Sirius Minerals Regulatory News (SXX)

For immediate release: 0700hrs Thursday 16 December 2010

Sirius Minerals Plc

("Sirius" or the "Company")

Issue of Equity and Options

Proposed Board Appointment

The Directors of Sirius Minerals Plc (AIM: SXX, OTC: SRUXY), the potash mining group, are pleased to announce that the Company has issued 12,500,000 New Ordinary Shares of 0.25 pence at a price of 10.4 pence per share to Scrimshaw Nominees Pty Ltd as trustee for the Scrimshaw Family Trust. The proceeds of £1.3m will be used for general working capital purposes.

In addition, the Company has granted 37,500,000 options to Scrimshaw Nominees Pty Ltd as trustee for the Scrimshaw Family Trust to be exercised at any time within a five year period from the date of grant. The options have been allotted in three tranches:

·; 12,500,000 options at an exercise price of 25 pence;

·; 12,500,000 at 35 pence; and

·; 12,500,000 options at 45 pence.

It is intended that Mr. Russell Scrimshaw be appointed as a non-executive director of the Company shortly and a further announcement will be made confirming this appointment and providing further information as required by the AIM Rules.

Mr. Russell Scrimshaw is an Executive Director of Fortescue Metals Group ("Fortescue") and has been a member of the Fortescue Board since 2003. He has played an integral role in the commercial development of Fortescue and its Pilbara project. Mr. Scrimshaw was previously a board member of Commonwealth Properties Ltd, EDS Australia, Mobilesoft Ltd, Telecom New Zealand Australia Pty Ltd, The Garvan Institute Foundation and Athletics Australia and has also held executive positions within the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Optus, Alcatel, IBM and Amdahl USA. 

Chris Catlow, Chairman of Sirius, commented:

"Russell is an exceptionally skilled and well connected professional within the Asia-Pacific mining industry. We are delighted that he is intending to join our Board. His investment into the Company likewise strengthens the working capital position of the Company. This comes at a time when positive progress is being made across our projects."

Application will be made for the New Ordinary Shares, which will when issued rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares in issue, to be admitted to trading on AIM; trading is expected to commence on 21 December 2010. Following the issue of the new Ordinary Shares as set out above, the total number of shares in issue will be 728,106,602. Therefore the total number of Ordinary Shares in the Company with voting rights is 728,106,602.

The above figure of 728,106,602 Ordinary Shares may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculation by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the Financial Service Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

- ENDS -

For further information, please contact: