Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. November 4th, 2008. Empire Mining Corporation (EPC: TSX-V) ("Empire" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Serbian Government has awarded the Company an exploration license covering the 62 km2 Kursumlija copper property located immediately northwest of the Lece mining district and 320 km south of Belgrade in southern Serbia.

The Kursumlija license area contains swarms of copper-bearing veins and zones of disseminated copper mineralization generally related to the margins of northwest-elongated gabbro and diabase bodies and a coincident magnetic anomaly. Limited historic exploration, carried out in the 1950's and 1960's by state companies, identified at least forty individual mineralized veins with grades ranging from 0.18 to 9.91% copper across thicknesses of 1 to 3.5 metres. An area of hydrothermally altered gabbro, with associated disseminated copper mineralization, has also been defined over a surface area of 2 km2 near the village of Trebinja. There has been no drilling within the license area.

Empire has commenced an initial field program designed to evaluate the known mineralized showings within the license area and prospect for others. The program includes geologic mapping, soil and rock geochemical surveys and possible geophysics to define drill targets.

The Company's Qualified Person, John Prochnau, B.Sc. (Mining Engineering), M.Sc. (Geology), and a Special Advisor to Empire, has reviewed and approved the content of this news release.

About Empire Mining

Empire Mining Corporation is a mineral exploration and development company operating principally in and near the western segment of the under-explored Tethyan Belt, which is a major porphyry-related mineralized zone that hosts numerous world-class ore-bodies. Empire's primary objectives are the development of its chromite projects in Albania and the exploration and development of mineral properties in Serbia and Turkey.