Appleton Commences 2010 Drill Program at Manalo and Grants Stock Options

March 22, 2010 – Vancouver, British Columbia. Appleton Exploration Inc. (AEX – TSX.V) has commenced the spring 2010 drilling program at its Manalo Gold Project in the Republic of Mali, West Africa. This phase of the drilling program will focus on the northern and southern segments of the Dialafara Zone. The total proposed drill program will consist of approximately 2,700 metres of reverse circulation drilling and 2,200 metres of air core drilling.

Dialafara Zone

The Dialafara Zone consists of a 3.7 kilometre long gold soil anomaly. The zone appears to be fault off-set, resulting in a 2 kilometre long northern segment and a 1.7 kilometre long southern segment.

Dialafara Northern Segment

Of the 2 kilometre long gold soil anomaly, drilling has defined gold mineralization in the Dialafara Northern Segment for a strikelength of over 600 metres to date, which locally occurs as multiple sub parallel zones across a 55 metre wide northwest trend. The Northern Segment is centred on a 200 metre long zone of artisanal workings. The drilling has returned several intervals between 0.30 gpt Au to 2.5 gpt Au over widths from 7 to 16 metres. In addition, the drilling has identified higher grade intercepts within the Northern Segment, including 640 gpt Au over 3 metres, 15.64 gpt Au over 16 metres and 35.67 gpt Au over 7 metres.

Approximately 800 metres of reverse circulation drilling is currently planned on this target.

Dialafara Southern Segment

Of the 1.7 kilometres long soil anomaly, drilling to date in the Dialafara Southern Segment has been focused on a 700 metre strikelength of the anomaly. There are three separate zones of artisanal workings along this 700 metre trend. The Southern Segment consists of a dominant northwest trending mineralized zone with multiple subsidiary northeast trending zones. The artisanal workings appear to stretch up to 100 metres in a northeast direction. Drilling to date has returned several intervals between 0.30 gpt Au to 6.27 gpt Au over widths from 5 to 25 metres. In addition, the drilling has identified higher grade intercepts within the Southern Segment, including 29.07 gpt Au over 6 metres and 9.57 gpt Au over 9 metres.

Approximately 1900 metres of reverse circulation drilling is currently planned on this target.

Additionally, approximately 2,200 metres of air core drilling is planned within the Dialafara Zone in efforts of extending strikelengths of mineralization.

Quality Control and Assurance

All samples will be sent to ALS Chemex in Bamako an ISO 17025 certified laboratory for assay. Standard, blank and duplicate samples will be inserted throughout the sample sequence as quality control checks. Both Chris Wild, P.Eng. and Paul Cowley, P.Geo. are qualified persons for the drilling campaign.

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.

Grant of Stock Options

The Company also reports that it has granted 1,100,000 stock options to directors, officers, and consultants of the Company, at an exercise price of $0.20 per share, expiring on March 22, 2015, subject to the terms and conditions of the Company’s stock option plan.

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

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.