NORTHERN STAR RESOURCES LTD — Capital/Financing Update 2012

Mar 4, 2012

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Strong metallurgy results put Ashburton on track to be standalone 100,000ozpa project Northern Star's +$80m cash kitty to fund accelerated drill out, testwork and development studies

05 MARCH 2012

Highlights

• Highly favourable results from initial bacterial oxidation test work at Ashburton Sulphide Project

Code: NST

Board of Directors

• Very high 96.4% gold recovery from concentrate

• Possibility of higher gold recoveries to concentrate with a finer grind, as previously reported

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----- Start of picture text ----- Managing DirectorMr Michael FotiosNon-Executive DirectorMr Peter FarrisNon-Executive DirectorMs Karen Brown----- End of picture text -----

Issued Capital

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----- Start of picture text ----- $0.935Market Capitalisation$375 millionCash/Bullion in Bank: 05 Mar 2012$80 million----- End of picture text -----

Projects Commodities

Zn, Cu, gold

• Overall total gold recovery of 80% from testwork

• Further test work underway to evaluate other process options for gold extraction from concentrate

• Strong cash position means drilling, studies and construction could all be funded internally

• Ashburton Sulphide Project would lift total group production to 200,000ozpa (100,000ozpa from Paulsens)

Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) is pleased to advise that it has committed to expediting plans to establish a 100,000ozpa stand-alone operation at its Ashburton Sulphide Gold Project in WA after metallurgy tests returned highly favourable results.

The results, which showed very high gold recoveries of 96.4 per cent from concentrate, have prompted Northern Star to accelerate a reserve and resource drill out at Ashburton, along with further metallurgical test work and development studies. Ashburton currently has Resources of 668,000oz[1] .

The accelerated program will be funded from Northern Star’s +$80 million cash reserves, which includes the Company’s $45 million capital raising of late last month.

This strong cash position, which is growing by the month, means Northern Star will also be able to fund construction of the Ashburton Sulphide Project from its internal reserves should it choose to do so.

ASX ANNOUNCEMENT 05 MARCH 2012

Northern Star envisages that a stand-alone operation at Ashburton would produce 100,000ozpa. When combined with the planned increase in production from ~80,000ozpa to 100,000ozpa at its Paulsens Project in WA, the Company would be a 200,000ozpa producer with outstanding profit margins, cashflow and mine life.

The only consideration paid by Northern Star for Ashburton is an agreement to pay a 1.75% royalty on future production in excess of 250,000oz.

Northern Star Managing Director Bill Beament said the accelerated drilling plan and economic studies on Ashburton were aimed at bringing the project into production as soon as possible.

“There are already numerous walk-up drilling targets at Ashburton as well as vast areas of highly prospective acreage which have seen little or no exploration,” Mr Beament said.

“We are confident that the accelerated drilling program that is already underway will result in a significant increase in resources and put Ashburton well on track to being a 100,000ozpa operation.”

Northern Star plans to truck the free-milling ore from Ashburton to Paulsens as part of its strategy to expand the mill capacity and lift production there to 100,000ozpa.

Metallurgical Test Work

The metallurgical testwork performed in the laboratory was designed to replicate the specifications of an existing operating processing facility.

Two flotation tests were performed using routine flotation re-agents to yield a high sulphur recovery product for bacterial oxidation. Test parameters and results were as follows;

• Grind size was 80 per cent passing 135 micron

• 92% Sulphur Recovery

• 84% Gold recovery into concentrate

• 96.4% Gold recovery from bacterial oxidation of the concentrate

After factoring the gold recovery into concentrate, the overall total gold recovery on the test work was 80 per cent. This total gold recovery is seen as very encouraging considering it is around the same as that achieved in operating bacterial oxidation processing facilities.

There are possibilities of higher gold recoveries to concentrate with a finer grind size. Previously released (see ASX release December 2, 2011) test work on the flotation concentrate utilising an 80 per cent passing 75 micron resulted in an average 96.6 per cent of gold reporting to the concentrate.

When this optimisation of the flotation concentrate is combined with the 96.4 per cent gold recovery from bacterial oxidation, it can been seen that the project has the potential for an overall total gold recovery of 93 per cent, which would put it in the end upper end of the recovery curves for sulphide projects.

Further test works to evaluate other processing options for gold extraction from concentrate are underway.

Yours faithfully,

Bill Beament Managing Director Northern Star Resources Ltd

24 Mumford Place, Balcatta WA 6021 Tel: +6 8 6241 1866 Fax: +6 8 6241 1811

Email: info@nsrltd.com Website: www.nsrltd.com

ASX ANNOUNCEMENT 05 MARCH 2012

Forward Looking Statements

Northern Star Resources Limited has prepared this announcement based on information available to it. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to the fairness, accuracy, completeness or correctness of the information, opinions and conclusions contained in this announcement. To the maximum extent permitted by law, none of Northern Star Resources Limited, its directors, employees or agents, advisers, nor any other person accepts any liability, including, without limitation, any liability arising from fault or negligence on the part of any of them or any other person, for any loss arising from the use of this announcement or its contents or otherwise arising in connection with it.

This announcement is not an offer, invitation, solicitation or other recommendation with respect to the subscription for, purchase or sale of any security, and neither this announcement nor anything in it shall form the basis of any contract or commitment whatsoever. This announcement may contain forward looking statements that are subject to risk factors associated with gold exploration, mining and production businesses. It is believed that the expectations reflected in these statements are reasonable but they may be affected by a variety of variables and changes in underlying assumptions which could cause actual results or trends to differ materially, including but not limited to price fluctuations, actual demand, currency fluctuations, drilling and production results, reserve estimations, loss of market, industry competition, environmental risks, physical risks, legislative, fiscal and regulatory changes, economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions, political risks, project delay or advancement, approvals and cost estimates.

Competent Persons Statements

The information in this announcement that relates to Ashburton mineral resource estimation, exploration results, data quality, geological interpretations, potential for eventual economic extraction and estimates of exploration potential, is based on information compiled by or under the supervision of Brook Ekers, (Member AIG), who is a full-time employee of Northern Star Resources Ltd. Mr. Ekers has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2004 Edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves". Mr Ekers consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.

	Measured	Measured	Measured	Indicated	Indicated	Indicated	Inferred	Inferred	Inferred	Total	Total	Total
	Tonnes(,000)	Grade(g/t)	Oz Au(,000)	Tonnes(,000)	Grade(g/t)	Oz Au(,000)	Tonnes(,000)	Grade(g/t)	Oz Au(,000)	Tonnes(,000)	Grade(g/t)	Oz Au(,000)
Oxide andTransitional	611	2.40	47	342	2.52	28	237	2.28	18	1,189	2.41	92
Sulphide	901	2.83	82	1,070	2.66	92	3,984	3.14	402	5,956	3.01	576
Total	1,512	2.66	129	1,412	2.63	119	4,221	3.09	420	7,145	2.91	668

1 Ashburton Resources @ 0.9g/t Au Lower Cut-Off

24 Mumford Place, Balcatta WA 6021 Tel: +6 8 6241 1866 Fax: +6 8 6241 1811

Email: info@nsrltd.com Website: www.nsrltd.com