Directorate change and share awards

Avocet Mining PLC - directorate change and share awards

Appointment of David Cather to the Board of Directors

Further to his recent appointment as Chief Executive Officer, the Company is pleased to announce that at a Board meeting on 31 July 2012, David Cather was formally appointed as an Executive Director of Avocet Mining PLC.

Award of Share Options and 2012 Performance Share Plan ('PSP') shares

The Company also announces that, as part of his remuneration package, David has been awarded 250,000 options over ordinary shares of 5 pence. These options have a Grant Date of 1 August 2012, and an Exercise Price of 75 pence.

In addition, David has also been awarded 250,000 shares under the 2012 PSP.

In accordance with the PSP rules, these shares will vest on 1 August 2015 but the final number of shares will depend on the Total Shareholder Return ('TSR') of the Company compared to a comparator peer group over the period 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2014.

If the Company performs below the median level of its comparator group, no shares will vest. If the Company is in the top quartile, 100% of the above shares will vest. If the performance is in the third quartile, the number of shares that will vest will be determined pro rate between 25% and 100% of the target award depending on the TSR performance percentile. Shares will not vest until 1 August March 2015, being three years after the grant date.

Issue of Employee Benefit Trust shares

The Company announces that it has requested Maitland Trustees Limited ('Maitland'), Trustee of the Company's Employee Benefit Trust ('EBT'), to release 13,521 ordinary shares of 5p each in the Company ('Shares') to satisfy the Company's obligations for deferred employee share awards.

Following the above release, the EBT holds a total of 480,067 Ordinary Shares in Avocet, representing less than 0.2 per cent of the share capital in issue of the Company.

Persons Discharging Managerial Responsibility ('PDMR') interests

As a result of the above transactions, interests in shares held by the following Directors and senior managers (primary insiders), either directly, through connected persons (eg family members), or within the EBT or Avocet Shareholder Incentive Plan ('SIP') will be as follows:

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NOTES TO EDITORS

Avocet Mining is a gold mining and exploration company listed on the London Stock Exchange (Ticker: AVM.L) and the Oslo Børs (Ticker: AVM.OL). The Company's principal activities are gold mining and exploration in West Africa.

In Burkina Faso the Company owns 90% of the Inata Gold Mine. The deposit at Inata currently comprises a Mineral Resource of 3.46 million ounces and a Mineral Reserve of 1.85 million ounces. The Inata Gold Mine poured its first gold in December 2009 and produced 167,000 ounces of gold in 2011 and is expected to produce 135,000 - 140,000 ounces of gold in 2012.

Other assets in Burkina Faso include eight exploration permits surrounding the Inata Gold Mine in the broader Bélahouro region. The most advanced of these projects is at Souma, some 20 kilometres from the Inata Gold Mine, where a Mineral Resource of 0.56 million ounces exists.

In Guinea, Avocet owns twelve exploration licenses in the north east of the country. Mineral Resource development has been ongoing since 2005 and the project at Tri-K is the most advanced. Within the Tri-K project, Koulékoun has a Mineral Resource of 1.83 million ounces and Kodiéran of 0.4 million ounces.