Rathdowney Resources Ltd. Announces New Chairman And Directors

VANCOUVER, Dec. 7, 2011 /CNW/ - Rathdowney Resources Ltd. ("Rathdowney" or the "Company") (TSXV: RTH) announces the appointment of David J. Copeland, Lena Brommeland, and Stephen Hodgson to the Company's Board of Directors. Mr. Copeland has also been nominated as Chairman of the Board of Directors, replacing Robert Dickinson who is retiring from the Board.

David J. Copeland is a Professional Engineer and mining executive with over 30 years of experience in a variety of capacities in mine exploration, discovery and development throughout the South Pacific, Africa, South America and North America. He has extensive industry experience and is a director of several public companies. Mr. Copeland has been a key contributor to projects, providing expertise and leadership on the Mt. Milligan Copper-Gold Project in British Columbia ("BC"), the South Kemess mine in central BC, the Hollister development project in Nevada, USA, the Burnstone mine in South Africa and the Xietongmen project in Tibet, China. As Director of Project Development at Hunter Dickinson Inc. ("HDI"), he directs and co-ordinates advanced technical programs of companies for which HDI provides services.

Lena Brommeland has a BSc in geology and more than 20 years of experience in mineral project evaluation and on-site management of large-scale mineral projects, including the Pebble and Niblack projects both located in Alaska and the Prosperity project in BC. Ms. Brommeland is Executive Vice President of Project Services with HDI where she manages on-site drill programs, co-ordinates environmental planning and permitting, and develops community relations activities for exploration and feasibility-level projects associated the HDI group of companies. A longstanding member with the Association for Mineral Exploration BC, Ms. Brommeland dedicates a substantial amount of time to industry outreach and development and is a past Chair of the organization.

Stephen Hodgson is a Professional Engineer with over 30 years of experience in mine operations, mine development and project engineering. His most recent position is Director of Engineering for the Pebble Partnership where he has been leading the completion of a feasibility study for the large scale Pebble project in Alaska. Mr. Hodgson has broad knowledge of zinc mines and projects in previously held positions, including six years at Pine Point in northern Canada which hosts a Mississippi Valley Type deposit ranking as one of the largest of its type in the world. Pine Point is considered an analog for the deposits at Rathdowney's Project Olza in the Silesia zinc belt. Mr. Hodgson is also Executive Vice President of Engineering with HDI.

"The nomination of Dave Copeland as Chairman and his addition along with Lena Brommeland and Steve Hodgson as Directors will add a high level of expertise to Rathdowney's Board. Their depth of experience and knowledge, particularly in project management that spans exploration through operations, will be great assets as we work in advancing our zinc-lead projects toward development," states John Barry, President & CEO. "Additionally, I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the Board to thank Bob Dickinson for his leadership during his tenure as Chairman of the Board of the Company."

The new directors have each received 100,000 stock options.


About Rathdowney

Rathdowney Resources Ltd. (TSXV: RTH) is a mineral exploration company focused on finding and developing the next generation of zinc-lead-silver deposits in the ore fields of Poland. Rathdowney is associated with Hunter Dickinson Inc. ("HDI"), a diversified, global mine development company with more than 25 years of mineral development success. From its head office in Vancouver, Canada, HDI applies its unique strengths and capabilities to acquire, develop, operate and monetize mineral properties that provide consistently superior returns to shareholders.


John Barry
President & CEO



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For further information:

on the Company and its projects, please visit www.rathdowneyresources.com or contact Investor Services at (604) 684-6365 or within North America at 1-800-667-2114.