Scorpio Mining Corporation Completes Acquisition of Platte River Gold Inc.

TSX:SPM

VANCOUVER, April 7 /CNW/ - Scorpio Mining Corporation ("Scorpio", or the "Company") (TSX: SPM), is pleased to announce that effective April 1, 2010, it has closed the transaction to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Platte River Gold Inc. ("Platte River") by way of a statutory plan of arrangement (the "Acquisition"). The Acquisition was previously announced in the Company's news releases dated October 15, 2009 and January 13, 2010.

Pursuant to the terms of the Acquisition, all of the outstanding common shares of Platte River ("Platte River Shares") have been acquired in exchange for 74,832,020 common shares of the Company ("Scorpio Shares"), representing an exchange ratio of approximately 3.53 Scorpio Shares for each Platte River Share.

Scorpio now has approximately 187 million Scorpio Shares issued and outstanding, of which the former Platte River shareholders own 40%. In addition, a further 4,414,972 Scorpio Shares are now issuable to the holders of Platte River's stock options and common share purchase warrants, which, by their terms, became exercisable for Scorpio Shares upon the closing of the Acquisition.

Peter Hawley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Scorpio, stated: "We are very pleased to have completed the Platte River acquisition, which allows us to move forward with the systematic planning of our mill facility expansion and the development of the San Rafael Upper and Main zones open pit extraction. Details of the planned expansion program, including metallurgical work, expected metal production for 2010 and a forward estimate of metal production for 2011, will be released in the weeks ahead. With this acquisition, the Company now controls the entire Cosala mining camp. The high quality, advanced-stage deposits acquired will enable a continuous flow of production growth, while at the same time, allow us to bring along secondary deposits to the development stage for future mine planning."

About Platte River Gold Inc.

Platte River is a private Canadian company formed in April 2004 to carry out precious and base metals exploration, focusing in Mexico and Nevada. The company's headquarters are in Reno, Nevada, and it also has offices in Hermosillo and Cosala, Mexico.

Platte River's Mexican subsidiary, Minera Platte River S.L. de C.V. (MPRG), controls four significant projects in Mexico, the most important of which is the 100% owned, polymetallic La Verde Project, near Cosala, Sinaloa, about 2.5 hours from Mazatlan. MPRG controls 10,980 hectares of exploration and exploitation concessions at the La Verde Project and owns the operating La Verde underground Ag-Cu-Au mine, all contiguous to the northern boundary of Scorpio's Cosala area land holdings.

Platte River had a significant institutional shareholder base for a private company with Tocqueville, CGT, Libra, Sprott and US Global owning 83% of the Platte River Shares prior to the closing of the Acquisition.

More information on the Acquisition, and Platte River and its mineral properties, can be found in the Company's Management Information Circular dated January 8, 2010, which can be found under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.SEDAR.com.

Further information is available on the Company's web site at: www.scorpiomining.com.

On April 5, 2010, in accordance with the Company's stock option plan, the Company granted a total of 6,210,000 incentive stock options exercisable at a price of $0.69 per share for a period of five (5) years.

President, Mr. D. Roger Scammell, PGeo, is the Company's Qualified Person for the Nuestra Senora and Platte River projects and has reviewed the content of this release.

    
    ON BEHALF OF SCORPIO MINING CORPORATION

    Peter J. Hawley
    Chairman & CEO
    

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to Scorpio Mining Corporation's commitment to, and plans for increasing production. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "projects", "intends", "anticipates", or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or "variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "can", "could", "would", "might", or "will" be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Scorpio Mining Corporation to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: risks related to the exploration and development and operation of the mineral projects, risks related to international operations, construction delays and cost overruns, the actual results of current exploration, development and construction activities, conclusions of economic evaluations, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, future prices of silver, zinc, copper, lead and gold, as well as those factors discussed in the sections relating to risk factors of our business filed in Scorpio Mining Corporation's required securities filings on SEDAR, including its Annual Information Form dated March 29, 2010. Although Scorpio Mining Corporation has attempted to identify important factors that could cause results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results to be materially different from those anticipated, described, estimated, assessed or intended.

There can be no assurance that any forward-looking statements will prove accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Scorpio Mining Corporation does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

For further information: Rich Kaiser, YES International: 1-800-631-8127; 001-757-306-6090 (outside North America), Email: [email protected]