St. John’s, NL New Island Resources Inc. (“New Island”) (TSX Venture: NIS) announces it has closed its previously announced brokered private placement of 5,850,000 Units at a price of $0.11 per Unit, which Units have been sold in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario for gross proceeds of $643,500. Each Unit consists of one Common Share of the Corporation and one Common Share purchase warrant (“Warrant”), with each Warrant entitling the holder thereof to acquire one Common Share of the Corporation at an exercise price of $0.15 per share until July 25, 2007.

Research Capital Corporation (“Research”) acted as agent in connection with the private placement and was paid a sales commission of $64,350, representing 10% of the gross proceeds of the private placement, and was granted an option, which expires July 25, 2007, to purchase an aggregate of 585,000 Units. In addition, Research has been paid a corporate finance fee of $25,000, of which $5,060 has been paid by the issuance of 46,000 Units at $0.11 per Unit.

Also pursuant to a non-brokered private placement, certain directors of New Island have sold a total of 2,000,000 Common Shares at a price of $0.115 per share and the proceeds of such sale, after deduction of costs, have been used by such selling shareholders to purchase 2,200,000 Units. With respect to the sale of the foregoing 2,000,000 Common Shares, a finder’s fee has been paid by the issuance of 200,000 Common Shares at $0.11 per Unit.

All Common Shares and Common Shares and Warrants, included in the any of the foregoing Units, either issued or issuable upon exercise, are restricted from trading until May 26, 2006.

The proceeds of the private placement will be used to fund the continued exploration and development of New Island’s mineral properties and for general working capital.

About New Island

New Island is a mineral exploration company holding properties in Newfoundland. Information on New Island and its properties can be viewed at www.newislandresources.com.

For further information, please contact:

Harold Wareham, President, Telephone: (709) 576-7711   Fax: (709) 576-2236 Email: info@newislandresources.com www.newislandresources.com

Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements, which involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties not under the company's control, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from the results, performance or expectations implied by these forward-looking statements .