Continuing to build the development & production team

LONDON, ON, Sept. 18 /CNW/ - Fortune Minerals Limited (TSX-FT) ("Fortune" or the "Company") announces additional appointments to its board and management team as the Company continues to develop its NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth project in the Northwest Territories and Mount Klappan anthracite coal project in northwest British Columbia. Fortune is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Thomas R. Rinaldi to the position of Vice President Operations to replace James Currie who has joined Fortune's board of directors. Mr. Edward Farrell has also joined Fortune as Hemlo Site Superintendent.

Tom Rinaldi has more than 25 years of senior management and operations experience in the United States and Peru and will lead the key engineering, construction and operations aspects of Fortune's development projects as well as the dismantling and relocation of the Golden Giant mill at Hemlo, Ontario. A graduate of the University of Arizona with a bachelor's degree in Mining Engineering, Tom's extensive experience includes work with a number of large, mid-tier and small mining companies, including Magma Copper, USMX, Mineral Ridge Resources, Minerex Resources, Equatorial Tonopah, and United Salt. He has held senior management positions in both open pit and underground mining operations and has supervised engineering, permitting and the construction of new projects. Notably, Tom's experience includes management of several gold and copper leach operations as well as solvent extraction (SX) and electro-winning (EW) technologies that are an integral component of Fortune's planned NICO hydrometallurgical process plant in the Northwest Territories. "We are very pleased that after reviewing the merits of our projects, Tom has agreed to join Fortune's senior management team and take on the critical role of supervising our operations" said Robin Goad, Fortune's President and CEO. Tom Rinaldi is based out of the Company's head office in London, Ontario.

Edward Farrell has 29 years of experience in project management, mine maintenance and the dismantling and relocation of mine process plants in Canada and internationally. Ed was recently employed as Senior Maintenance Technician at the BHP-Billiton Ekati diamond mine in the Northwest Territories where he has worked for the past ten years. Prior to this, Ed worked in supervisory roles dismantling and relocating four process plants at the Endako mine in B.C., the BYG and Orocon mines in the Yukon and at William Resources' gold operations in Mexico. Prior to this, Ed had approximately 15 years of experience working as a Maintenance Forman and Millwright at a number of mines in British Columbia and Guyana. As Hemlo Site Superintendent, Ed is providing management and technical supervision of the dismantling of major equipment and buildings at the Golden Giant mine in Ontario, which Fortune is relocating to the NICO development in the Northwest Territories.

About Fortune Minerals

Fortune Minerals is a diversified natural resource company with several mineral deposits and a number of exploration projects, all located in Canada. They include the Mount Klappan anthracite coal deposits in British Columbia, and the NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth deposit, the Sue-Dianne copper-silver deposit and other base and precious metals exploration projects in the Northwest Territories. Fortune Minerals is focussed on outstanding performance and growth of shareholder value through assembly and development of high quality mineral resource projects