Petaquilla Minerals Ltd.: Appointment of New Mine Manager at Molejon

Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. (TSX: PTQ)(OTCBB: PTQMF)(FRANKFURT: P7Z) announced today that Ricardo V. Rojas has been appointed as the mine manager of its 100% owned Molejon gold mine in central Panama. Mr. Rojas has numerous professional specializations including mine engineering and management of both open pit and underground operations. His knowledge and skills are the result of more than twenty-seven years of experience in gold, silver, copper, molybdenum, and iron mining as well as two advanced degrees in mining engineering and a Master's degree in Business Administration (MBA).

For the past 27 years Mr. Rojas has led various operations, maintenance, engineering, and consulting groups, providing real solutions and improvements to mining activities. He has demonstrated success in managing full project lifecycles, which resulted in remarkable savings to the companies he worked for. His expertise includes strong hands-on technical skills with mine engineering, operation, maintenance, leaching, milling, and to a lesser extent mining finance. He is highly skilled in planning and implementing mining procedures to maximize personnel and equipment utilization. Mr. Rojas has proven his ability to manage the operating and capital budgeting as well as optimization of pit expansions, and scheduling programs. We are very pleased to be able to bring to the Company an experienced and enthusiastic person such as Ricardo Rojas at this very exciting time in the Company's development history.

The Company would also like to thank Mr. Gaston Araya for his effort and dedication in bringing the Molejon to its current stage of completion. Mr. Araya will be staying with the Company as a special advisor to the board. As such he will chair the advisory board consisting of himself, Mr. Marcel Salamin and Mr. John Resing. One of the areas of focus will be the future development of hydro electric power facilities in the 12-15 megawatt range in support of the Molejon gold mine.

About Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. - Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. is an emerging gold producer scheduled to bring its 100%-owned Molejon Gold Project into production in 2008. Anticipated throughput for the project during the first year of production will be 2200 tonnes per day. The plant will utilize three ball mills and a carbon-in-pulp processing facility.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of PETAQUILLA MINERALS LTD.

Richard Fifer, President and Chief Executive Officer

No stock exchange has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

Contacts: Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. Richard Fifer President and Chief Executive Officer (604) 694-0021 or Toll Free: 1-877-694-0021 (604) 694-0063 (FAX) Website: www.petaquilla.com