Loading of first barge at Forecariah

5 July 2012

Bellzone Mining plc

("Bellzone"or "the Company")

Loading of first barge at Forecariah

Bellzone Mining plc (AIM: BZM) is pleased to announce that loading of the iron ore barge shipments for the Forécariah JV iron mine in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa, has commenced at the transhipping port at Konta (the "Port").

Following the granting of authorisation to commence production on 21 May 2012, the Forecariah JV team have started production at the Forecariah JV iron mine and stockpiling at the Port. Loading of iron ore has commenced onto the 15,000 tonne capacity barges at the Port as the first step in commissioning the marine and trans-shipping component of the Project. The barges will transport the iron ore to the transhipping Panamax vessel, FGM Iron, located approximately 15 km off the coast.

Nik Zuks, Chief Executive Officer of Bellzone, commented: "I am pleased to announce that loading of first iron ore onto the barges at the port of Konta has commenced. The marine trans-shipping system will be commissioned throughout the course of July and August as production ramps up, with first shipment to international customers anticipated in late Q3 2012."

Images of the new port at Konta and the loading of barges can be viewed on the Company's website at: http://www.bellzone.com.au/assets/documents/media/General_News/GN3%20-%20First%20Barge%20Loading.pdf

Enquiries:

Bellzone Mining plc

Terry Larkan/Graham Fyfe +61 (0) 8 9420 8900

Canaccord Genuity Limited

Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker to Bellzone +44 (0)20 7523 8000

Andrew Chubb/Tarica Mpinga

Renaissance Capital Limited

Joint Broker to Bellzone +44 (0)20 7367 7777

Rob Edwards

Tavistock (UK)

Jos Simson/Paul Youens +44 (0)20 7920 3150 / +44 (0)7899 870 450

PPR (Australia)

David Ikin

+61 (0) 8 9388 0944 / +61 (0) 408 438 772

About Bellzone Mining Plc

Bellzone Mining plc is a publicly listed company on the London Stock Exchange and was admitted to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM: BZM) on 1st April 2010. Bellzone Mining plc ("Bellzone"or "the Company") is an exploration and resource development company with iron ore and nickel / copper permits in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa.

Kalia Mine

The Company's flagship project, the Kalia Mine Project, is planned to commence production in 2015 and be producing iron ore and iron ore concentrate at a rate of 50 million tonnes per annum. The Kalia Mine Project has 1.5 billion tonnes of contained iron in JORC resources in 6.16 billion tonnes of magnetite, 315.3 million tonnes of oxide and 98.6 million tonnes of supergene BIF. The oxide and Supergene BIF resources have been established from a portion 15.5% of the 55km2 of the mapped surface oxides on the Kalia permit while the magnetite has been established over 7km of the 19km Kalia I strike. Drilling results and internal estimates indicate that the Kalia Mine Project has the potential to host more than 10 billion tonnes of magnetite while ongoing development is targeting 1.5 billion tonnes of oxide.

Forécariah JV

Bellzone and CIF have fully funded a joint venture to undertake the accelerated exploration and development programme at CIF's Forécariah iron permits that lie between 30 and 80 kilometres from the Guinea coast. The Forécariah permits are held in a CIF subsidiary, Guinea Development Corporation ("GDC") and will be transferred to the JV operations company, Forécariah Guinea Mining SA as per the terms of the definitive and JV shareholder agreements. Commercial production commenced in May 2012 and production will be ramped up through 2012 to a rate of 3‐4 mtpa.

Other activities

Bellzone has completed a mapping and surface sampling programme identifying highly prospective targets at its Sadeka Nickel/Copper Project. A VTEM aerial survey has been completed and prospective targets have been identified and a drilling programme has commenced.