Great Basin Encounters Bonanza Grades in Blanket Style Mineralization at Hollister

VANCOUVER, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire/ – Great Basin Gold Ltd. (“Great Basin” or the
“Company”), (TSX: GBG; NYSE Amex: GBG; JSE: GBG) announces that trial
mining in the Blanket Zone above the Main Clementine vein #18 at its
Hollister project in Nevada has encountered bonanza grades of gold and
silver.  The Company cautions investors and readers that we are making
this announcement out of an abundance of concern over interpretation of
this information and, as the information may be known locally in the
region of the mine site, the Company felt obligated to make it public. 

Channel sampling carried out in conjunction with trial mining in the
Blanket Zone has encountered the bonanza grades over a strike distance
of 170 feet (57 meters).Channel samples taken every 10 feet (3 meters)
gave values ranging from a low of 1.5 oz/ton(52.0g/t) Au and 3.2
oz/ton(111.9 g/t) Ag to a high of 2,560.4 oz/ton (88,845.9 g/t) Au and
1,829.8 oz/ton (63,494.1 g/t) Ag over channel widths from 0.3 to 2 feet
wide.  The current stope is continuously mineralized along  its
180-foot (60-meter) length. Diluted over 3.5 feet (the width of the
stope development), the average sample values were 66.4 oz/ton (2,404
g/t) Au and 78.5oz/ton (2,723.9 g/t) Ag. Muck piles have also been
sampled; grabs are taken over the pile to collect as representative a
sample as possible (between 10-15 lb. are collected every 10 feet). The
fully diluted value of the muck samples taken from the stope to date
averages 22.3 oz/t (773.8 g/t) Au and 23.4 oz/ton (811.9 g/t) Ag.

The Blanket style mineralization at Hollister is typified by very fine
grained disseminated gold hosted by tuffaceous horizons in the Tertiary
(10-15 million years old) volcanics that lie unconformably on the
basement Ordovician (~430 million year old) metasediments.  These zones
of mineralization are thought to be “mineralization plumes” directly
related to the activity of fluid which has focused in structures that
control the underlying epithermal quartz – adularia veins, and
propagated into the Tertiary volcanic pile.

Blanket mineralization was previously exploited by opencast methods
during 1990-1992 by the Touchstone – Galactic Joint Venture.  According
to historic records, 115,000 ounces of gold were produced by a heap
leach operation that treated low grade ore (~0.003 oz/ton or 1 g/t
Au).  Great Basin modeled all 46 drill intersections above the Tertiary
unconformity, and +1 g/t grade shells generally locate above known
mineralized quartz – adularia veins.   In general, this style has been
located in the first ~30 feet (10 meters) above the unconformity, and
may have dimensions in excess of 150 feet (50 meters) long and 60 feet
(20 meters) wide. Grades from these 46 drill intersections average 0.45
oz/ton Au (15.4 g/t) and 1.7 oz/ton Ag (59 g/t).

Extrapolation of stope 3000N 1E to surface (approximately 200 feet  or
67 meters  vertically above), places this zone 300 feet (100 meters)
west of the historical Clementine mercury mine.  It supports the near
surface working metal zonation and gold deposition model for the
Hollister mine, and indicates additional exploration potential. 

Ferdi Dippenaar, President and CEO, commented: “In the past, we have
identified the Blanket Zone as a target area worth exploring, and trial
mining at the top of vein #18 has turned out to be a great way to test
the prospective nature of this style of mineralization. Although we
have encountered a limited amount of this high grade material through
trial stoping, drilling is underway to determine the full extent of
mineralization. More information will be made available as and when it
becomes available. Based on our experience in the Main Clementine vein
#18, we are evaluating the possibility of returning to previously
stoped out areas above the Gwenivere high grade veins.”

Phil Bentley, Pr.Sci.Nat. (SACNAS) Vice President for Geology and
Exploration for the Company and a qualified person, and Johan Oelofse,
PrEng, FSAIMM, Chief Operating Officer for the Company and a qualified
person, have reviewed this news release on behalf of Great Basin.

Great Basin is a mining company engaged in the exploration and
development of gold properties. The Company is currently focused on
bringing two mines in the world’s two richest gold producing regions
into production. The Hollister gold project is located on the Carlin
Trend in Nevada, USA and the Burnstone gold mine is located in the
Witwatersrand Basin goldfield of South Africa.

Ferdi Dippenaar

President and CEO

No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information
contained in this news release.

Cautionary and Forward Looking Statement Information

This document contains “forward-looking statements” that were based on
Great Basin’s expectations, estimates and projections as of the dates
as of which those statements were made. Generally, these
forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of
forward-looking terminology such as “outlook”, “anticipate”, “project”,
“target”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “should” and
similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are subject to known
and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the
Company’s actual results, level of activity, performance or
achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied
by such forward-looking statements. These include but are not limited
to:

• uncertainties and costs related to the Company’s exploration and
  development activities, such as those associated with determining
  whether mineral resources or reserves exist on a property;
• uncertainties related to feasibility studies that provide estimates of
  expected or anticipated costs, expenditures and economic returns from a
  mining project; uncertainties related to expected production rates,
  timing of production and the cash and total costs of production and
  milling;
• uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary licenses,
  permits, electricity, surface rights and title for development
  projects;
• operating and technical difficulties in connection with mining
  development activities;
• uncertainties related to the accuracy of our mineral reserve and mineral
  resource estimates and our estimates of future production and future
  cash and total costs of production, and the geotechnical or
  hydrogeological nature of ore deposits, and diminishing quantities or
  grades of mineral reserves;
• uncertainties related to unexpected judicial or regulatory proceedings;
• changes in, and the effects of, the laws, regulations and government
  policies affecting our mining operations, particularly laws,
  regulations and policies relating to

• mine expansions, environmental protection and associated compliance
  costs arising from exploration, mine development, mine operations and
  mine closures;
• expected effective future tax rates in jurisdictions in which our
  operations are located;
• the protection of the health and safety of mine workers; and
• mineral rights ownership in countries where our mineral deposits are
  located, including the effect of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources
  Development Act (South Africa);

• changes in general economic conditions, the financial markets and in the
  demand and market price for gold, silver and other minerals and
  commodities, such as diesel fuel, coal, petroleum coke, steel,
  concrete, electricity and other forms of energy, mining equipment, and
  fluctuations in exchange rates, particularly with respect to the value
  of the U.S. dollar, Canadian dollar and South African rand;
• unusual or unexpected formation, cave-ins, flooding, pressures, and
  precious metals losses (and the risk of inadequate insurance or
  inability to obtain insurance to cover these risks);
• changes in accounting policies and methods we use to report our
  financial condition, including uncertainties associated with critical
  accounting assumptions and estimates;
• environmental issues and liabilities associated with mining including
  processing and stock piling ore;
• geopolitical uncertainty and political and economic instability in
  countries which we operate;  and
• labour strikes, work stoppages, or other interruptions to, or
  difficulties in, the employment of labour in markets in which we
  operate mines, or environmental hazards, industrial accidents or other
  events or occurrences, including third party interference that
  interrupt the production of minerals in our mines.

For further information on Great Basin , investors should review the
Company’s annual Form 40-F filing with the United States Securities and
Exchange Commission www.sec.gov and home jurisdiction filings that are available at www.sedar.com. 

SOURCE Great Basin Gold Ltd.