold Mine's Geology Manager, has supervised the preparation of the information that forms the basis of this release, and is responsible for the overall management of the program.