MacDonald Mines VMS Discovery Leads Exploration Program to Larger Target and Provides Exploration Summary

MacDonald Mines Exploration Inc. (TSX VENTURE:BMK) ("BMK") is pleased to provide
an exploration summary on its Butler property located just 36 kilometres west of
the Big Daddy Chromite deposit (Click here for map). BMK is currently planning a
drill program in late September 2012 to advance its VMS discovery at Butler 3.
BMK believes it has identified zinc-copper mineralization on the Butler property
that is economically viable with road access.


Executive Summary



--  Our understanding of the mineralization at Butler 3 leads us to conclude
    that we have yet to intersect the core of the VMS system, which BMK's
    technical staff interprets to lie immediately to the east of the
    identified VMS mineralization. 
--  Drilling will continue east of BMK's historic work at Butler 3 following
    the geochemical and geophysical vectors determined from the last drill
    program. 
--  The planned toll road following the north-south all-season road corridor
    to the Black Thor chromite deposit by the Province of Ontario and Cliffs
    Natural Resources will open up the Ring of Fire for mine development and
    mineral exploration. 
--  BMK believes it has identified vanadium and zinc-copper mineralization
    on the Butler Property that are economically viable with road access. 
--  Through analysis of exploration datasets by industry experts, BMK
    believes the Butler property has the potential to host both a world-
    class VMS deposit, and an economically exploitable nickel deposit. 



Strong Indications of Core VMS Mineralization 

Review and interpretation of BMK's last drill program have led to the
interpretation of a much larger geophysical target east of the current drilling
work. The anomaly exhibits both electromagnetics (EM) and anomalous gravity
values. The target also is consistent with our geochemical and structural
analysis in the vicinity. This area is the current prime target for a much
larger VMS deposit than currently discovered for the following reasons:




--  The geophysical signatures are consistent with the mineralization
    discovered on Butler 3 - with the exception that the footprint is much
    larger. 
    --  A large density anomaly exists in this area - of greater size and
        density than drilled historically 
    --  The magnetic signature is consistent with that observed over the
        known mineralization at Butler 3 
    --  EM signature is coincident with the gravity anomaly  
--  The geochemical analysis of all the drill core by Dr. James Franklin
    Ph.D., FRSC, P.Geo., has generated vectors pointing in this direction 
--  The nearest drill hole (BL12-Cu11) intersected mineralization and has
    the geochemical signatures indicative of being close to the core of a
    VMS body 



About the Butler Property 

BMK's Butler property is potentially a new VMS district, with at least four
zinc-copper volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) 'centres' of mineralization
(Butler 1 through 4). These centres are spaced about 2-4 km apart, a typical
distribution for deposits in most productive camps such as Matagami Lake,
Sturgeon Lake and Noranda. 


To view the map associated with this press release, please visit the following
link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/Butler321.pdf. 


Dr. Franklin summarizes the VMS discoveries made to date on the Butler property
as follows:




--  there is good potential for a world-class VMS deposit here, possibly on
    the extension of the core of the Zn-Cu rich zone as mapped thus far 
--  initial discoveries were of stringer zones formed in the footwall to a
    much larger system with good potential for additional Cu, Zn and Ag
    resources 
--  recognition that the alteration system continued to the east, gave an
    impetus for the company to pursue this area more vigorously 
--  alteration and down-hole geophysical results pointed to targets that
    proved to be significant banded, Zn-rich VMS mineralization 
--  alteration still continues further to the east, and localized increased
    copper contents, as well as the presence of other key alteration
    indicators, along with significant geophysical targets, indicate the
    potential for discovery a few tens to hundreds of meters to the east 



Infrastructure Planned for Developing Ring of Fire 

The Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines states on their website
that, "the Ring of Fire is one of the most promising mineral development
opportunities in Ontario in almost a century." This bullish outlook is based
upon three significant mineral discoveries:




--  2003 - Spider Resources and KWG Resources discover volcanogenic massive
    sulphide (VMS) at McFaulds Lake; characterized by very high-grade
    intersections of VMS mineralization (McF-04-57 intersected 18.8 meters
    of 8.02% Copper (Cu), Mc-03-18 averaged 4.83% Zinc (Zn) over 25.75
    metres) and at depths over 250 metres. 
--  2007 - Noront Resources discovers Eagle 1 massive magmatic nickel (Ni)
    sulphide and platinum group element (PGE) deposit; National Instrument
    (NI) 43-101 indicated resource of 6.9 million tonnes (Mt) averaging
    2.04% Ni, 0.95% Cu, 1.30 g/t platinum (Pt) and 3.40 g/t palladium (Pd)
    and an inferred resource of 4.3 Mt averaging 1.42% Ni, 0.87% Cu, 0.80
    g/t Pt and 3.40 g/t Pd. 
--  2009 - Freewest Resources discovers Black Thor chromite deposit; NI 43-
    101 inferred resource of 69.6 Mt @ 31.9% Cr2O3 



These discoveries confirmed that the Ring of Fire region of the James Bay
Lowlands is mineral-rich in copper, zinc, nickel, PGEs, vanadium, gold and
chrome, and that the region has a high probability of hosting other significant
discoveries as typically seen in other mining camps. 


The first signs of development in the Ring of Fire were evidenced in 2010, when
Cliffs Natural Resources purchased Freewest's and Spider's interest in the Black
Thor chrome deposit for $248 million, and signaled a billion dollar plus
investment in James Bay. This was validated by the Ontario Provincial
Government, which publically identified the mining potential of James Bay as
"World Class" and highlighted the mining opportunities as key for Ontario. 


Since their purchase of the Black Thor chrome deposit, Cliffs has announced its
capital expenditure projection for the chrome deposit to be $2.25 billion. As
part of this expenditure, and supported by the Province of Ontario, Cliffs would
construct an all-season road corridor from its mine site to a rail transload
facility near the community of Nakina. This road would not only service Cliffs'
chromite operation, it would facilitate the development of Noront's Eagle 1
deposit, and rapidly promote the acceleration of mineral exploration projects in
the Ring of Fire to mine development projects.


Impact of Infrastructure on the Development of Butler Property Vanadium 

Significant vanadiferous titano-magnetite units discovered by BMK in 2011 are
found within the Butler property. All drill holes targeted for vanadium in
exploration programs were found to be mineralized, with assay values to 1.65%
V2O5, and composited intervals ranging from 0.57% to 1.17% V2O5. Widths of the
composited down-hole data ranged from 1.5 to 36 meters. 


The grades of vanadium mineralization intersected at the Butler property are
highly significant, as they are directly comparable to the current producing
South African vanadium mines. The widths of vanadium mineralization found at the
Butler property however, are much wider than those currently being mined in
South Africa. Also of note, is that the magnetic concentrate obtained from
metallurgical analysis of the Butler property vanadium mineralization is of
superior tenor than that obtained in South Africa. 


The Butler property concentrate having V2O5 values of 2.08%, Fe2O3 values of
93.70% and TiO2 values of 3.16%. Based on these values, as well as geological
and geophysical analyses conducted on the property, the Company is confident
that an exploration target of over 50 MT grading in excess of 0.6% V2O5 is
obtainable on the property, and that the development of a road to the Ring of
Fire would be the impetus to further develop this vanadium mineralization.


Impact of Infrastructure on the Development of Butler Property VMS 

To date, BMK has discovered 4 separate VMS mineralized zones on the Butler
property. The widths and tenors of copper and zinc mineralization are comparable
to those of VMS mines operating in close proximity to road infrastructure. With
the development of a road to the Ring of Fire, the Company believes currently
identified Butler property VMS mineralization could be economically viable. 


VMS mineralization intersections are highlighted below:



--  Hole BP12-Cu14 intersected 41.5 m of 0.4 Cu, 3.26% Zn and 6 g/t Ag 
--  Hole BP12-Cu16 intersected 14.0 m of 0.56% Cu, 1.83% Zn and 11.31 g/t Ag
--  Hole BP11-Cu06 intersected 167 m of 0.39% Cu and 1.13% Zn 
--  Hole MN10-102 intersected 17 m of 1.0% Cu and 0.12 g/T Au 
--  Hole MN10-126 intersected 26.7 m of 0.6% Cu and 0.35% Zn 
--  Hole MN10-131 intersected 8 m of 4.68% Zn, 0.46% Cu and 7.7 g/t Ag 



Nickel-PGE Potential 

The discovery of magmatic nickel sulphide (24 m of 0.27% Ni, and 7.5 m of 0.153
ppm Pd and 0.044 ppm Pt) in hole MN07-39 led the Company to drill test the
surrounding area during the 2007 and 2008 exploration programs. This exploration
led to limited success, and nickel exploration was put aside in favour of
targeting the VMS mineralization. With the appointment of Dr. Larry Hulbert,
Ph.D., P.Geo. to BMK's Technical Advisory Committee in February 2011 however,
the magmatic nickel sulphide mineralization potential of the Butler property was
again revisited. 


Through his examination of drill core, Dr. Hulbert identified unequivocal
komatiites on the Butler property. Komatiites are extremely high temperature
extrusive rocks that can host significant magmatic Ni deposits (eg. Thompson Ni
Belt, Manitoba; Raglan, Quebec; Kambalda, Australia). According to Dr. Hulbert: 


'One of the most striking observations was the abundance and widespread nature
of gabbroic rocks and their extreme degree of differentiation. Of equal if not
more importance was the recognition for the first time of komatiites. The
presence of true komatiites raises the Ni-Cu-PGE prospectivity of the property
to a new level not previously appreciated.' 


Dr. Hulbert has since conducted a geological, geochemical, and geophysical
review of data collected over the Butler property, and has made the following
observations:




--  wide range of differentiated mafic-ultramafic rocks ranging from
    komattitic dunite-peridotite sills/flows to gabbro and ferro-gabbro
    differentiates on the property 
    
--  magmatic Ni-Cu sulphides have recently (2012) been found in the marginal
    zone rocks at the extremity of a large dunite-peridotite complex on
    Butler 5 
    
--  the country rock to the intrusions has an abundance of external sulphur
    in the form of VMS mineralization to contaminate the magmas and cause
    sulphide immiscibility of Ni-Cu-PGE mineralization identical to the
    komatiitic ores at Noront's Eagles Nest deposits 
    
--  geochemical analyses indicate that this same body as well as some of the
    gabbroic intrusions have zinc contents hundreds to thousands of times
    normal background for such rocks, and is clear evidence of sulphur
    country rock contamination  
    
--  an IP survey over the central portion of this body demonstrates a
    "rooted" resistivity and "chargeability" feature underlying the
    intrusion in an area flanked by a string of VTEM anomalies along the
    base 
    
--  encouraging Ni-Cu sulphides have also been found in mid-range
    differentiated gabbroic rocks on Butler 5 (MN07-039) that has an
    unusually high magnetic signature for magnetite-poor gabbros - the
    source of this anomalous magnetism could be due to untested sources of
    Pyrhotite-Pentlandite 
    
--  the world-class discovery of Ni-Cu-PGE sulphides at McFaulds Lake 30 km
    to the northeast in the same geological environment as present on the
    Butler property, along with the favorable metallogenic factors mentioned
    above all emphasize the significant potential of the area  
    



Qualified Person

Quentin Yarie, P.Geo., is the qualified person in regard to the technical data
contained within this news release.


About MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd. 

MacDonald Mines is a mineral exploration company with an established exploration
history in the Canadian Northlands. MacDonald Mines has set upon a strategic
direction of exploration with particular focus on nickel, chrome, copper, zinc,
vanadium and titanium in the "Ring of Fire" area of the James Bay Lowlands of
Northern Ontario. 


More information about the Company is available at www.macdonaldmines.com.

Cautionary Statement

The foregoing information may contain forward-looking statements relating to the
future performance of MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd. Forward-looking
statements, specifically those concerning future performance, are subject to
certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from
MacDonald's plans and expectations. These plans, expectations, risks and
uncertainties are detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by
MacDonald with the TSX Venture Exchange and securities regulators. MacDonald
does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
We seek safe harbour.