News Release

TSX Venture Symbol: GWG
USA OTC Symbol: GWMGF
CUSIP: 39141Y 10 3

May 18, 2007

Hoidas Lake Progress Report-Preliminary Economic Assessment

Saskatoon, SK, Friday, May 18, 2007 - The Company is pleased to provide the following update on the Preliminary Economic Assessment Report, currently being prepared by Wardrop Engineering Inc., on the Hoidas Lake rare earth project in northern Saskatchewan.

Melis Engineering Ltd., in conjunction with SGS Lakefield Research, provided Wardrop with the preliminary process design flowsheets for the project-designated Option "A". The initial design assumes a whole rock leach using hydrochloric acid (HCl), and then solvent extraction to produce a mixed rare earth chloride ready for separation. This option resulted in an average 82% recovery of the rare earth elements (REE) from combined apatite and allanite types of REE mineralization. Previous metallurgical results had recovered up to 96% REE from allanite-rich ore. The twelve process flowsheets cover grinding, leaching, solvent extraction, precipitation, calcining, reagent handling and water and tailings management. The process is designed for zero water discharge into the environment.

The Company has requested Melis and Wardrop to consider several other options as a comparison to Option A. Because Hoidas Lake is approximately 60 km from where the permanent road is scheduled to terminate, transportation costs become the main challenge in maximizing return on the project. Using HCl requires a significant quantity of reagents to be transported, so other leaching methods are being investigated that would provide lower recovery rates, but also lower transportation costs. If any of those options result in a higher return on investment then they could be the preferred process. The option of constructing an acid plant, similar to how the uranium mines operate, will also be investigated. The Company is working closely with the Fond du Lac Dene First Nations to investigate the option of trucking ore to the community of Fond du Lac and processing the ore there, as Fond du Lac will be the terminus of the permanent road and is on the power grid which would eliminate the need to haul fuel to generate power for a mill.

In a parallel study, initiated through Great Western Technologies Inc., 200 kg of Hoidas Lake rock will be shipped to Girmet Ltd. in Moscow. That particular facility has expertise in extracting REE from phosphate minerals, and in separating the REE into high purity products. The test results from that study will be compared to the Canadian work.

Capitalizing on by-products is also being investigated. In the same way that the uranium operations produce ammonium sulphate fertilizer at their operations in the Athabasca basin, GWMG has the potential to produce phosphate fertilizer from the Hoidas Lake operation, particularly if the mill is located on a permanent road with electrical power available.

"We expect the first draft of the preliminary economic assessment report around June 1, but we have to make sure we properly evaluate the various options before we can finalize the report", says Jim Engdahl, President, "so we need to ask for a bit more patience from our shareholders while the engineers crunch the numbers. The preferred options coming out of the preliminary economic report will form the basis for final feasibility, so we want to make sure we don't miss anything that will maximize the project return, but perhaps also create some value-added spin-off operations."

As reported March 20, 2007, a bulk sample program was in progress over the winter, and a total of 13.8 tonnes of REE mineralized material was eventually recovered at Hoidas and moved offsite to a storage facility. This material will be used for pilot plant work later this year.

Great Western Minerals Group Ltd. is a Saskatchewan-based mineral exploration and development company with interests in advanced stage mineral properties hosting rare earth elements, copper, nickel, cobalt, gold and diamonds (through its subsidiary Great Western Diamonds Corp., TSX-V:GWD). The Company is developing the Hoidas Lake rare earth project and is already implementing its mine-to-market business model through the operations of its US Subsidiary, Great Western Technologies Inc., currently in production and serving clients in the automotive, magnetic and aerospace industries.

James Engdahl
President and CEO

For further information contact Gord Dent at (306) 668-0701. All email inquiries should be made to info@gwmg.ca info@gwmg.ca (website: www.gwmg.ca ) Direct mail: Great Western Minerals Group Ltd., 226 Cardinal Crescent , Saskatoon , SK S7L 6H8

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