Secondary Access At The Pinson Underground Mine

GOLDEN, CO - Atna Resources Ltd. has completed construction of the secondary access into its Pinson underground gold mine located in Humboldt County, Nevada. Completion of this access allows the continued development of spiral access into the mine. Work has begun on this spiral to allow development of ore mining areas with the goal of achieving gold ore production in the fourth quarter 2012.

Significant progress has been achieved on a number of other key components of this development project: Pinson has received notice from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection that modification to its Water Pollution Control Permit to increase to a large scale facility producing up to 400,000 tons of ore per year is administratively complete. The Department will now begin their technical review for final approval. No federal permits are required for this increased production rate;       On July 20th, 2012 the Company received Notice of approval of the Class II Air Quality Operating Permit from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. This permit covers the operation of an ore crushing facility, a crusher facility for aggregate for backfill, a shotcrete plant, a backfill plant and an assay laboratory;     An underground chamber for installation of the primary ventilation fans and air door lock was constructed as part of the secondary access. Ventilation doors and the main fans will be installed in the near future; Construction has commenced on an onsite assay laboratory. Completion is expected by the end of third quarter 2012.

"The development of Pinson is going smoothly and advancing toward our goal of gold production in the fourth quarter of this year. We are encouraged by the swift response of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection to our permit modification request and anticipate approximately 4 to 6 months for final approval of the modification," said CEO and President James Hesketh. "We are also quite pleased with approval of the Class II Air Quality Permit, which brings us closer to gold production," he added.