Mr. Brian Budd of North Country reports

AURYN RESOURCES AND NORTH COUNTRY GOLD TO JOINTLY EXPLORE THE HIGH-GRADE COMMITTEE BAY GOLD BELT

North Country Gold Corp. and Auryn Resources Inc. have signed a letter of intent whereby Auryn can earn a 51-per-cent interest in North Country's Committee Bay project in Nunavut, Canada. This mineral project includes 184,481 acres situated along the Committee Bay greenstone belt (CBGB). The CBGB occurs approximately 180 kilometres northeast of Agnico Eagle Mines' Meadowbank mine and extends more than 300 km northeast.

Shawn Wallace, president and chief executive officer of Auryn, stated: "We are very pleased to have successfully formed a working relationship with North Country. The opportunity to leverage the large amount of quality exploration work completed to date in order to exploit the exploration potential of this highly productive, prolific high-grade gold district presents an excellent opportunity for value creation that will benefit both companies' shareholders. Entering into this agreement also signifies Auryn's first step at realizing its aspirations of becoming a formidable high-grade gold exploration and development company in the Americas."

Brian Budd, president of North Country, stated, "We are pleased that Auryn shares North Country's enthusiasm for the unequalled investment opportunity offered by our high-grade Committee Bay gold project, and look forward to creating significant shareholder value together by applying our combined technical and market expertise to advance the project toward an economic outcome."

Under the terms of the LOI, Auryn shall have the option to spend $6-million over a 30-month period to earn a 51-per-cent interest in the Committee Bay project, at which time the parties will share costs pro rata in a customary joint venture. Of this amount, $500,000 is a firm commitment upon signing of a definitive option agreement, which is to supersede the LOI. A technical committee will be formed to jointly plan and oversee exploration programs. Auryn will have ultimate discretion over the nature and manner of exploration undertaken during the earn-in period and will become the operator of the ensuing joint venture, while North Country will provide staff, equipment and consumables as the contractor to implement programs. Upon execution of the definitive agreement, Auryn will purchase 10 million North Country common shares at price of five cents each as part of a non-brokered private placement of 20 million common shares to be completed by North Country at a price of five cents per share. Completion of these transactions is subject to negotiation of definitive agreements and TSX Venture Exchange approval.

The CBGB comprises one of a number of Archean-aged greenstone belts occurring within the larger Western Churchill province of northeastern Canada. The character and history of rock packages, and the timing and nature of mineralization occurring within the CBGB are considered to be equivalent to those of other significant gold-bearing Archean greenstones within the Western Churchill province, which hosts deposits such as Meadowbank and Meliadine.

High-grade gold occurrences are found throughout the 300-kilometre strike length of the CBGB, with the most significant being the Three Bluffs deposit that contains resources as listed in an attached table. (Refer to National Instrument 43-101 report dated May 18, 2012, filed under North Country's profile on SEDAR.)

               Cut-off grade          Tonnes      Gold grade       Contained
Class                (g/t Au)         (000 t)        (g/t Au)         Au (oz)

Indicated                3.5         1,837.9            8.43         497,800
Inferred                 3.5         2,486.8            8.11         648,300

Cautionary note about mineral resources

Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Mineral resource estimates do not account for minability, selectivity, mining loss and dilution. The mineral resource estimates include inferred mineral resources that are normally considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that the inferred mineral resources will be converted to measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.

Numbers may not add up due to rounding.

Three Bluffs resource estimations were completed by Roscoe Postle Associates Ltd. in April of 2012 (see North Country press release dated April 4, 2012, and the technical report on the Three Bluffs project, Nunavut, Canada, filed on SEDAR on May 18, 2012).

There are no known legal, political, environmental or other risks that could materially affect the potential development of the mineral resources.

Three Bluffs deposit remains open for expansion both along strike and at depth, and is considered to have excellent exploration upside to significantly increase the resource base within five kilometres of the currently defined deposit trend.

Importantly, a high-quality pipeline of targets exists within the CBGB that are both drill ready and can quickly be advanced to drill stage. The most advanced of these targets are high-grade occurrences that have been defined through initial diamond drill testing. These include the Inuk, West Plains and Raven targets that have the drilling highlights listed in an attached table. Collectively, these advanced targets demonstrate the potential to define additional high-grade resources within the CBGB.

                                Depth from    Depth to     Length      Grade
Prospect               Hole ID          (m)         (m)        (m)   (g/t Au)

Inuk            3I001B(i)1(ii)       62.00       74.60      12.60      16.04
Inuk           07IN006(i)2(ii)       67.00       78.00      11.00      11.18
West Plains    05WP004(i)3(ii)       56.85       65.58       8.73      14.76
West Plains    06WP006(i)4(ii)      109.00      117.00       8.00      13.14
Raven          05RV001(i)5(ii)      102.38      107.79       5.49      12.60
Raven          05RV002(i)5(ii)       38.81       41.24       2.43      36.22

(i) Please see press releases dated Sept. 2, 2003, Sept. 5, 2007, Aug. 25, 
    2005, Oct. 6, 2006, and May 19, 2005, filed on SEDAR under Niblack 
    Mineral Development Inc.
(ii) True width of intercept unknown.

Regional exploration targets will be developed through an integrated geochemical, geophysical and geological evaluation of the extensive database developed across the CBGB by North Country over the last 20 years. The database has highlighted 115 rock samples grading greater than five grams per tonne gold that fall across nine broad areas that have not had any follow-up first-pass drilling within a 200-metre radius.

The content of this news release and the company's technical disclosure have been reviewed and approved by Peter Kleespies, MSc, PGeol, who is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. A detailed description of North Country Gold's quality assurance/quality control program is provided on the company's website.

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