St. John�s, NL New Island Resources Inc. (�New Island�) (TSX Venture: NIS) announces it closed, on April 20, 2006, its previously announced brokered private placement of 1,250,000 Units at a price of $0.40 per Unit and 3,400,000 common shares issued on a flow-through tax basis (�Flow-Through Shares�) at a price of $0.45 per share, which Units and Flow-Through Shares have been sold in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador for gross proceeds of $2,030,000. 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 $0.70 per share until April 20, 2008.

Research Capital Corporation (�Research�) acted as agent in connection with the private placement and was paid a sales commission of $203,000, representing 10% of the gross proceeds of the private placement, and was granted an option, which expires April 20, 2008, to purchase an aggregate of 465,000 Units. In addition, Research has been paid a corporate finance fee of $25,000, of which $5,000 has been paid by the issuance of 12,500 Units at $0.40 per Unit. In addition, a third party was paid a finder�s fee of $40,000, equal to approximately 2% of $2,000,000 raised on the private placement.

All Common Shares and Common Shares and Warrants, included in any of the foregoing Units, either issued or issuable upon exercise, and all Flow-Through Shares, are restricted from trading until August 21, 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 .