Drilling Commences at Northern Abitibi's Viking Project

CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - May 17, 2011) - Northern Abitibi Mining Corp. (TSX VENTURE:NAI) ("Northern Abitibi") is pleased to announce that drilling has commenced at its Viking gold project, Newfoundland.

The drill program will include a minimum of 3500 to 4000 metres of drilling and will initially focus on expanding the known high grade gold shoots along the Thor Trend, with the goal of growing the resource base at Thor both in ounces and overall grade. Additionally, line cutting will commence shortly in preparation for a property scale induced polarization–resistivity geophysical survey scheduled to begin in early June.

The Viking Property

The Viking Property contains numerous high grade veins within larger bulk tonnage style zones of gold mineralization located within a 3 to 4 kilometre long gold-in-soil anomaly. Drilling highlights include high grade intercepts of 5.75 metres grading 33.7 g/t gold, 3.7 metres grading 50.1 g/t gold, 0.5 metres grading 218.8 g/t gold as well as lower grade intercepts including 27 metres grading 7.9 g/t gold, 23.0 metres grading 5.1 g/t gold, and 57.4 metres grading 2.8 g/t gold. The Thor Trend contains an uncut Inferred Mineral Resource containing 131,511 ounces of gold.

The Viking Property is located in the mining friendly jurisdiction of Newfoundland and Labrador, and has excellent access and local infrastructure, with a paved highway and power line located less than one kilometre from the project. Northern Abitibi has a 100% property interest in the Viking project subject to a 2% to 4% sliding scale net smelter royalty held by Altius Resources. A detailed description of the Viking project is available on our website (www.naminco.ca).

Dr. Shane Ebert, P. Geo. is the Qualified Person responsible for the preparation of this news release.

Shane Ebert, President/Director

Except for the historical and present factual information contained herein, the matters set forth in this news release, including words such as "expects", "projects", "plans", "anticipates" and similar expressions, are forward-looking information that represents management of Northern Abitibi's internal projections, expectations or beliefs concerning, among other things, future operating results and various components thereof or the economic performance of Northern Abitibi. The projections, estimates and beliefs contained in such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause Northern Abitibi's actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, those described in Northern Abitibi's filings with the Canadian securities authorities. Accordingly, holders of Northern Abitibi shares and potential investors are cautioned that events or circumstances could cause results to differ materially from those predicted. Northern Abitibi disclaims any responsibility to update these forward-looking statements.