African Queen Appoints Jennifer Todhunter as New Cfo and Director

Apr 17th, 2012 - Thenewswire.ca - Vancouver, British Columbia -- AFRICAN QUEEN MINES LTD. (the "Company") (TSX.V: AQ) (Frankfurt: QM0) is pleased to announce that Ms. Jennifer Todhunter has been appointed to serve as the new Chief Financial Officer of the Company and as a Director, replacing Mr. Mark Lotz. Mr. Lotz has resigned as CFO and as a Director in order to pursue other professional and personal interests, including the development of his own accounting practice. He will remain as a FinancialConsultant for the Company until August 2012.

Ms. Todhunter has recently served as the Company's VP Financial Administration, and prior to that served as the Finance Manager of both the Company and its predecessor, Pan African Mining Corp., since May 2005. Ms. Todhunter has extensive accounting and finance experience, dealing with the complexities of both private and public corporations. She has spent the last thirteen years working with public companies, predominantly those in the mining industry.

In connection with the appointment of Ms. Todhunter as CFO and as a Director, the Company has granted her incentive stock options, subject to any necessary regulatory approvals, to purchase up to 75,000 shares of its Common Stock. The options are exercisable for a term of three years at a price of CAD $0.22 per share.

In addition to the incentive stock options granted to Ms. Todhunter, the Company has granted, subject to any necessary regulatory approvals, incentive stock options to consultants of the Company to purchase up to an aggregate of 150,000 shares of its Common Stock. The options are exercisable for a term of three years at a price of CAD $0.22 per share.

According to Mr. Irwin Olian, CEO of the Company, "We are grateful to Mark Lotz for his contributions to African Queen over the past nine months and wish him all the best in his other endeavors. At the same time, Jennifer Todhunter has been a very able and popular member of our senior financial administration for the past seven years. She is well qualified to move into her new position as CFO,and we welcome her in this role."


About African-Queen

The Company is an exploratory resource company with diversified mineral properties in Southern, East and West Africa. It is exploring its properties in Mozambique, Ghana and Kenya for gold and other metals and it is undertaking exploration in Botswana and Namibia for diamonds, gold and other metals. In Mozambique the Company has approximately 230 sq. km. under license for gold and metals under an agreement with another company. In Ghana it has 28.9 sq. km. under license for gold. In Kenya it has approximately 850 sq. km. under license for gold and metals, and a further 737 sq. km. of gold and other minerals licenses under agreements with two other companies. The Company's licenses in Botswana comprise approximately 2890 sq. km. of diamond prospects. The Company's operations in Mozambique are carried out through its subsidiary PAM Mocambique Limitada and its operations in Ghana are carried out through its subsidiary AQ Ghana Gold Limited. Its operations in Kenya are being carried out through its operating subsidiary AQ Kenya Gold Limited. Its operations in Botswana are carried out through its operating subsidiary, PAM Botswana (Pty) Ltd.; its operations in Namibia are carried out through its operating subsidiary PAM Minerals Namibia (Pty) Ltd. The Company has its executive offices in Vancouver, Canada. The Company was incorporated under the laws of the Province of British Columbia, Canada on April 30, 2008 and received the southern African net assets in a spin off transaction related to the acquisition of Pan African Mining Corp. by Asia Thai Mining Co., Ltd.


ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF AFRICAN QUEEN MINES LTD.

"Irwin Olian"
Irwin Olian, Chairman & CEO



For more information, contact:

Irwin Olian, President and CEO
Carrie Howes, Corporate
E-mail: tigertail@africanqueenmines.com
Phone: (604) 899-0100
Fax: (604) 899-0200
www.africanqueenmines.com

Communications
Email: carrie@africanqueenmines.com
Phone: Germany - +49 (0) 21141 740411
U.K. - +44 (0) 870 490 5443
Canada - +1 416 900 3634
Dubai - +971 55 997 0427



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