Release of Treasury Shares

Release of Treasury Shares

The Company announces that it has issued 117,095 ordinary shares of 5p each in the Company ("shares") out of treasury shares to satisfy the exercise of share options by former employees who left the Company in 2011. The price for these options was 90.75 pence per Share.

As a result of the above transaction, the Company will hold 442,009 ordinary shares in treasury representing less than 0.2 per cent of the total ordinary shares in issue. The total number of voting rights (being ordinary shares in issue less those held in treasury) amounts to 199,104,701.

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Notes to Editors

Avocet Mining PLC 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.

Other assets in Burkina Faso include eight exploration permits in 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 Kodiéranof 0.4 million ounces.