TORONTO, Dec. 23 /CNW/ - Cline Mining Corporation (TSX: CMK) ("Cline" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the United States Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has approved a mining plan which permits the underground miners to drive into and mine coal from the Apache and Allen coal seams at Cline's New Elk Coal Mine located in Las Animas County, Colorado, U.S.A. The coal miners have already begun coal production in the Apache coal seam utilizing underground continuous mining methods. The mined coal will be loaded directly onto the recently installed high capacity conveyor system and transported to the surface coal stock pile, from where it will be fed into the newly completed 3 million tonne per year metallurgical coal processing plant.

With this approval from MSHA, Cline has achieved its targeted start-up of the New Elk Coal Mine in Q4 of 2010. Production will increase steadily over the next year, with the goal of reaching the rate of 3.0 million tonnes of coal per year by the end of 2011.

Confirmation drilling of 16 drill holes at the New Elk Coal Mine has detailed and confirmed high quality metallurgical steel-making coking coal in the coal seams. The in-seam coal qualities reported by SGS from the recent drill cores show the coal to be in the premium high-vol category in each of the seams to be mined over the next twenty years.

Cline's New Elk Coal Mine has a mineral resource estimate of 315 million tons of coal in-place (87.6 million tons Measured and 227.4 million tons Indicated) as detailed in a technical report titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report of the New Elk Mine Project Los Animas County, Colorado, USA" prepared by Gary L. Skaggs, P.E., P.Eng. and Timothy Ross, P.E., of Agapito Associates, Inc. dated November 1, 2010 (effective March 13, 2010), available on SEDAR under Cline's profile and on Cline's website at www.clinemining.com.

About Cline: Cline has significant metallurgical coal property interests in British Columbia, Canada and in Colorado, U.S.A. with NI 43-101 compliant independent Technical Reports. Cline Mining Corporation is a mine development company focused on the exploration and development of metallurgical steel making coals in Canada and the U.S., iron ore in Madagascar and the Cline Lake Gold Mine Property in northern Ontario, Canada.

CLINE MINING CORPORATION

Ken Bates, President and Chief Executive Officer