Champion Minerals Accelerates Fermont Drilling Program (ccnm)

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - June 16, 2011) - CHAMPION MINERALS INC. (TSX:CHM)(FRANKFURT:P02) ("Champion", or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has secured 3 diamond-drill rigs from Major Drilling Inc. to be made available in early July, bringing the total number of drills operating on Champion's various Fermont Holdings to nine (9). All of the drills are expected to continue operating through to year's end.

Drilling continues at the Company's flagship Fire Lake North Project with four drills working to delineate resources at the East Limb and West Limb proposed open pit areas. Since the last mineral resource estimate completed in August 2010, close to 19,000 m of drilling has been completed and approximately 4,000 m remains for this phase of drilling, which is expected to be completed within the next 30 days. The drill program was increased to a total of 23,000 m from the originally proposed 17,500 m as a result of successful exploration that currently requires additional follow-up drilling to define the full extent of the mineralization in order to fully delineate and increase resources. Upon receipt of final assay results, Champion will initiate an update of the current Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate, calculated at 388 Million Tonnes (MT) grading 28.9% Total Iron ("FeT"), to be followed by an update of the Fire Lake North Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") that was completed in November 2010. The PEA update is expected by the end of Q3.

The two drills currently deployed at the Company's Moire Lake Project, are being used to validate and expand upon the current Historical Mineral Resources* estimate of 102 million tonnes grading 31% FeT at the Moire Lake Occurrence (MRNFQ Assessment File GM13035, 1963). The Moire Lake Property is located 4 km southwest of the town of Fermont (Quebec), and adjoins the eastern property boundary of ArcelorMittal's Mont Wright Mine and Concentrator operations.

The three additional drills scheduled to arrive in July will be deployed to the O'Keefe-Purdy Project to validate and potentially expand upon the Historical Mineral Resources* estimate of 51 million tonnes grading 37% FeT at the O'Keefe Lake Iron Occurrence (MRNFQ Assessment File GM31090, 1975). A total of 10,000 m of drilling is planned at the O'Keefe-Purdy Project and will include validation and extensional drilling at the O'Keefe Lake Iron Occurrence at the west end of the Project, and will also explore the relatively untested 19 kilometre strike length of iron formation that extends across the Project.

The O'Keefe-Purdy Project consists of 182 claims covering 95.3 km2 located due north of the Harvey-Tuttle Project and adjoins the north boundary of the Bellechasse Project. Mineralization at the O'Keefe Lake Iron Occurrence, originally discovered in 1957, is characterized as coarse-grained, specular hematite-rich, with lesser magnetite (MRNFQ Deposit File 23B12-0003).

Four coarse-grained, specular hematite-rich grab samples collected by Champion in 2010 from mineralized bedrock in close proximity to the O'Keefe Lake Iron Occurrence, returned grades from 22.9% to 35.5% FeT (see Champion Press Release dated Dec. 15, 2010).

The Fermont Iron Holdings

Champion's Fermont Holdings comprise seventeen properties, three of which - Fire Lake North, Bellechasse and Harvey-Tuttle - currently contain combined NI 43-101 compliant Inferred Mineral Resources totalling 1.55 Billion Tonnes grading 25.4 % FeT at a 15% cut-off. The Company also recently announced positive results from drilling at the Moire Lake* Project (May 19, 2011), which is adjacent to the east of ArcelorMittal's Mont Wright Mine property. A Mineral Resource estimate is scheduled for the Moire Lake* Project in Q3-2011. Seven of the remaining fourteen properties contain combined Historical Mineral Resource Estimates* totalling 620 MT grading 31% FeT.

An ongoing, fully-funded, 60,000+ m diamond-drilling program is scheduled for eight of Champion's Fermont projects in 2011.

Corporate Up-date

Champion is pleased to announce the recent appointment of Chrystal Kennedy, P. Geo. to the position of Exploration Manager for the Company. Ms. Kennedy is a qualified Professional Geoscientist with over 14 years of mineral exploration plus geotechnical, environmental and hydrocarbon exploration experience. As Champion continues to deploy additional drills to its Fermont properties, Ms. Kennedy's primary responsibility will be to assist in exploration project development and management, coordination of field logistics and maintaining quality control of field activities.

About Champion Minerals Inc.