December 11, 2008:  Northland Resources Inc. is pleased to report an updated and revised resource estimate for the Tapuli iron ore project in northern Sweden.  At a 15% Fe cut off, over 90% of the resource now falls into the Measured and Indicated Resource categories, and can be used in a full bankable feasibility study.

 

The new tonnage and grade figures are shown below alongside the existing resource figures for comparison (originally published in Northland news release dated February 11, 2008).

 

 

	December 2008 Resource		February 2008 Resource
Category	Millions of tonnes	Fe %	Millions of tonnes	Fe %
15% Fe cut off
Measured	59.33	27.82	-	-
Indicated	34.85	24.08	54.40	27.70
Inferred	9.74	23.71	47.60	26.30
20% Fe cut off
Measured	46.22	30.80	-	-
Indicated	23.23	27.43	45.76	29.85
Inferred	6.59	27.07	37.85	28.81
25% Fe cut off
Measured	38.19	32.53	-	-
Indicated	15.93	29.49	34.77	32.12
Inferred	5.52	27.78	28.34	30.92

 

Mr. Buck Morrow, President of Northland Resources Inc., commented, "This is the second resource calculation in the past 10 months on the Tapuli magnetite deposit. The new figures provide the Company and its investors with greater certainty as to the resources at Tapuli.  We have improved the continuity of the deposit significantly and nearly all of the resource now falls into the Measured and Indicated categories. These figures can be used with confidence in the preparation of a full bankable feasibility study on the Tapuli project."

 

Northland conducted a second campaign of aggressive winter drilling at Tapuli, beginning in September, 2007, and continuing through April, 2008.  The drilling was targeted to increase the geological understanding of the deposit and to move tonnes into the higher-confidence, Measured and Indicated resource categories.  The addition of 69 new holes (13,184m of drilling) since the previous resource estimate has more than doubled the drill data base to 130 holes (24,475m of drilling.) Core taken from 35 of the holes was also composited to produce a 24-tonne, bulk metallurgical sample for on-going pilot plant testing.

 

At the down-dip limits of the resource, the magnetite mineralization is open and the vertical extent of the deposit is not delineated. Drilling will continue at Tapuli this winter to expand the resource and to collect geotechnical and geohydrology data for studies designed to augment detailed engineering and planning work.

 

The Tapuli magnetite deposit occurs as a semi-continuous mineralized zone beneath an average of 11m of till. Northland's recent modeling divides the deposit into two main types - containing relatively low and high sulphur content. The majority of the mineralization is contained in the low-sulphur deposit. Within the large central portion of the deposit, the low-sulphur mineralization is located near the surface, and underlain at depth by the high-sulphur deposit.  Additionally, small pockets of higher sulphur content (>0.6% S) were identified within the low-sulphur deposit during the modelling process.  Northland believes these pockets to be isolated occurrences which can be identified and mined separately.

 

The substantial addition of data from the most recent drilling provided for more definitive geological interpretations, with more precise definition of the ore continuity, limits, and fault offsets.  The dip of the mineralized bodies range from 45 to 60 degrees towards the WNW and NW. Magnetite occurs as relatively continuous lenses which have been delineated at surface along strike for over 2,000 meters, with true widths within the main central portion of the deposit of over 200 meters.

 

A NI 43-101 compliant resource on the Tapuli resource calculation will be filed on www.sedar.ca within 45 days.

 

 

Mineral resources for the Tapuli deposit were prepared and categorized for reporting purposes by Dibya Kanti Mukhopadadhyay, MSc, member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, employed by Micon International Co Limited, and a Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101, following the guidelines of the JORC Code.

 

The Swedish Geological Survey (SGU) began to investigate the Tapuli and Palotieva deposits in 1965.  Core drilling was completed between 1965 and 1969.  Twenty-four holes, totalling 5,597 meters drilled on the Tapuli occurrence are included in the Northland database.  The previous resource estimate included the results of Northland's 2007 drilling program (37 holes, totalling 5,695 meters).  Northland's late-2007 and 2008 drilling programs added 69 holes (totalling 13,184 meters).

 

All the drill holes were integrated into the current database, which contains a total of 15,941 iron analyses.  In the previous resource estimation process, a verification exercise was conducted on the historic data, which included locating and verifying the location of drill collars, and a review of drill hole surveys and orientation data.  Two historic drill holes were also twinned to verify lithological and assay reliability with good correlation.

 

Drill core samples were 1-meter intervals in general, depending on the mineralization (recent holes generally have 1m intervals; historical holes typically have 1m or 2m intervals).  All assays were composited to 1m for use in the interpolation.  The mineralization was divided into two zones of relatively low and high sulphur content, and then further divided into sub-zones based on Fe content.  The low-sulphur zone was divided into four sub-zones and high-sulphur zone was sub-divided into three.

 

The Block size was defined as 15*15*12 m (X*Y*Z).  The search ellipses used are given below.

 

Zones	X	Y	Z
Fe(Low Fe)	130	130	40
S(Low Fe)	150	150	45
Fe(High Fe)	95	95	15
S(High Fe)	105	55	30

 

Block grades were interpolated using 3 concentric search ellipses using multiple indicator kriging with a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 20 samples, with a maximum of 6 samples from the same hole.  The second search ellipse was double the first one and the final bigger ellipse was used to estimate the unestimated blocks left after the second search.

 

Measured mineral resources are defined as those portions of the deposit estimated with a drill spacing mostly defined by 50m X 50m drill spacing.  Indicated mineral resources are defined as those portions of the deposit generally drilled on a grid of 100m*100m.  Inferred mineral resources are defined as those portions of the deposit located outside of the Indicated resources but inside the interpreted mineralized zones.

 

Bulk density of the mineralization was based on actual specific gravity data collected during exploration.  A total of 2,264 recent density determinations were used in establishing the relation between density and Fe-contents.  A regression curve was generated based on the Fe content and specific gravity.  The polynomial used is as given below.

 

Specific Gravity = -3E-09*Fe5+2E-07*Fe4+1E-05*Fe3-0.0007*Fe2+0.0253*Fe+2.82

 

The QA/QC program for Northland's drilling consists of alternating the insertion of a blank or standard sample on a regular basis within the sample train.  Because Northland employs several standards with varying grades these are also alternated.  Also, samples are flagged regularly for the primary laboratory to prepare a lab duplicate for analysis by a second laboratory.  The ALS Chemex analytical laboratory analyzed the samples in batches of 81 and each batch has multiple samples for testing for cross contamination and reproducibility of results.

 

The results of the above described QA/QC work shows that the assay procedures follow industry standards.  Certified standards are generally reported in the lower range of the permitted, showing a certain level of conservativism.  Check assays at independent laboratory plot extremely well with correlation factors (R2) of 0.995 for Iron and 0.95 for Sulphur.

 

 

Vladimir Benes, Ph.D., Vice President of Exploration for Northland Resources Inc., is the Qualified Person in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 responsible for overseeing the execution of Northland's exploration programs and for verifying that the information presented in this news release is an accurate summary.  Dr. Benes is a fellow member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (Member #300308).  Mineral resources of the Tapuli iron ore deposit have been prepared and categorized for reporting purposes by Mr. D. K. Mukhopadhyay, MAusIMM, Senior Mineral Resource Geologist of Micon International Co. Limited, following the guidelines of the JORC Code.  Mr Mukhopadhyay is qualified to be a Competent Person as defined by the JORC Code on the basis of training and experience in the exploration, mining and estimation of mineral resources of ferrous deposits.

 

 

Northland is a well-structured, debt free mining company with a portfolio of high quality iron, gold, and base metal development projects in Sweden and Finland.

 

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

NORTHLAND RESOURCES INC.

 

 

The Toronto Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

 

CONTACT INFORMATION

Northland Resources Inc.

Buck Morrow, President

 

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