Exercise of Options

For immediate release 19 September 2011

Aureus Mining Inc.

TSX : AUE

AIM : AUE

NEWS RELEASE

Exercise of Options

Aureus Mining Inc. ("Aureus" or the "Company")announces that it has applied for 89,062 new common shares in the Company ("Common Shares") to be admitted to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange ("Admission"). Application will also be made for listing on the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V").

The new Common Shares are being issued pursuant to the exercise of options. Admission is expected to become effective on 23 September 2011. The new Common Shares will rank pari passu with the Company's existing Common Shares.

Following admission of the new Common Shares, the total issued share capital of the Company will be 117,761,115 Common Shares, all of which have voting rights.

The above figure (117,761,115) may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, Aureus Mining Inc.

About Aureus Mining Inc.

The company's assets include the New Liberty gold deposit in Liberia (the "New Liberty Gold Project"), which has an estimated Indicated Mineral Resource of 751,000 ounces of gold grading 4.17 g/t (contained in 5,599,000 tonnes) and an estimated Inferred Mineral Resource of 762,000 ounces of gold grading 3.40 g/t (contained in 7,040,000 tonnes). A preliminary economic assessment ("PEA") of the New Liberty Gold Project filed in December 2010 outlined a robust open pit gold mine with a pre-tax NPV of US$234 million based on an $1100/oz. gold price and a 10% discount rate. The PEA outlined an 8.5 year mine life with approximate production of 100 000 ounces per year in the first five years. The New Liberty Gold Project is being advanced through to a definitive feasibility study.

The New Liberty Gold Project locates within the Bea Mountain mining license which covers 457 km2 and has a 25 year, renewable, mineral development agreement. The Bea Mountain mining license also hosts the proximal gold targets of Ndablama, Weaju, Silver Hills and Gondoja which are the focus of exploration programs during 2011.

The company also has gold assets within exploration properties in Sierra Leone and Cameroon.

Qualified Person

The Company's Qualified Person responsible for preparing this release is David Reading, who holds a MSc in Economic Geology from University of Waterloo, Canada and is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. David Reading is the President and CEO of Aureus Mining Inc. and consents to the inclusion in the announcement of the matters based on their information in the form and context in which it appears and confirms that this information is accurate and not false or misleading.