Golden Queen Files Its Response to an Emergency Petition Filed with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service on January 31, 2014

VANCOUVER, April 1, 2014 /CNW/ - Golden Queen Mining Co. Ltd.  (TSX:GQM) (OTCQX:GQMNF) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has submitted its response to the emergency petition (the "Petition") filed on January 31, 2014 by the Center for Biological Diversity (the "Center") with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service ("USFWS") asking the USFWS to list the Mohave shoulderband snail as a threatened or endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act ("ESA").

The Company has worked with its environmental and legal advisors to prepare a detailed and complete response, which was filed with the USFWS on March 31, 2014. The Company's response is available on the Company's website at www.goldenqueen.com. 

In reviewing the Petition, the Company finds that the Center's assumptions, arguments, and conclusions lack scientific support.  In the terminology of the USFWS, the Petition does not present substantial scientific information sufficient to convince a reasonable person that action by the USFWS may be warranted.  The Petition relies on incorrect and incomplete information with respect to both science and the Company's Soledad Mountain Project (the "Project").  The majority of the biological information presented in the Petition is generic or pertains to other snail species.  To the extent the Petition discusses the Mohave shoulderband in particular, the statements rely on a 500 word, 80-year old academic journal note that does not meet modern academic standards, and unpublished data gathered by the Petitioners but withheld from the USFWS and the public.

After an extensive review and approvals process spanning nearly three decades and including numerous environmental reports and public hearings, the Company has received three key permits that allow the Company to construct the facilities and begin mining and processing operations.  Details on the approvals and permits the Company has received for the Project are available in the Company's Form 10-K, which is available on the Company's website at www.goldenqueen.com. The Center did not participate in any of the prior environmental proceedings or comment on any of the many prior biological reports made available to the public.

About Golden Queen Mining Co. Ltd:

The Company is developing its wholly-owned, gold-silver, open pit, heap leach operation on its fully-permitted Soledad Mountain property, located just outside the town of Mojave in Kern County in southern California. The Soledad Mountain Project will use conventional open pit mining methods and the cyanide heap leach and Merrill-Crowe processes to recover gold and silver from crushed, agglomerated ore.

THE TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THE CONTENT OF THIS PRESS RELEASE.

SOURCE Golden Queen Mining Co. Ltd.