Almaden Agrees to Sell a Portion of Its Beanstalk Capital Shareholdings

Almaden Minerals Ltd.AAU has reached an agreement in principle with several proposed purchasers to assign and sell up to an aggregate of 8.25 million of the 37 million common shares of Beanstalk Capital Inc. ("Beanstalk") to be received by the Company upon appropriate regulatory approval for the sale of the Elk gold deposit as outlined in the Company's News Release of February 16, 2011. The sale and assignment will be at $0.355 per share. This transaction shows the ability of the Company to monetise assets created through its exploration and development business model. The sale will add to the Company's cash balance while at the same time reducing the Company's holdings in Beanstalk to a level at which it would no longer be necessary to consolidate the financial reporting of Beanstalk with that of the Company. Chairman of Almaden, J. Duane Poliquin, stated, "This sale adds to Almaden's substantial working capital for an exploration company. While we retain a significant interest in the Elk deposit through the equity holdings of Beanstalk and an outright 2% NSR royalty, we have now added over C$2.9 Million cash to our treasury without dilution to shareholders. We intend to use the proceeds of this sale for our on-going exploration efforts most notably our Ixtaca drilling program in Mexico."