Toronto, Ontario - February 8, 2010 - Viking Gold Exploration Inc. (TSX-V: VGC), hereafter "the Company" or "Viking Gold", announces that it is currently mobilizing for a 2000 meter exploration drill program on the Company’s Morris Lake property, which is situated in a volcanic belt 80 km north of Yellowknife. This $500,000 program is designed to explore 9 targets over a strike length of 1.7 km. The targets have been selected on the basis of the Company’s earlier lake sediment geochemistry and airborne geophysical surveys, after incorporating the results of its 2009 summer exploration program of limited diamond drilling and surface channel samples of outcrop. Approximately one-third of the combined samples from that program yielded anomalous gold values (see VGC Press Release of October 7, 2009).

On February 4, 2010, the Company’s Board of Directors approved as compensation, the grant of an aggregate 1,200,000 options to nine directors, officers and employees to acquire up to 1,200,000 common shares of the Company. These options are exercisable at $0.11 each over a five-year period.

For further information, please contact Robert Ginn, CEO at (416) 364-6244 ext. 227 or visit our website at: www.vikinggold.ca