Employee Share Options

Avocet Mining PLC - employee share options

Avocet Mining PLC ('Avocet' or 'the Company') announces its annual employee share awards to Persons Discharging Managerial Responsibility ('PDMRs'), following the lifting of share dealing restrictions in connection with the financing negotiations, the conclusion of which was announced on 25 March 2013.

Employee Share options awards

The Company announces the award of a total of 2,315,000 options over ordinary shares of 5 pence in the Company ('Options') to employees on 26 March 2013 ('the Grant Date'). These Options have an exercise price of 20.5 pence, the close price on the day preceding the Grant Date.

Of these awards, 1,815,000 share options are not normally exercisable before 26 March 2016, the third anniversary of the Grant Date. In addition to the normal scheme rules, these options have an additional performance criterion in order to be fully exercisable, namely that the 30-day volume-weighted average price ('VWAP') for Avocet shares must exceed 80 pence in the period between the Grant Date and the 26 March 2016 (the 'Service Period'). If the maximum 30-day VWAP during the Service Period is between 40 pence and 80 pence, the number of options which become exercisable will be a pro rata scale between 25% of the number of options awarded (for 40 pence) and 100% of the options awarded (for 80 pence). If the maximum 30-day VWAP during the Service Period does not reach 40 pence, no options will be exercisable.

The remaining 500,000 share options will become immediately exercisable, if the Avocet VWAP share price reaches 80 pence at any time between the Grant Date and 31 December 2015. If the VWAP share price between Grant Date and 31 December 2015 reaches between 40 pence and 80 pence, the number of options which become exercisable at that time will be a pro rata scale between 25% of the number of options awarded (for 40 pence) and 100% of the options awarded (for 80 pence). If the maximum 30-day VWAP between Grant Date and 31 December 2015 does not reach 40 pence, no options will be exercisable. Any of these 500,000 options will lapse, if unexercised, by 31 December 2015.

The total share option awards made to PDMRs is as follows:

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

The Company has also made the PSP following awards to senior managers in relation to the performance period 2013-2016.

In accordance with the PSP rules, these shares will vest on 26 March 2016 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 2013 to 31 December 2015.

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 rata between 25% and 100% of the target award depending on the TSR performance percentile. Shares will not vest until 26 March 2016, being three years after the grant date.

Release of 2012 Annual Incentive awards

The following bonus share awards, made under the 2012 Annual Incentive scheme on 12 March 2012 and deferred for one year, have now vested and are due to be released from the Company's Employee Benefit Trust ('EBT'):

As a result of these releases, the number of shares in the EBT will be 469,550.

PDMR interests

As a result of the above transactions, interests in shares held by PDMRs, 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 4.7 million ounces and a Ore Reserve of 0.9 million ounces. The Inata Gold Mine poured its first gold in December 2009 and produced 135,189 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 Souma, some 20 kilometres from the Inata Gold Mine, where there is a Mineral Resources estimate of 0.8 million ounces, with exploration ongoing to grow this figure further.

In Guinea, Avocet owns exploration licences in the north east of the country. Mineral Resource development has been ongoing since 2005 and the Tri-K project is the most advanced, which currently has a Mineral Resource estimate of 3.2 million ounces and a feasibility study is underway.