VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Feb. 8, 2010) - Appleton Exploration Inc. (TSX VENTURE:AEX) is pleased to announce that drilling in the area of high grade gold mineralization in the Dialafara southern segment has discovered a zone of continuous gold mineralization with drill hole MDL09-073 intersecting 25 metres of 6.27 grams per metric tonne (g/t) gold at a vertical depth of 88 metres. Check screen metallic assays of the same interval returned 25 metres of 4.56 g/t Au.

MDL09-073 was drilled on the same drill section line below three other holes. MDL07-001 and MDL07-002, drilled in 2007, returned 9.57 g/t Au across 9.0 metres and 29.07 g/t Au across 6.0 metres, respectively, and MDL09-072 returned 0.44 g/t Au across 13 metres. The four intercepts align and form a moderately dipping zone of continuous gold mineralization. The drill results suggest the gold zone is thickening with depth. Link to a cross-section on our website with: http://www.appletonexploration.com/index.php/projects/manalo/113.html

Drill Section Highlights

* Historic data; NA = Not available

It should be noted that hole MDL07-002 stopped in mineralization due to technical problems so does not represent a complete pass through the zone. The surface projection of the zone corresponds to an area of artisanal workings where multiple sub parallel veins have been shallowly mined within a 35 metre wide northeast trend.

Hole MDL09-073 also contains a 14 metre wide gold intercept, which is interpreted to be the start of an additional sub parallel zone on this section.

Appleton's president Tim Henneberry stated, "Appleton management is very pleased with the drill results from our Manalo Gold Project. We are now seeing continuity in an impressive gold zone, thickening with depth. This success is the key to building resources and ounces of gold on the property. Furthermore, the medium and high grade intervals dispersed through the many large lower grade intervals on the Manalo property are common to mines in this region."

The drill results above are part of the 1,806 metre, 15 hole reverse circulation drill program conducted in Fall 2009 focused on the Dialafara target, Manalo Gold Project, Republic of Mali, West Africa where Appleton is earning a 100% interest from Delta Exploration Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rockgate Capital Corp.

Highlights for the Fall 2009 program include:

* intercept correlated to high grade intercept in MDL09-056 reported in NR 09-11 August 11, 2009
** two fire re-assays of this sample both returned >100 g/t Au
*** two fire re-assays of this sample returned 32.6 and 35.9 g/t Au
Note: Compositing used 0.3 g/t Au cut-off and <3m internal dilution

Drill collar location maps and two cross-sections, all with preliminary zone interpretations, are posted on the Company's website using the following link -http://www.appletonexploration.com/index.php/projects/manalo/113.html.

Within the Dialafara northern segment, drill holes MDL09-059, MDL09-061 and MDL09-063 were focused around the high grade intercept in MDL09-056. The drilling helped extend the zone laterally and vertically albeit with low grade values. Holes MDL09-060, MDL09-062 and MDL09-067 were drilled to help define sub parallel gold zones adjacent to the two intercepts in MDL08-036. Multiple sub parallel gold-bearing zones are apparent across a 55 metre wide northwest trend in this area. Holes MDL09-064 through MDL09-066 were drilled under the centre of a 200 metre long northwest trending zone of artisanal workings. Hole MDL09-065 returned a grade of 34.97 g/t Au across 7 metres at a vertical depth of 65 metres. Check screen metallic assays of this same interval returned 7 metres of 9.95 g/t Au. The mineralized trend has been intercepted to date in 6 holes over a strike length of 175 metres with the best intercept from MDL09-065. MDL09-065 is the southernmost hole of these 6 holes.

Within the Dialafara southern segment, drilling was conducted in three areas of artisanal workings along a strike length of 700 metres. The multiple veins at these sites demonstrate blow-out clusters of northeast trending gold-bearing veins linked by a northwest trending dominant mineralized structure. MDL09-068 explored one area under a series of northeast trending sub parallel veins that have been shallowly mined at surface across a 67 metre wide trend and returned a drill intercept of 26 metres of 0.53 g/t Au. Hole MDL09-069 was drilled below the 18 metres of 3.36 g/t Au intersected in MDL09-054 corresponding to the dominant mineralized structure in that area. Holes MDL09-070 through MDL09-073 were drilled under artisanal workings covering a 130 metre by 90 metre area dominated by a series of northeast trending shallowly mined veins where the continuous gold zone has been discovered.

Quality Control and Assurance

The widths and grades reported are drill intercept widths and may not represent the true width of mineralization. Individual gold assays have not been cut but high grade samples have been separately reported in the table above. Samples are reverse circulation cuttings collected using a cyclone in 1 metre intervals that are riffle split at the drill site. Samples are assayed by fire assay (50 gram charge). Zones of quartz veining and limonite were submitted for check assays by the screen metallic method in order identify the presence and significance of coarse gold in samples. The primary laboratory is ALS Chemex in Bamako, an ISO 17025 certified laboratory. Standard, blank and duplicate samples were inserted throughout the sample sequence as quality control checks. The two highest fire assay values of 99.30 g/t Au and 190 g/t Au showed good reproducibility from their 2 subsequent fire assay checks. Both Chris Wild, P.Eng. and Paul Cowley, P.Geo., director of Appleton, are qualified persons for the drilling campaign.

Screen Metallic Comparisons

Screen metallic assaying of lower and intermediate grade fire assayed samples showed similar to better values than original fire assay values. Frequently, screen metallic assaying identified new low grade zones undetected by original fire assaying. The two original highest grade fire assay samples between 99.30 g/t Au and 190 g/t Au returned 28.38 g/t Au and 26.51 g/t Au, respectively, by screen metallic assay methods, demonstrating the local affects of coarse nuggety gold on the property. 

The Company has begun preparation for a follow up drill program expected to commence before the end of March.

About Mali

Mali is the fastest growing gold producing country in Africa. Production in 2007 amounted to 2 million ounces of gold making Mali Africa's third-largest gold producer after South Africa and Ghana. AngloGold Ashanti Limited, one of the largest gold mining companies in the world, has interests in three operating mines in Mali: Sadiola, Yatela and Morila.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors,
"R. Tim Henneberry"

R.Tim Henneberry, P.Geo.
President and CEO

Paul Cowley, P.Geo., Director of Appleton Exploration Inc., is the Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, who has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, constitute "forward-looking statements" and include any information that addresses activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including the Company's strategy, plans or future financial or operating performance and other statements that express management's expectations or estimates of future performance.

Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. All such forward-looking information and statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by the Company's management in light of their experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors management believes are appropriate in the circumstances. These statements, however, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed, implied by or projected in the forward-looking information or statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include but are not limited to: risks related to the exploration and potential development of the Company's projects, risks related to international operations, the actual results of current exploration activities, conclusions of economic evaluations, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, future prices of gold, as well as those factors discussed in the sections relating to risk factors of the Company set out in the Company's MD&A filed on SEDAR.

There can be no assurance that any forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to revise or update these forward-looking statements after the date of this document or to revise them to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated events.