Record Copper And Molybdenum Recoveries Achieved

VANCOUVER - Mercator Minerals Ltd. reported production for the three months ended June 30, 2012 from its wholly-owned Mineral Park Mine was 21.4 million pounds of copper equivalent(i), which consisted of 9.5 million pounds of copper in concentrates and cathode copper, 2.6 million pounds of molybdenum and 155,000 ounces of silver.

During the second quarter, Mineral Park continued to optimize operating parameters which resulted in the concentrator running at a steady state of just over 50,000 tons per day for the month of June and with copper and molybdenum recoveries of 84% and 82%, respectively. In April, during the optimization process, the grinding media in both SAG mills were changed to a larger sizing and volume. While these changes had a positive effect on the throughput, it did result in increased liner wear and damage in the SAG mills. Due to these issues, SAG mill availability in May averaged 82% and required unscheduled liner changes in both SAG mills. Availability has subsequently increased to over 97% during the month of June.

"As we exit the second quarter we are seeing the benefits of our productivity improvement program. We are currently achieving our targeted throughput level of 50,000 tons per day and are exceeding our targeted metal recoveries, with copper greater than 80% and molybdenum greater than 79%," commented Bruce McLeod, President & CEO. "With the additional downtime during this quarter, along with further optimizing of operations, we have positioned ourselves well for sequential quarter over quarter increases in metal production as we meet our 2012 production goals."