Atlas Mining Company Appoints John S. Gaensbauer as Its Executive Vice President, Corporate Developm

OSBURN, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Board of Directors of Atlas Mining Company (OTCBB:ALMI), is pleased to announce the appointment of John S. Gaensbauer as the Company's new Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategy and Barbara Suveg as the Company's new Chief Financial Officer.

Robert L. Dumont, the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “I am extremely pleased to have John join Atlas and that Barbara has agreed to become the Company's CFO. I worked with John at my previous employer, Idaho General Mines. His unique combination of transactional and marketing skills and legal background will serve Atlas very well as we move to rapidly drive our two main divisions, NanoClay & Technologies, Inc. (NanoClay) and Atlas Fausett Contracting (Atlas Fausett), to their next stage of growth and development. Barbara has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer in recognition of her skills and experience with the Company. In addition to overseeing our accounting and public reporting functions, Barbara will be tasked with the rapid implementation of several new corporate governance initiatives, which I believe are essential to retaining and enhancing the confidence of our shareholders, clients and customers. With John and Barbara we have made an important first step in building the professional management team to aggressively optimize and pursue our strategy for delivering increased shareholder value from our Atlas Fausett and NanoClay assets. We very much look forward to communicating and executing on that strategy over the coming weeks and months.”

Prior to joining Atlas, Mr. Gaensbauer provided strategic finance, corporate marketing and investor relations consulting services to mining and mineral development companies through his company, BOC Advisors LLC. Until January 2007, Mr. Gaensbauer was an executive at Newmont Mining Corporation, where he most recently served as Group Executive, Investor Relations. Prior to heading Newmont's investor relations group, Mr. Gaensbauer served as in-house counsel to Newmont, managing the legal affairs and transactions for Newmont's West African, Central Asian and European operations. Mr. Gaensbauer also served as U.S. in-house counsel for Newmont's Treasury Group and Newmont Capital, Newmont's in-house merchant banking unit. In that capacity, Mr. Gaensbauer played key roles in various multi-million dollar sales, acquisitions, and financing transactions. Mr. Gaensbauer was also the co-negotiator and principle author of Newmont's long-term fiscal stability agreement with the Government of the Republic of Ghana, which was unanimously approved by Ghana's Parliament on December 18, 2003. Prior to joining Newmont, Mr. Gaensbauer practiced corporate and transactional law in the Business and Finance Group of Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. Mr. Gaensbauer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University, a Juris Doctorate from the University of Denver, College of Law, where he graduated Order of St. Ives, and a Masters in Finance from the University of Denver, Daniels College of Business.

Ms. Suveg joined Atlas in 2006 as its corporate accountant. Prior to her tenure with the Company, Ms. Suveg provided accounting and tax services to individual and corporate clients, primarily in the mining, construction and contracting industries. Ms. Suveg has also worked in public accounting as an auditor of reporting companies, corporate income tax preparation and consulting, and financial statement compilation and review. In private industry, Ms. Suveg was the controller for Cooks, Inc., a post frame construction contractor located in north Idaho. In addition, she has worked with several small businesses with internal accounting and record keeping, documentation and implementation of policies and procedures, and assisted business owners with obtaining financing to expand business functions. Ms. Suveg teaches at North Idaho College as adjunct faculty in accounting. Ms. Suveg holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Lewis-Clark State College, a Masters in Accounting from the University of Phoenix, and holds a Certified Public Accountant license in the state of Idaho.

About Atlas Mining Company: Atlas Mining Company is a diversified natural resource company with a focus on the development of the Dragon Mine halloysite clay deposit in Juab County, Utah. The unique purity and quality of the Dragon Mine's halloysite clay has spawned considerable research in the nanotechnology fields and has created exciting new applications for this product. Atlas also operates the Atlas Fausett Contracting Division, an underground mining and drilling contracting business and holds various other interests in timber, copper and gold properties. Atlas stock trades on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol “ALMI”. More information about Atlas Mining Company can be found at http://www.atlasmining.com/.

Safe Harbor Statement: Except for the historical statements made herein, the statements made in this release are forward-looking statements. Risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, general business conditions, managing growth, and political and other business risks. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this Safe Harbor Statement and the risks and other factors detailed in the Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atlas Mining Company undertakes no duty to update these forward-looking statements.