Northern Abitibi picking up properties in Newfoundland (July 23, 2007)

Vancouver — Northern Abitibi Mining (NAI-V, NOMNF-O) is shoring up its Newfoundland minerals portfolio with a deal to earn into Altius Minerals’ (ALS-T, ATUSF-O) Viking gold property.

The deal comes only four months after the company signed a similar agreement with Altius over the Taylor Brook nickel-copper-cobalt prospect, also in Newfoundland.

The 9-sq.-km Viking property, in western Newfoundland, contains a series of mesothermal-style quartz veins and stockworks hosted in Precambrian intrusive rocks. Historical exploration included widespread soil sampling, ground geophysical surveys, and three short drill holes.

Two gold anomalies have been defined on the property. In the western anomaly, grab samples returned gold values ranging from 0.04 to 4.1 grams gold per tonne. Three drill holes failed to intersect the large quartz veins that occur as boulders on the surface, but hit large intervals of highly altered granite with anomalous gold grades. Grab samples from the eastern anomaly returned gold grades from 8 to 42.8 grams gold, but the zone has not yet been trenched or drilled.

The Viking agreement allows Abitibi to earn in a majority interest in the project by issuing just over 1.1 million shares and spending $1.2 million on exploration over four years. Once Northern Abitibi has earned in, Altius can choose one of three options: the companies can joint venture the property, with Northern Abitibi holding 51%; Northern Abitibi can obtain 100% of the property subject to a sliding-scale net smelter returns royalty of 2-4%, based on the price of gold; or Northern Abitibi can hold 51% with the option of increasing to 70% by spending another $4 million on exploration.

The Taylor Brook deal is structured in the same way.

Northern Abitibi is now in the process of planning and permitting a surface exploration project at Viking, expected to get under way in August.

In mid-March, Northern Abitibi worked out a similar agreement with Altius regarding the Taylor Brook prospect, also in western Newfoundland. Sulphide occurrences were noted in road cuts on the property in 1998, and further exploration led to discovery of the Layden showing.

Historical grab samples from the Layden showing averaged 5.4% nickel, 1% copper, and 0.1% cobalt, as well as elevated platinum, palladium, and gold levels. Altius conducted a high-resolution airborne geophysical survey of the property but to date, the site has not seen any drilling.

In early July, Northern Abitibi completed the first phase of fieldwork at Taylor Brook. The program expanded the known area of mineralization and identified several targets for follow-up exploration.