Equinox Appoints Colin Johnstone as Chief Operating Officer

TORONTO , Dec. 7 /CNW/ - Equinox Minerals Limited (TSX and ASX symbol: "EQN") ("Equinox" or the "Company") is pleased to report that Mr. Colin (Cobb) Johnstone will commence in the position of Chief Operating Officer for the Company in January 2010 .

Cobb, who holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Mining) from the University of Sydney, is a mining engineer with over 25 years experience in the copper, gold and metalliferous mining industries, including both large open cut and underground operations.

Most recently, Cobb served as Chief Operating Officer for Australian based Sino Gold Mining Limited, a gold mining and exploration company with assets focussed in China which has recently been taken over by Canada's Eldorado Gold Corporation.

Before joining Sino Gold in early 2006, Cobb served as General Manager for Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) operating the Super Pit in Kalgoorlie, the largest gold mine in Australia in a joint venture between Barrick Gold Corporation and Newmont Mining Corporation.

Prior to KCGM, Cobb's experience includes postings to Canada , Argentina and Australia in senior production mining and management positions. At WMC Resources, Cobb was General Manager, Operations at Olympic Dam, while at North Limited, he was Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer for IOC in Canada , Joint Venture General Manager for Alumbrera, the major Argentinean open cut copper-gold mine and General Manager of the large copper-gold open cut and underground operation at Northparkes in Australia . Before that, Cobb was General Manager, Base Metals Operations at Pancontinental Mining Limited and had various engineering roles at Denehurst Limited and North Limited.

Commenting, Craig Williams , Equinox President and CEO said: "Cobb is a highly experienced professional with very relevant large-scale, open-cut production mining experience. Given the recent takeover of Sino Gold, it is most fortuitous that we welcome Cobb to lead our growing Equinox operations team where we expect his extensive operational experience and strong track record in improving financial returns at operations will contribute greatly towards our stated objective of growing Equinox from the large scale, long-life operation at Lumwana".

Craig R. Williams - President & Chief Executive Officer

For further information: Craig R. Williams, (President and Chief Executive Officer), Michael Klessens (V.P. Finance and CFO), Phone: [phone], Email: [email protected] Or Kevin van Niekerk, (V.P. Investor Relations), Phone: [phone], Email: [email protected]; For information on Equinox and technical details on the Lumwana Project please refer to the company website at www.equinoxminerals.com