Ken Stowe, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Our view at the time that we acquired the Young-Davidson property was that it was a mine waiting to be developed and our exploration results thus far have provided compelling evidence to support this view. The wide gold intercepts in the deeper holes we have drilled below the Lower Boundary Zone are particularly noteworthy because they should make for a significant increase in the overall resource in a zone that has an ideal configuration for low cost bulk mining. We are also seeing considerable fine grained visible gold and some short, high-grade assay intervals that indicate the possibility of "jewellery box" zones once we get to detailed evaluation."

Gold mineralization on the Young-Davidson property is present primarily in an intrusive syenite host rock dipping at approximately 70 degrees to the south. Figure 1, shown below, is a vertical, north looking, longitudinal section on which known resource areas (darker shaded areas with dotted boundaries), historic mine workings and simplified geology are presented along with the pierce points for the holes drilled so far this year.

The 2006 exploration campaign is designed to delineate additional gold resources in the prospective exploration zone (lighter region surrounding and below the known zones of inferred resources) and to increase the overall geologic confidence of these resources, resulting in a new property resource statement at the end of 2006. This will be accomplished by drilling 2,000 to 5,000 foot diamond drill holes from surface which will intersect the syenite host rock at depths of 1,000 to 4,000 feet.

Figure 1: Vertical Longitudinal Section of 2006 Drilling and Previously Known Zones

Collar co-ordinates for the 2006 drill holes are listed in Table 2.

Hole YD06-1B (a wedge deflection from hole YD06-1) is located 175 feet east and 120 feet above YD06-01A. Historic hole, YD9530x (4.42 g/tonne over 80 feet) is located 130 ft to the east, and 30 ft above YD06-01B. Drill hole YD06-09 is located a further 200 ft to the east and 300 ft below YD95530x. Hole YD06-09 intersected 102.7 feet of 4.49 g/tonne within which there is 52 feet of 8.28 g/tonne. Collectively these results and those from drill holes YD06-01 and 01A (reported on April 10, 2006) confirm the Lower Boundary Zone's potential as an attractive bulk mining target.

YD06-05 (not shown on the longitudinal cross section) was abandoned due to excessive deviation in the hole before reaching its target. The intended target for hole YD06-05 was tested by hole YD06-09.

Drill hole YD06-06 was drilled in the Upper Boundary Zone to confirm several historical intercepts all of which are within 120 ft of YD06-06.

Drill holes YD06-04 and YD06-08 did not return significant results from the Upper Boundary Zone as they both intersected post mineral Matachewan diabase dykes at target projection.

YD06-07 was designed to test an apparent gap in mineralization between the 6300 and 6500 elevation in the vicinity of section 4200E. Assays returned 1.35 g/tonne over 106 ft with a narrower zone of 14.76 g/tonne over 6 ft.

Drill hole YD06-10 was not targeted at a specific mineralized zone but was drilled at an oblique angle to the geological units of interest in order to gain information about the orientation and thickness of some of the post mineral diabase dykes. The hole returned 3.37 g/tonne Au over 69.6 feet in a zone between the Upper Boundary Zone and the Lucky Zone. Within this section a 31 ft zone returned 6.69 g/tonne. The nearest historical drill hole M03-50 (4.38 g/tonne over 10.6 feet) is located 150 feet east and 200 feet above YD06-10.

YD06-11 was drilled on the east flank of the Lucky Zone and returned 3.01 g/tonne over 45.5 feet within a thicker section of 97 ft which averaged 2.23 g/tonne. YD90-31, an historic hole located on the same section as YD06-11 but 200 ft below, assayed 72.7 ft of 2.15 g/tonne. Assay results from drill holes YD06-12, 14 and 15 are pending from the Lucky zone area.

Table 1: Assay Results from 2006 Diamond Drill Holes

In order to put the Northgate drill results into the context of past production and exploration, Graph 1 shows a plot of gold grade on the Y axis and length of intersection on the X axis. Also plotted is the 100 gram metre curve that is a commonly used screening tool within the exploration industry. These selected historic reported intersections³ are within the same rock type, with similar alteration and mineralization, as the 2006 drilling results being reported. The graph clearly shows that the 2006 results are among the best holes on the property. Collectively the Young-Davidson results, historic and current, also compare very favorably with many other projects in the gold industry.

Graph 1: Comparison of Historic and 2006 Drill Results

Quality Control - Analyses and Sample Location

Details of Quality Control and drill hole survey methodology are reported in Northgate's April 10, 2006 news release that is filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and may also be accessed on the Northgate website (www.northgateminerals.com).

Qualified Persons

The program design, implementation, Quality Assurance/Quality Control and interpretation of the results is under the control of Northgate Minerals Corporation geological staff that includes a number of individuals who are qualified persons as defined under NI 43-101. Overall supervision of the program is by Carl Edmunds PGeo, Northgate's Manager of Exploration.

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The terms "Mineral Reserve", "Proven Mineral Reserve" and "Probable Mineral Reserve" used in this news release are Canadian mining terms as defined in accordance with National Instrument 43-101-Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects under the guidelines set out in the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (the "CIM") Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Definitions and Guidelines adopted by the CIM Council on August 20, 2000. The terms "Mineral Resource", "Measured Mineral Resource", "Indicated Mineral Resource", and "Inferred Mineral Resource" used in this news release are Canadian mining terms as defined in accordance with National Instrument 43-101-Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects under the guidelines set out in the CIM Standards.

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About Northgate:

Northgate Minerals Corporation is a gold and copper mining company focused on operations and opportunities in the Americas. The Corporation's principal assets are the 300,000-ounce per year Kemess South mine in north-central British Columbia, the adjacent Kemess North deposit, which contains a Proven and Probable Reserve of 4.1 million ounces of gold and the Young-Davidson property in northern Ontario with a total resource base of 1.5 million ounces of gold. Northgate is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol NGX and on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol NXG.

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Forward-Looking Statements

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