Atico announces commencement of drilling at El Roble project

Tuesday, Jun 05, 2012

Atico Mining Corporation ("Atico" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:ATY) is pleased to announce that drilling has commenced on its optioned, 8,361 hectares El Roble property in Colombia located 4 hours by paved highway southwest of the city of Medellin.

The initial program consists of 16 underground diamond drill holes totaling over 2,000 meters which are part of the "nearfield" mine-vicinity program to explore for additional, high-grade, massive sulfide bodies lateral to and below the existing mine workings. Atico's first drill holes will test continuity of mineralization below the 2,000 level, the lowest production level at El Roble mine.

Drill targets have been selected based on detailed underground geological mapping, geophysics within the mine vicinity (IP/Resisitivity data) and previous Minera El Roble S.A., Kennecott and Nittetsu drill holes (referenced in El Roble Technical Report, www.aticomining.com/project/el-roble-colombia/ni-43-101.html).

The underground program is intended to be the first part of a larger drilling program aimed at increasing resources in the mine area and discovering additional volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) occurrences along the 10 kilometer prospective trend on the property.

District Scale Exploration

The district-scale exploration program at El Roble Project has the potential to make additional VMS discoveries both adjacent to current mining operations and within the 10 kilometer prospective trend on the property. As part of the exploration program to identify additional high-grade VMS lenses, Geotech Ltd., a Canadian company which provides full service contract airborne geophysical surveys, has been retained and is set to commence a 500-line kilometer helicopter-borne Versatile Time Domain Electromagnetic (VTEM) survey in early June over the ten kilometer favorable contact. It is anticipated that the VTEM will help define drill targets as Time domain EM has been shown to be effective in detecting massive sulphide mineralization at depths up to 200m. Surface drilling of over 7,500 meters to test EM anomalies is expected to begin in the third quarter.

Mr. Fernando E. Ganoza, CEO of Atico Mining Corporation, commented, "We are pleased with the results of the initial exploration program at El Roble project and welcome the commencement of the underground drilling at El Roble mine. At the same time, the air-borne VTEM survey moves us forward to our goal of finding additional high-grade VMS lenses over the 10 kilometer prospective trend on the property. Atico remains focused on the exploration of El Roble Project in Colombia while also pursuing additional business opportunities in Latin America."

El Roble Property

El Roble property hosts an operating underground copper and gold mine with nominal capacity of 360 tonnes per day which, over the past twenty-two years, has processed 1,468,871 tonnes of mineralized material at an average grade of 2.5% copper and estimated gold grade of 2.5 g/t. Copper and gold mineralization at the El Roble Property occurs in volcanogenic massive sulfide ("VMS") lenses. Exploration over the past two years has defined a productive contact and an enclosing package of host rocks extending for a distance of 10 km across the El Roble Property. This entire strike length is marked by VMS mineralization occurrence indicators.

Atico Mining Corporation

Atico is a growth oriented, copper and gold exploration and development company focused on mining opportunities in Latin America. The Company's primary property is the El Roble Project. The Company is selectively pursuing additional acquisition opportunities. For more information, please visit our website at www.aticomining.com.

The technical information in this press release has been approved by Dr. Demetrius Pohl, Ph.D., AIPG Certified Geologist, a qualified person for the technical information in this press release under NI 43-101 standards, and independent of the Company.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Fernando E. Ganoza, Chief Executive Officer

Atico Mining Corporation

Symbol: (TSX VENTURE:ATY)

No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. The securities being offered have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States, or to, or for the account or benefit of, a "U.S. person" (as defined in Regulation S of the U.S. Securities Act) unless pursuant to an exemption therefrom. This press release is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities of the Company in any jurisdiction.

Source: Marketwire