2010 Exploration Budget
Northgate has plans for an agressive exploration program at Fosterville, Stawell and Young-Davidson in support of organic reserve growth. Exploration expenditures of $21 million are forecast in 2010 and include:

• $11.2 million at Fosterville in support of resource conversion and investigative drilling
• $7.2 million at Stawell for drill programs totaling 26,500 metres (m) focusing on mining lease and near-mine exploration targets
• $2.6 million at Young-Davidson to drill outside the known resource area

Northgate's Exploration Strategy
Northgate’s exploration strategy is to focus on areas around each of our operating mines and development projects. 

Northgate actively pursues joint ventures with junior exploration companies that have strong technical teams and a record of discovery. These joint ventures usually take the form of an Option / Joint Venture on a specific property. In Australia, Northgate has entered into exploration agreements with a private company and Rimfire Minerals for early stage exploration on Northgate tenements that are not contiguous to our mining leases. This allows us to focus on mine lease exploration while preserving our exposure to earlier stage exploration in the same geological terrain as our operations.

Business development activities are focused on acquiring opportunities in politically stable jurisdictions with a pro-mining regulatory regime. Within these jurisdictions we seek projects that are amenable to conventional mining and metallurgical processes with a low environmental footprint which have been either undercapitalized or have operational issues that we can improved upon.