NioGold has entered the region! These guys followed OSK to Malarctic and now have follwoed OSK to the Beauce! This party is just getting started!

NIOGOLD TO ACQUIRE NICOLET-SOUTH PROPERTY ADJOINING NEVADO AND BOWMORE IN THETFORD MINES DISTRICT, SOUTHERN QUEBEC

Val-d’Or Quebec, February 11, 2010: NioGold Mining Corporation (TSX-V:NOX, Frankfurt:NG1) is pleased to announce that it has signed a Letter of Intent (“LOI”) to acquire a 100% interest in the Nicolet-South property consisting of 284 mining claims covering over 17,000 hectares (170 km2). The property is located 50 km southwest of Thetford Mines, Eastern Townships, Quebec, some 150 km east of Montreal.

Thetford Mines, and in general the Eastern Townships, situated in the southern Quebec Appalachian Belt, have a century long mining history for chromite, asbestos and copper. The region was the site of Canada's first placer gold rush in the 1850's, decades before the Klondike. Despite the fact that several gold occurrences were discovered in volcanic, intrusive and sedimentary rocks, no major bedrock sources were uncovered to account for the placer gold.

The Thetford Mines area is presently enjoying a major staking rush rumoured to be the result of gold discoveries in sedimentary formations together with felsic volcanic and/or intrusive complexes.

The Nicolet-South property is interpreted to cover sedimentary and volcano-sedimentary assemblages of the St-Daniel Mélange, bordering the Thetford Mines Ophiolite Complex. The project area was worked for base and precious metals by a number of individuals and companies since the early 1900’s up until the 1960’s. The work included prospecting, grab sampling, trenching, limited diamond drilling and artisanal mining. The claims cover mineral occurrences with documented values of up to 2.2 grams per tonne gold, 203 grams per tonne silver, and 7.6% copper in rock samples and up to 77 grams per tonne gold in stream sediment heavy mineral concentrates (source: Ministry of Natural Resources of Quebec).

“We acquired the land for its geological environment favourable to host disseminated sediment-hosted gold mineralisation. Sedimentary formations in Quebec have been overlooked in the past for their gold potential but are now strong contributors to major new gold deposits in the Province, such as Canadian Malartic (Osisko Mining) and Éléonore (Goldcorp),” said Rock Lefrançois, NioGold President & COO. “We intend to be part of this new Appalachian gold play.”

Under the terms of the LOI, NioGold can earn a 100% interest in the claims by paying C$40,000 and issuing 500,000 common shares to the vendor on the signing of a definitive option agreement, subject to a four month hold period from their date of issuance, and incurring at least C$500,000 of exploration and development expenses within three years. The vendor retains a 2% net smelter returns royalty (NSR) on the claims. The NSR is subject to a buy-back clause, whereby NioGold can purchase 1% for C$1,000,000 at any time. Registration of the claims by the Quebec government is still pending, but should be confirmed shortly. The transaction is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.