February 9, 2006

White Rock, B.C. – Carlin Gold Corporation (TSX Venture, CGD), ("Carlin" or the “Company”) is pleased to announce an agreement (the "Agreement") to acquire 100% of the shares of Toquima Minerals Corporation ("TQM BC") under a plan of arrangement. TQM BC has two wholly-owned subsidiaries which hold interests in a suite of mineral properties with excellent potential in Alaska and Nevada. TQM BC's Nevada subsidiary owns interests in eight gold exploration properties in Nevada and its Alaska subsidiary owns a gold exploration property in Alaska known as the Palmer property. Pursuant to the Agreement, Carlin will, indirectly, acquire the Nevada properties and will hold shares in a new company ("Newco") to be spun-out pursuant to the Arrangement which will indirectly own the Palmer property. The Agreement is subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, approval of the TQM BC shareholders and approval of the Arrangement by the Supreme Court of British Columbia, due diligence and other standard closing conditions.

Acquisition of Nevada Properties:

To acquire the interests of TQM BC in the Nevada properties, which are described later in this news release, Carlin will issue 6,772,226 shares to TQM BC shareholders.

Mr. Bob Thomas, President of TQM BC, will remain as part of the management team and join the board of the Company. Mr. Thomas brings extensive knowledge of Nevada geology and exploration expertise to the Company. He is past President of the Nevada Geological Society and has practiced his profession in Nevada for over 25 years.

One of the shareholders of TQM BC is Rubicon Minerals Corporation ("Rubicon"). Rubicon, a public company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, will hold 4,347,092 Carlin shares representing 13.07% of the Company upon completion of the Arrangement. The Carlin Shares acquired by certain principals of TQM BC will be held pursuant to a voluntary escrow agreement which will provide for a 10% release upon closing of the transaction and 15% release each six months thereafter. If Carlin becomes listed on Tier 1 of the TSXV, the releases will increase to 25% each six month period.

Interest in Newco:

A new company ("Newco") will be spun-out of TQM BC pursuant to the Arrangement. Newco will indirectly own the Palmer property which is described later in this news release. Carlin will issue 5,540,913 special warrants to TQM BC shareholders of which Rubicon will hold 3,556,712. These special warrants will be exchangeable by the TQM BC shareholders for an equal number of shares of Newco if Newco succeeds in completing an initial public offering (the "IPO") on certain terms within one (1) year.  Newco will conduct a seed financing and Carlin will be entitled to purchase 2.0 million common escrow shares of Newco at $0.01 per share. TQM BC will be entitled to nominate two Newco board members and Carlin will be entitled to nominate three Newco board members.

If the IPO completes, Carlin and TQM BC shareholders will hold shares in Newco. Newco will be a public company and will own the Palmer property. If the IPO does not complete, the special warrants will be exchangeable for an equal number of Carlin shares, Newco will remain a wholly owned subsidiary of TQM BC, and thereupon Carlin will indirectly own the Palmer property.

NEVADA PROJECTS

TQM BC’s Nevada subsidiary owns interests in eight (8) mineral properties in Nevada at various stages of exploration from drill ready to early stage exploration to develop drill targets. These eight projects complement the two prior Nevada property acquisitions by the Company in late 2005 and the 55 additional claims which the Company has located on its Tonopah property. The new Nevada projects to be acquired under the Agreement to TQM BC are described below:

Golconda Summit, Humboldt County, Nevada

The Golconda Summit property is located in the northern Edna Mountains, approximately 20 miles south-southwest of Placer Dome’s Getchell Mine, and on the north end of the Battle Mountain-Eureka Mineral Trend. Atna Resources Ltd’s active Pinson Mine project and new Ogee Zone discovery is located 12.5 miles to the northnortheast. The property is underlain by a thrust faulted Paleozoic sedimentary section that constitutes preferred host rocks in the nearby Getchell gold belt and Lone Tree Mine area. Trenches excavated by previous operators encountered highly anomalous gold concentrations (e.g., detailed 5 ft channel chip samples: 25ft. @ 0.70 oz/t Au and 50ft. @ 0.250 oz/t Au) associated with weakly altered structural zones in the upper plate of the Golconda Thrust Fault, suggesting leakage from a possible deeper high-grade gold mineralized zone hosted in more favorable lower plate lithologies. Most of the previous exploration drilling consisted of shallow, vertical drill holes which were terminated short of the more favorable lower plate host rocks. Even so, several holes contained anomalous gold mineralization including 35ft. @ 0.110 oz/t Au. A drill targeting program will be initiated in the spring of 2006, which will consist of geologic mapping, rock chip and soil sampling, and possibly geophysics in order to delineate both shallow structurally controlled targets in the upper plate Havallah Sequence, as well as deeper targets in the favorable lower plate stratigraphy.

The 53-claim property is held through a Mineral Lease and Option to Purchase Agreement with the owner, which provides for rental payments and a Net Smelter Return royalty scaled from 1% for US$400 per troy ounce gold or less to 1.33% for greater than US$500 per troy ounce. The royalty is subject to certain optional buyout provisions.

Iowa Canyon, Lander County, Nevada

The 63-claim Iowa Canyon property ("ICP") is located 57 miles south of Battle Mountain, and 29 miles south-southwest of Placer Dome’s Cortez Hills deposit, along the northwest flank of the Toiyabe Range. Bedrock geology consists of a thick section of Paleozoic clastic and carbonate rocks intruded by Cretaceous granodiorite and unconformably overlain by Oligocene volcanic rocks. Several small tectonic windows of carbonate rocks are exposed in the siliceous sequence. The window is presumed to be the lower plate of the Roberts Mountain Thrust Fault, and includes favorable host rocks for Carlin-style gold mineralization. Several limited exploration programs have been conducted in the past, and have targeted both sedimentary-hosted (Carlin-style) mineralization hosted in the Paleozoic lithologies, and epithermal mineralization hosted in the Tertiary volcanic rocks. The best hole to date (100 ft. @ 0.022 opt Au) is within the volcanic rocks. The primary target is a Carlin-style gold deposit. Drill targeting will emphasize Carlin-style mineralization along the contact area of lower plate carbonate rocks and the north edge of the granodiorite intrusion, and the present soil geochemistry has outlined a target in this area. Drill targeting is essentially complete, but will include additional soil sample geochemistry in order to refine targets along the edge of the granodiorite.

60 ICP claims are held through a Mineral Lease and Option to Purchase Agreement with the owner, which provides for rental payments and a Net Smelter Return royalty scaled from 1% for US$400 per troy ounce gold or less to 1.33% for greater than US$500 per troy ounce. The royalty is subject to certain optional buyout provisions. The 3 Chem claims are held through an Option Agreement with the owner that includes a retained 2% Net Smelter Return royalty. The royalty is subject to certain optional buyout provisions.

Willow-Currant, Elko County, Nevada

Willow-Currant is an early stage property, and represents a Carlin-style target within a potential new gold belt. The property consists of 128 claims and 480 acres of fee land on the northern end of the Snake Mountains, approximately 40 miles northwest of the town of Wells. The property covers approximately five miles of strike length along the northwest trending Roberts Mountain Thrust Fault. Exposed rocks of the lower plate to the thrust fault include favorable units of the Hanson Creek and Roberts Mountain Formations. In the central part of the property, rock chip sampling has encountered anomalous gold values to 0.580 ppm within the favorable Hanson Creek stratigraphy. In the southern portion of the property, elevated gold values (to 0.368 ppm) occur along a mile long zone of pervasively silicified platy calcareous siltstones of the Roberts Mountain Formation near the Roberts Mountain Thrust Fault. The area has received only a modest amount of past exploration attention – less than 15 holes are documented in the past 25 years. Several undrilled targets have been defined. A soil geochemistry program was completed in 2005, and additional geological mapping and rock chip geochemistry is planned for spring 2006 to aid in drill target refinement.

The 39 CC claims in the property are held under an Option Agreement with Placer Dome Exploration Inc., and are subject to a retained 2% Net Returns royalty and a 1% Net Returns royalty within an area of interest. 480 acres of fee land are held under a Mineral Lease and Option to Purchase Agreement with rental payments applied to a Net Smelter Return royalty scaled from 3% for US$500 per troy ounce gold or less to 4% for greater than US$500 per troy ounce. The royalty is subject to certain optional buyout provisions. This agreement also provides for a 1% Net Smelter Return on a one mile area of interest around the fee ground. The 89 QA and QC claims in the property are owned by Toquima Minerals US Inc., and are within the area of interest provided in the Placer Dome agreement on the CC claims. A portion of the QA/QC claims is within the area of interest provided in the agreement on the fee land described above.

NEVADA JOINT VENTURE PROPERTIES

Dome-HiHo, Lander County, Nevada

The 44 claim Dome-HiHo property is located along the northern Battle Mountain Trend, within the Lone Tree – Marigold – Trenton Canyon subtrend of gold deposits. The target is an intrusive-related sedimentary-hosted gold deposit, and occurring either along north-south range front structures or along northwest-trending, dike-filled faults that cut a variety of lithologies of the Havallah Formation, which constitutes the upper plate of the Golconda Thrust Fault. Effective April 2005, Toquima Minerals US entered into a joint venture with Piedmont Mining Company (OTC:PIED.PK). Piedmont can earn 51% interest by spending $2MM over five years. In fall 2005, Piedmont completed a 14 hole, 5,315 foot reverse circulation drill program on the HiHo claims covering the north half of the property. Piedmont is now planning to evaluate the southern portion of the property along the Mill Canyon structural zone.

The claims are held through a Mineral Lease and Option to Purchase Agreement with the lessor, which provides for rental payments and a Net Smelter Return royalty scaled from 1% for US$400 per troy ounce gold or less to 1.33% for greater than $US500 per troy ounce. The royalty is subject to certain optional buyout provisions. The lessor in turn has an underlying Option Agreement on the HiHo claims, which contains a retained 2% Net Smelter Return royalty. The royalty is subject to certain optional buyout provisions.

Pine Grove, Lyon County, Nevada

The Pine Grove Project, located in the Walker Lane Mineral Belt of western Nevada, is a joint venture with Romarco Minerals Inc (R:TSXV). Romarco is earning a 60% interest in the project by completing expenditures of US$2MM prior to December 31, 2009, with an option to elect to earn an additional 10% interest (total 70%) by committing to take the project to final feasibility within three years of Romarco’s initial earn-in. The underlying Mineral Lease and Option to Purchase Agreement with the owner provides for advance payments applied to a Net Smelter Return royalty scaled from 3% for US$400 per troy ounce gold or less to 4% for greater than US$500 per troy ounce. The royalty is subject to certain optional buyout provisions.

The project consists of 138 unpatented claims, and is located in the Pine Grove mining district, which has estimated historic production of approximately 290,000 gold equivalent (includes silver). The property includes the old Rockland mine, which produced an estimated 50,000 ounces of gold between 1870 and the late 1930’s. Pine Grove has excellent potential for discovery of multiple bonanza-grade veins associated with a Tertiary-age bimodal volcanic suite. Exploration conducted from 1987 to 1999 has resulted in several promising gold-bearing intercepts, including 100 ft. of 1.291 g/t (incl. 10 ft. of 6.125 g/t), 30 ft. of 2.816 g/t (incl. 5 ft. of 9.20 g/t) on the eastern portion of the property. Two miles west, in the vicinity of the historic Rockland Mine, previous drill intercepts include 130 ft. of 1.16 g/t (incl. 10 ft. of 8.56 g/t). Romarco has completed a drill targeting program, and has recently initiated a 5,000 ft, 4-5 hole Phase 1 drill program.

OTHER NEVADA PROPERTIES

Swales Mountain, Elko County, Nevada

Swales Mountain is an early stage property consisting of 253 claims centered on the Eocene-age Swales Mountain intrusive center, the center of which is located about 12 miles northeast of Newmont’s large Gold Quarry gold mine on the central Carlin Trend. The intrusive complex fills a north-south to north-northeast trending structural zone, and cuts a section of carbonate and siliciclastic rocks in the Lower Plate of the Roberts Mountain Thrust Fault. These rocks host the vast majority of the gold being mined on the nearby Carlin Trend. Reconnaissance outcrop rock chip sampling has encountered up to 8.3 ppm gold in altered sedimentary rock adjacent to the intrusive complex. The area has received a very limited amount of exploration, especially considering its favorable geology and proximity to the Carlin Trend. The next phase of work will complete reconnaissance evaluation of this large land package, with the goal of identifying the most favorable target areas for hosting a Carlin-style gold deposit.

The 228 CC claims in the property are held under an Option Agreement with Placer Dome Exploration Inc., and are subject to a retained 2% Net Returns royalty, with a 1% Net Returns royalty in an area of interest. The 25 claims owned by Toquima US are within the area of interest provided in the Placer Dome agreement.

Loomis Mountain, Elko County, Nevada

Loomis Mountain is an early stage property consisting of 32 Lupin claims, owned by Toquima Minerals US, located in the Snake Mountains, about 25 miles north of the town of Wells. This area is considered favorable for Carlin-style gold deposits, and contains identical Ordovician and Silurian-age calcareous host rocks (Hanson Creek and Roberts Mountain Formations) to those which occur along the Independence and Carlin Gold Trends further to the west. Toquima’s rock chip sampling program has encountered gold values to 1.4 ppm in siliciclastic rocks of the upper plate of the Roberts Mountain Thrust Fault. The west end of the property is located in the immediate hanging wall of this thrust fault, directly astride altered, gold-bearing (0.265 ppm) platy calcareous siltstones of the Roberts Mountain Formation. The next phase of work on the property will consist of a soil sample geochemistry program, which is designed to define drill targets in the immediate hanging wall of the thrust fault, on the west side of the property.

LHS, Pershing County, Nevada

The LHS and LHSN claims are located near Leach Hot Springs on the west edge of the Sonoma Range about 25 miles south of the town of Winnemucca. The exploration target is epithermal mineralization, including bonanza veins, in Tertiary volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The target analog is the Sleeper Mine north of Winnemucca, or the nearby gold deposit at Goldbanks Hills, located 8 miles south. In December 2004, Newmont Mining Company entered into a joint venture with Toquima Minerals US. In mid-2005, Newmont completed a 22 hole, 12,285 ft reverse circulation drilling program designed to test a variety of structural, stratigraphic and geochemical targets over 3-4 square miles. Newmont’s drill program encountered anomalous gold mineralization, with values ranging up to 0.479 ppm. Newmont has informed Toquima US that they are returning the property. The Company will thoroughly evaluate the Newmont data and then decide on a course of action.

The 100 claim property is held under a Mineral Lease and Option to Purchase Agreement with the owner, which provides for rental payments and a Net Smelter Return royalty scaled from 3% for US$400 per troy ounce gold or less to 4% for greater than $US500 per troy ounce.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Acquisition of 8 new Gold Projects in Nevada.
• Two projects drill target ready with stratigraphy and structures known to host Carlin-type deposits.
• Two joint ventures whereby each JV partner earns into its property by spending $2 million.
• Several properties in close proximity to existing mines.
• Bolstering the Nevada management team.

To maintain the various leases and properties described above requires periodic rental or option payments and in one case $10,000 to complete a short-term work commitment. The Company has sufficient funds in its working capital to satisfy these obligations.

Palmer, Southeast Alaska

The Alaska subsidiary, Toquima North Inc., owns a lease on the Palmer Property in southeastern Alaska.

The Palmer property has excellent potential for a major new polymetallic base and precious metals discovery. The 340 claim property encompasses a large number of precious metals – enriched volcanogenic massive sulfide prospects distributed along a 9 mile strike length of volcanic-sedimentary stratigraphy. Notable prospect areas include Glacier Creek, Mount Henry Clay, Cap, Nunatak, and Hanging Glacier. Previous exploration, including several diamond drill programs, indicate similarities in mineralization style, alteration, age, and tectonic setting to the world – class Greens Creek and Windy Craggy deposits, which occur in the same belt of Triassic-age rocks in Southeast Alaska and Northwest British Columbia. The Glacier Creek prospect has received the most attention. Mineralization at Glacier Creek consists of two major stratiform horizons, the RW and Main horizons, hosted within a mafic-dominant bimodal volcanic stratigraphy. Significant drill intersections of the RW horizon include 13.51% Zn, 0.21% Cu over 2.2 m, 5.85% Zn, 1.89% Cu over 2.5 m, and 4.01% Zn, over 4.6 m.

The two horizons at Glacier Creek are open downdip, and also appear to be repeated across a large-scale south-overturned anticline, which is cored by a south-directed reverse fault. At the Mount Henry Clay prospect, abundant high-grade baritic massive and semimassive sulfide boulders occur near the limits of a perched or stranded glacier. The average grade of a large number of the boulders is: 19.3% Zn, 1% Cu, 0.4% Pb, 38.2 g/t Ag, 0.22 g/t Au, and 20.6% Ba. Although the source of the boulders has not been discovered, the area remains attractive for discovery. Silver- and barite-rich stratiform mineralization at the Cap prospect (134 g/t Ag over 23 m) remains virtually untested at depth, and other occurrences on the property have also yielded excellent precious-metal values (e.g., 11.84 oz/ton Ag and 0.092 oz/ton Au in a bulk sample of baritic semimassive sulfide from Nunatak, and up to 198.9 g/t Ag, 1.58 g/t Au, 14.1% Zn, 2.3% Pb, and 0.36% Cu from massive sulfide at the Hanging Glacier prospect).

The project is logistically well situated within 3 miles of a paved highway and 35 miles north of the deep-sea port of Haines.

The property is controlled by way of a mineral lease agreement with the owner, with advance royalties applied to a 2.5% Net Smelter Return royalty, which is subject to certain optional buyout provisions.

Subject to the successful IPO, an aggressive exploration program is planned for 2006, as follows:

1. Drill test the downdip extensions of the two “stacked” horizons at Glacier Creek – the RW and Main horizons, including tests of the sulfide equivalent of the oxidized leached baritic material in the RW horizon which contains 12.7 m of 49 g/t silver and 0.39 g/t gold but is leached of copper and zinc.
    
2. Evaluate the south side of the overturned anticline, for east strike extensions of the RW and Main horizons. Reconnaissance soil sampling conducted by Toquima in 2004 indicates that both horizons extend in this direction down onto lower elevations.
    
3. Drill test the Cap prospect by offsetting the existing drill intercepts.
    
4. Complete systematic exploration over the numerous mineral showings on the remainder of the property, particularly, Mt. Henry Clay and Nunatak.

The information provided in the property descriptions is taken from a NI 43-101 report on the Palmer project written by Mr. Greig for a prospectus filed by TQM BC October 8, 2004. Information on the Nevada properties was compiled from various historical and current technical reports provided to the Company by Toquima Minerals US Inc.

"Wayne Livingstone"

Wayne Livingstone, Director

Telephone: (604) 669-9970
Website: www.carlingold.com

Scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed by Peter Christopher, the Company's qualified person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101.

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the information contained herein.

Certain disclosures in this release, including management's assessment of Carlin's plans and projects, constitute forward-looking statements that are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to Carlin's operation as a mineral exploration company that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Carlin expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.