North American Gem Receives Prospecting Permit Approval From the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection

VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwire - March 2, 2009) - North American Gem Inc. (TSX-V: NAG) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the prospecting permit approval for its parcel of coal in the Lyon district of West Virginia referred to by the company as the Dalton Tract. The property is 134.17 acres and hosts three coal seams including the Little Clarksburg, the Elk Lick and the Harlem.

The prospect permit issued by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP), for the Dalton property, will allow for the drilling of above-coal strata from the uppermost elevations of surface mining disturbance to elevations just below the coal pavement. One complete drill hole with detailed sampling of all drilled overburden material is a requirement of the WVDEP for a surface mining permit. The test results from the overburden analysis will determine what precautions are necessary to mine the coal and not produce poor water quality after mining operations have been completed.

The prospect permit obtained for this property also included sufficient acreage to drill additional holes on the property. Depending on the results of the initial hole, additional drilling may be performed to more adequately estimate the coal reserve tonnages on the property.

The Company has contracted Triad Engineering Inc., established in 1975, which provides geotechnical and civil engineering, environmental services, land surveying, construction testing and monitoring, drilling and construction materials laboratory services to a wide range of clients. Triad will perform all drilling on the property and a site visit has been set for March 3rd, 2009 with a Company representative and drill work has been scheduled to commence during the week of March 9th, 2009.

All current work on the West Virginia properties is being supervised by Mike Green of Green Engineering, Inc., who is a registered professional engineer in Philippi, West Virginia, and will be operating as the Company's qualified person under National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Green has reviewed the technical content of this news release and confirms its accuracy. Mr. Green is independent of the Company

PLUS THIS:

Saskatchewan Property Update

On February 26, 2009 the Company announced that it had initiated the drill permitting process for a work program that will include up to 20 drill holes around the Tobin Lake region. The program will target locations with historic coal occurrences and areas with potential for coal intercepts, at depths amenable to open-pit mining. One such area the Company will be focusing on will be a land package approximately 20 kilometres south of the new coal discovery in the Split-Leaf area of the Border project by Goldsource Mines Ltd. which was announced in their March 2, 2009 release. These particular Coal Prospecting Permits represent the Company's closet land package to the Goldsource discovery.

http://www.marketwire.com/press-rele...

ecce