Richmont Appoints Mr. Peter Barnes to the Board of Directors

Richmont Mines Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Peter Barnes to the Corporation’s Board of Directors effective immediately. Mr. Barnes will serve as an independent member of the Richmont Board, and will join the Audit and the HR and Compensation Committees. Mr. Barnes is a professional Director with over twenty-five years of senior management experience and has been instrumental in building two of the world’s premier precious metals companies. From 2003, until his appointment as Chief Executive Officer of Silver Wheaton in 2006, Mr. Barnes was the Chief Financial Officer of Wheaton River Minerals, and subsequently Goldcorp Inc., after the companies merged in 2005. During this time, Mr. Barnes was an integral part of a team responsible for one of the most exciting growth phases in the company’s history, when Wheaton River/Goldcorp’s market capitalization increased more than 25-fold to CAN$13 billion and the company was transformed from a junior gold producer to one of the world’s leading low-cost senior gold producers. From 2006 until 2011, Mr. Barnes was CEO of Silver Wheaton, a company he co-founded in 2004. Under his leadership, Silver Wheaton, with its unique silver streaming model, provided shareholders with a 50% annualized rate of return and grew into one of the largest silver companies in the world, with a market capitalization of approximately US$15 billion. Mr. Barnes is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in BC and, in 2010, was honoured with the National Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Special Citation Award for Innovative Global Strategies, along with the Pacific region award for Mining and Metals. He is an active member in the community, and is involved in a number of non-profit organizations including having served as a Board member for the BC Special Olympics. Mr. Barnes is currently a director of MAG Silver. “I am pleased that an individual with such an extensive background in the industry has joined the Richmont board and I am confident that we will benefit from Peter’s depth of knowledge and experience. On behalf of the Board, I would like to welcome Peter to the Richmont team.” stated René Marion, Chairman of the Board.