Champion Minerals Drilling at Lac Moire Property Identifies Significant New Iron Mineralization (ccnm)

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - May 19, 2011) - CHAMPION MINERALS INC. (TSX:CHM)(FRANKFURT:P02) -

• New zone of iron mineralization discovered with drillhole LM11-04 intersecting 130.2 m grading 30.5% Total Iron and drillhole LM11-05 intersecting 133.5 m grading 28.9% Total Iron.

• Twin drillhole LM11-01 intersects 154.1 m grading 30.7% Total Iron which confirms the result from historic drillhole QE43 of 154.2 m grading 29.9% Total Iron2.

• 2011 Lac Moire drill program increased to 7,000 m with the aim to validate and expand upon Historic Mineral Resources1 of 101.6 million tonnes grading 30.8% Iron using re-interpreted geological model.

CHAMPION MINERALS INC. ("Champion" or the "Company") is pleased to announce assay results from the first five drill holes completed at the Lac Moire Project, one of seventeen properties in the Company's Fermont Property Holdings in northeastern Quebec. The Lac Moire Project is located 4 km southwest of the town of Fermont (Quebec), adjoining the east property boundary of ArcelorMittal's Mt. Wright Mine and Concentrator operations. The project hosts the Moire Lake Iron Occurrence (MRNFQ Deposit File 23B14-0014). Explored in the 1950's and again in the mid 1970's, the occurrence hosts Historic Mineral Resources1 of 101.6 million tonnes grading 30.8% Iron (MRNFQ Assessment File GM13035, 1963).

A summary of drillhole intersections and assay results is provided in the following table:

Following a review of the historical data, Champion re-interpreted the historic geological model for the deposit and identified areas with favourable magnetic responses where there was no previous drilling. Drill holes LML11-04 and LM11-05 were targeted at these areas and intersected 130.2 metres (m) grading 30.5% Total Iron ("FeT") and 133.5 m grading 28.9% FeT, respectively.

To view a plan map of Lac Moire please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/chma519.jpg.

The re-interpreted geological model developed by Champion indicates the iron units defined by historic drilling around the perimeter of a semi-circular ring shaped magnetic anomaly converge inward to be within potential mining depths in a much larger "bowl"-like synform. Drill holes LM11-04 and LM11-05 successfully intersected the iron units in the interpreted synform in the centre of the semi-circular ring shaped magnetic anomaly. These positive results to-date suggest potential to significantly expand on the Lac Moire Historic Mineral Resource estimate1.

To view a cross section of Lac Moire please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/chmb519.jpg.

Based on these highly encouraging results, Champion has increased the total proposed metres of drilling at Lac Moire from 5,000 to 7,000 m in order to outline the full extent of the newly discovered mineral zone.

Drill hole LM11-01 intersected 154.1 m grading 30.7% FeT including an interval of 106.1 m grading 32.2% FeT. The hole was designed to "twin" historic diamond drill hole QE43 and confirms the historic intersection which returned 154.2 m grading 29.9% FeT2. The holes are collared 5 m apart on the eastern side of a large semi-circular ring shaped magnetic anomaly that correlates well with iron formation units projected to surface from historic diamond drill holes.

Hole LM11-02 was drilled down-dip from historic drill hole QL14 also located on the eastern side of the magnetic anomaly and intersected 101.9 m grading 28.4% FeT.

Hole LM11-03 was drilled approximately 100 m along strike of historic holes QE55 and QE56 on the western side of the ring shaped magnetic anomaly and intersected a wide zone of lower grade iron mineralization that contained a higher grade interval of 59.4 m grading 27.0% FeT.

Champion's 7,000 m drill program at Lac Moire will test the deposit in order to validate the historic drilling data as the Company seeks to potentially significantly increase tonnage while upgrading the Historical Mineral Resources1 into a National Instrument ("NI") 43-101 compliant Mineral Resource Estimate.

Mr. Tom Larsen, President and CEO of Champion commented, "The latest drilling results at Lac Moire look very promising and could potentially enable the Company to meet its short-term goal of increasing its NI 43-101 compliant Inferred Mineral Resources to two billion tonnes. These drilling results further demonstrate the potential for Champion to develop additional mining operations, along side Fire Lake North in the Fermont district of the south Labrador Trough."

The Fermont Iron Property and on-going 60,000 m Drilling Program

Champion is continuing with an aggressive 60,000 m diamond drilling program designed to validate and potentially significantly increase and upgrade Historical Mineral Resources1. Of the seventeen (17) properties in the Fermont Property Holdings, seven (7) host a total of 620 million tonnes grading 31% Iron in Historical Mineral Resources* (Paquet, 1963; MRNFQ Assessment File GM 13035). Three (3) additional properties, the Fire Lake North, Bellechasse and Harvey-Tuttle Projects, host 1.55 billion tonnes in current NI 43-101 compliant Inferred Mineral Resources grading 25.4% Iron at a 15% cutoff, representing a near 5-times increase over the historic estimates. With the on-going 60,000 m of drilling, Champion hopes to achieve similar success at its other properties with Historic