Mercator Commences Crushing Ore at the Mineral Park Mill

Mercator Minerals Ltd. announce that it has commenced crushing and stacking ore at its wholly owned Mineral Park Moly-Copper project. The following major milestones have been completed during the construction and commissioning process to date:

– The crushing, conveying and stacking system is up and running. – The 3500 hp. SAG mill motors have been run in and the SAG mill is operational; – The 7500 hp Ball mill motors have been run in and both Ball mills are operational; – The reagent tanks are complete and first fill reagents are in the tanks; – The lime silo is complete and lime is scheduled for delivery next week; – The copper filter press installation is complete; – The Moly filter press installation is complete; – The concentrate belt, sampler, scale and receiving slab are installed; – The moly scale and bagger installation is complete;

– The tailings system is complete.

“The start up of the crushing system has gone very well, with design tonnage being surpassed within the first 10 days of start-up,” said Mike Surratt, Mercator’s President and CEO. “Our construction team and mill operations personnel continue to work very closely and are completing final check list on a daily basis,” said Surratt.

Mercator Minerals Ltd.

Mercator is a copper producer that owns and operates the Mineral Park copper/molybdenum mine, with a corporate strategy focused on maximizing the production potential of the Mineral Park copper-molybdenum deposit and growing through mergers and acquisitions. Mercator is in an advanced stage of construction of the molybdenum-copper expansion at Mineral Park. At full capacity, the Mineral Park mine average annual production during the first 10 years is forecast to be approximately 56.4 million pounds of copper, 10.3 million pounds of molybdenum and 0.6 million ounces of silver.