Inspiration Commences Strategic Review Process for Its Langmuir Nickel Property

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - July 30, 2012) - Inspiration Mining Corporation ("Inspiration" or the "Corporation") (TSX:ISM)(FRANKFURT:OI8) is pleased to announce that it has initiated a strategic review process to consider and evaluate a range of strategic alternatives for the Langmuir nickel property that have presented themselves to the Corporation, with a view to enhancing shareholder value. Strategic alternatives that the Board of Directors will consider may include, but are not limited to, the sale of all or a portion of the Langmuir nickel property, a nickel asset merger or other nickel business combination transaction involving a third party, a joint venture, and an optimization study of the Corporation's existing mine development plan, or any combination thereof.

The Langmuir nickel property comprises 69 mining claims covering 1121 hectares in the Langmuir Township, 25 km southeast of Timmins, Ontario. It hosts the past nickel producing mines of Langmuir No.1 and Langmuir No.2. Two main deposits were drilled and identified by Inspiration on which indicated open pit nickel resources were estimated at 1.7 Mt @ 0.51% Ni for Langmuir No.1 and 8.3 Mt @ 0.4% Ni for Langmuir North deposits as set out in the Corporation's National Instrument 43-101 compliant report prepared by Micon International Limited dated January 2010 (the "Micon Report"), a copy of which can be obtained from the Corporation's profile on the SEDAR website (www.sedar.com).

On August 14 2011 the Corporation announced the engagement of NordPro Mine and Project Management Services Ltd. ("NordPro") of Thunder Bay, Ontario to provide engineering and geological services on the Langmuir nickel property and the initial reports have been received by the Corporation.

The Corporation will, as part of its strategic review, consider various options, including the possibility of restarting the Langmuir No.1 underground mine on the basis of a substantially better defined resource model, which has been developed as a result of an extensive drill program that has been conducted on the Langmuir No.1 deposit since the mine was shut down in 1992. Certain higher grade resource blocks were excluded from the Micon Report and the Langmuir No.1 resource estimate due to these resource blocks falling outside the optimal open pit shell.

In the period 1970-73, a 446 m deep shaft and a flotation mill were constructed on the Langmuir property. Production from the Langmuir No.2 deposit in the period 1973-78 amounted to 1,133,750 tonnes grading 1.45% Ni. In 1976, a decision was made to develop the Langmuir No.1 deposit as a supplementary ore source to the Langmuir No.2 mine. The Langmuir No.1 deposit was accessed by a 1250-foot long 12 foot by 15-foot ramp, which stopped 400 feet short of the deposit. Noranda ceased underground development in 1977 due to "deteriorating economic conditions at the Langmuir No.2 deposit".

Timmins Nickel Inc. developed the Langmuir No.1 Mine, with assistance from Ontario Mineral Incentive Program (OMIP) grants in 1990 (OMIP Grant OM90-118) and 1991 (OMIP Grant OM91-098). Under OMIP Grant OM90-118, Timmins Nickel completed the dewatering of Noranda's 1,250 foot (381m) long ramp, extended the 12 foot by 15 foot ramp for 400 feet (121.9 m) to the 315 foot mine level, completed 4,652 feet (1,417.9 m) of underground diamond drilling, and metallurgical and ore compatibility studies. During 1990 and 1991, Timmins Nickel milled a total of 111,502 tonnes grading 1.74% Ni at the Redstone Mine property in Eldorado Township.

All underground work at the Langmuir No.1 site ceased in early 1992 and since the mine closed a further 33,569 metres of resource definition drilling has been completed resulting in a total of 18,776 core samples, which have been analyzed for the Langmuir No.1 deposit.

Additionally, the Corporation intends to prepare an maiden resource estimate, by the fall of 2012, for the KCC-Allerston project, which is a lower grade, high tonnage nickel-mineralized zone located 2 km northwest of the Langmuir No.1 deposit The KCC deposit was revealed by exploration drill programs in 2008 and 2009, listed in the Corporation's National Instrument 43-101 compliant report dated September 2009, a copy of which can be obtained under the Corporation's profile on the SEDAR website (www.sedar.com), as well as drill program completed in March 2011. The zone is hosted in intrusive komatiitic ultramafic and mafic rocks conformably intercalated with intermediate and felsic volcanic sequences dipping to the SE and in contact with a late-Archean tonalitic pluton to the southwest. The zone is trending to NNE and extends at least over 700 m horizontally.

"We are pleased that the Corporation's exploration program has been successful in improving the confidence of our resource estimates while, at the same time, adding new metal content to our already significant nickel resource base," stated Randy Miller, the President of the Corporation. "The initial results of the on-going technical work, designed to enhance the value of our nickel assets, are encouraging. Additionally, the Corporation is excited at exploring the possibility of restarting the Langmuir No.1 underground mine and realizing the value of the deposit in the underground mine."

It is the Corporation's current intention not to disclose developments with respect to the strategic review process until such time the Board of Directors has approved a specific transaction or otherwise determines that disclosure of an optimized mine development plan is necessary or appropriate. The Corporation cautions that there are no assurances or guarantees that the process will result in a transaction or amended mine development plan, and if a transaction or amended mine development plan is undertaken, as to the terms or timing of such transaction or mine development plan.

The Qualified person in charge of the Langmuir Property and the person who prepared the technical data in this release is Andre Ciesielski, P.Geo.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities legislation. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward looking terminology such as "plans", "anticipated", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Inspiration is subject to significant risks and uncertainties which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward looking statements contained in this release. Inspiration cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward looking statements and Inspiration assumes no obligation to update or revise the forward looking statements contained in this release to reflect actual events or new circumstances.