October 7, 2009

Surrey, B.C. – Carlin Gold Corporation (TSX Venture, CGD), ("Carlin" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that a Phase 1, 4,000 foot drilling program is planned to commence on the Company's Whisky Canyon property, Lander County, Nevada in October 2009.

Whisky Canyon lies within the historic Lewis mining district, located in the northern Shoshone Range along the Battle Mountain – Eureka Mineral Trend, about 13 miles south of the town of Battle Mountain. Newmont's Phoenix gold operation (7.6 million oz proven/probable reserves, Newmont 2007 annual report) is located 14 miles to the northwest, and Barrick's Cortez complex (11.5 million oz proven/probable reserves, Barrick 2007 annual report) is 17 miles southeast. The property consists of approximately 2,520 acres or 4 square miles, and includes 20 patented claims and other private land consisting of approximately 650 acres. The remainder of the property is on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management, and is covered by 129 unpatented claims, 4 of which are 100% owned by Carlin. Aside from these 4 claims, the Company controls the property through three agreements. These agreements have been described in news releases and details are available on www.sedar.com.

The area is strongly mineralized, and has been the site of historic silver mining at the old Betty O'Neal mine, as well as several previous exploration programs. The Company has been able to acquire, compile, and integrate much of the previous exploration data into the current program. This data includes information from 249 drill holes totaling 111,942 feet, rock chip geochemical data for 3,786 samples, and soil geochemical data for 4,625 samples. The Company has identified several drill targets, including an interval of calcareous clastic rocks several hundred feet thick which appears to preferentially host anomalous gold mineralization on the east side of Whisky Canyon. A primary concept for targeting gold mineralization is identifying areas of intersecting northeast and northwest, dike-filled structures, especially where these areas of intersection are contained within the calcareous clastic rocks. The Yankee anomaly represents one such target, and will be the focus for the initial drill program.

The Yankee surface anomaly trends north-northwest, and is approximately 1,400 feet long and 650 feet wide. Rock chip samples collected within this area by Carlin and from previous programs contain significant gold values up to 4.2 g/t (0.122 oz/ton) occurring within altered portions of the calcareous clastic unit. The only known previous drilling in the anomaly was a shallow core drilling program conducted in the 1960's for silver mineralization. Information available at the Nevada Bureaus of Mines and Geology indicates that only one interval in this program was assayed for gold, and it yielded 9 feet grading 0.06 oz/ton gold at 211-220 ft. in a vertical hole on the east edge of the surface anomaly.

Recent sampling along the new road cuts constructed for the drilling program has encountered an 80 foot interval grading 1.27 g/t gold in altered calcareous sediments adjacent to northeast- trending altered quartz-feldspar porphyry dikes. This mineralization will be targeted in the Phase I drill program.

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

About Carlin

Carlin Gold Corporation is a junior resource company focused on gold exploration in Nevada. The Company currently controls four properties in Nevada.

"K. Wayne Livingstone"
K. Wayne Livingstone, President
Telephone: (604) 538-2477
Website: www.carlingold.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

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 except as required by applicable securities legislation.