Richmont Mines Receives Mining Permit For Monique

MONTREAL - Richmont Mines Inc.has received the required mining permits for its 100%-owned Monique Gold Project located in Val-d''Or, Quebec.

The Corporation will begin overburden removal shortly, with a view to extracting a 5,000 tonne bulk sample to be processed at its 100%-owned Camflo Mill in 2013. If the results from the bulk sampling phase are favourable, open pit mining and milling would proceed over the following 2 year period, the approval for which is inclusive in the permit. The open pit phase could potentially be followed by an underground phase, for which a permit amendment would need to be obtained.

The Monique Gold Project currently contains Indicated Resources of 728,164 tonnes at a grade of 2.35g/t, or 55,112 ounces and is located approximately 50 km from the Corporation''s Camflo Mill. Should the bulk sample phase yield positive results, a commercial production decision would be made following a reserve calculation and ore from Monique would be mined and processed at the Camflo Mill along with ore from the Corporation''s Beaufor Mine and bulk sample material from the W Zone project. In the event the Monique and W Zone projects proceed beyond the bulk sampling phase to commercial production, Richmont''s Camflo Mill would operate at near capacity, thus allowing for improved efficiency and lower unit costs.

Paul Carmel, President and CEO of Richmont Mines, commented: "The potential addition of Monique to Richmont''s operating mines is consistent with our strategy to increase the mine life and resources of our Quebec asset base by bringing on additional sources of ore for our Camflo Mill. Each additional source must fulfill investment return criteria established by management, and we continue to evaluate other potential asset acquisitions that fit this strategy."

Richmont Mines has produced over 1,300,000 ounces of gold from its operations in Quebec, Ontario and Newfoundland since beginning production in 1991. The Corporation currently produces gold from its Island Gold Mine in Ontario and Beaufor Mine in Quebec.