June 1, 2010 Vancouver, British Columbia. Appleton Exploration Inc. (AEX – TSX.V) has commenced a follow up surface trenching program at its Manalo Gold Project in the Republic of Mali, West Africa. This program will focus on the northern and southern segments of the Dialafara Z one and on the Mansaya Zone. Key trenching at this stage will expose the corridors of mineralization in strategic parts of these zones for added grade continuity and structural data to solidify interpretations of drill intercepts.

The trenching program will comprise of approximately 400 metres for the Dialafara Zone; 200 metres in the Northern Segment and 200 metres in the Southern Segment. The Mansaya trenching program will be approximately 200 metres.

Appleton completed 37 reverse circulation (RC) holes totaling 4,300 metres and 67 air core holes totaling 3,771 metres at Dialafara in March and April 2010. Assay results are pending. The last drill program completed at Mansaya was the spring 2008 program conducted by Delta Exploration Inc.

Drilling to date on the Manalo Property totals over 32,000 metres. Delta Exploration completed 15,474 metres in 159 holes over the entire property between 2006 and 2008. Appleton has completed three drill campaigns totaling 16,672 metres of Reverse Circulation and Aircore drilling in 232 holes, concentrating in the Dialafara Zone since May of 2009.

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.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulations Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements
<sub>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 planned drilling programs and 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.</sub>