Industrial Minerals, Inc. Appoints New Director

Business Wire, May 16, 2006

MANKATO, Minn. -- Industrial Minerals, Inc. (OTCBB:IDSM) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has added BJ Gordon to its board of directors and appointed her Chief Financial Officer, effective May 16, 2006. Ms. Gordon has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia, a Chartered Accountant designation and many years of management experience in the mining industry with both major mining companies and junior explorers. She has been CFO and Corporate Secretary of publicly traded junior resource companies and provided financial consulting services to other entities. Most recently she was the CFO and Corporate Secretary for the Manex Resource Group, which included Bravo Venture Group, Quaterra Resources Inc, Fortune River Resource Corp and Southern Silver Exploration Corp.

About Industrial Minerals, Inc.

Industrial Minerals, Inc. through its wholly owned subsidiary Industrial Minerals Canada Inc. owns 100% of the Bissett Creek Graphite patented mineral lease, located in Maria Township in the Province of Ontario, Canada, which contains a resource of 640,000 tons of flake graphite. This property is one of the largest and purest natural flake graphite deposits in the world. The Company is poised to become the leading producer of large flake crystalline graphite in North America and a prominent market participant internationally.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on current expectations and actual results may differ materially from these expectations. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ are the risk factors listed in the Company's most recent SEC filings.