Mr. Alan Carter reports

MAGELLAN EXPANDS MINERALIZED ZONES AT SERRA AND MEIO AND CONFIRMS NEW ZONE AT COME QUIETO, CORINGA PROJECT, BRAZIL

Magellan Minerals Ltd. has released results from eight additional drill holes from the Serra, Meio and Come Quieto zones at the Coringa project, Brazil. As with previous holes reported from the 2011 diamond drill program, these are all step-out and exploration holes aimed at expanding the existing resources of 269,450 ounces of gold in the measured and indicated categories (982,291 tonnes at 8.53 grams per tonne), and 98,224 ounces of gold in the inferred category (327,054 t at 9.34 g/t).

Highlights include:

• 1.5 metres at 11.73 g/t gold in hole 148 at Serra which was drilled on the northern strike extent of the Serra zone 100 m north of hole 135 (0.5 m at 12.1 g/t gold);
• Five m at 3.50 g/t gold, including two m at 7.07 g/t gold in hole 155 at Meio drilled on the northern end of the Meio zone in an area with no previously reported values of interest;
• Two m at 6.07 g/t gold in hole 151 at Come Quieto located 125 m north of hole 126 which is the most northerly hole drilled to date at Come Quieto.

Serra

Results are reported here on two additional holes drilled along strike and downdip on the existing structure. Hole 148 was drilled on the northern strike extent of the Serra zone approximately 100 m north of hole 135 (0.5 m at 12.1 g/t gold) and intersected 1.5 m at 11.73 g/t gold from 141.5 m to 143.0 m depth (see map and longitudinal section on website). Hole 145 is the most northerly hole completed at Serra to date, and further expands the mineralized zone along strike and demonstrates that the mineralized zone is still open to the north.

Hole 153 was drilled 50 m south of hole 129 on the southern extremity of Serra and cut 1.5 m at 0.56 g/t gold, including 0.5 m at 1.89 g/t gold.

The mineralized zone at Serra zone has an existing resource of 161,731 ounces of measured and indicated resources (measured: 210,405 t at 8.59 g/t gold and indicated: 336,004 t at 9.59 g/t gold) and 94,294 ounces of inferred resources (280,794 t at 10.44 g/t gold). This initial resource which was released in September, 2009, was based on a mineralized structure which extended 900 m along strike and to a depth of 80 m. These results and those previously released from Serra during 2011 (see press releases dated Sept. 13, 2011, Oct. 17, 2011, and Nov. 24, 2011) suggest that the mineralized zone currently extends at least 1,000 m along strike and to a depth of 180 m below surface. Results are currently pending on two additional holes at Serra.

Analytical results from the Serra, Meio and Come Quieto zones discussed in the text are in the associated table.

                   CORINGA DRILL RESULTS
                                                   
                    From          To    Interval         Au
Hole ID               (m)         (m)         (m)(i)   (g/t)

Serra zone                                                  
DDH 148            141.5       143.0         1.5       11.73
DDH 153            189.3       190.8         1.5        0.56
including          189.3       189.8         0.5        1.89
Meio zone                                                   
DDH 149            127.5       128.0         0.5        1.90
DDH 152             75.0        75.5         0.5        3.78
DDH 155             91.0        96.0         5.0        3.50
including           91.0        93.0         2.0        7.07
Come Quieto zone                                            
DDH 151            141.8       143.8         2.0        6.07

(i) All holes were drilled at between minus-50 degrees and 
minus-65 degrees. Dips of the intersected structure at Come 
Quieto are not known, and intersection widths are not 
necessarily true widths.
(ii) True widths at Serra and Meio are estimated at 60 per 
cent to 95 per cent of the drill intersections.

Meio

Results were returned from three holes at the Meio zone, including hole 155 which was drilled on the northern end of the mineralized zone and intersected five m at 3.50 g/t gold from 91.0 m to 96.0 m depth, including two m at 7.07 g/t gold from 91.0 m to 93.0 m depth. Previous shallow holes drilled in this section of the Meio zone failed to return any significant results of interest suggesting that gold grades are improving with depth.

Holes 149 and 152 were drilled in the southern part of Meio. Hole 152 cut 0.5 m at 3.78 g/t gold from 75.0 m to 75.5 m depth (see map on website). Results are pending on two additional holes from Meio.

The Meio zone has an existing resource of 70,100 ounces of measured and indicated resources (measured: 173,710 t at 9.01 g/t gold and indicated: 92,917 t at 6.61g/t gold) and 3,594 ounces of inferred resources (41,715 t at 2.68 g/t gold).

Come Quieto and Domingo

Results were returned on one additional hole from the Come Quieto zone south of Meio. Hole 151 was drilled 150 m north of hole 126 (eight m at 2.06 g/t gold) and returned two m at 6.07 g/t gold, confirming the presence of a new ore zone at Come Quieto which now extends over approximately 300 m and remains open to the north (see map on website). The Come Quieto zone was not included in the September, 2009, resource calculation.

Results were returned on two additional holes (146 and 147) drilled on the Domingo structure. Hole 146 returned 1.5 m at 0.45 g/t gold while hole 147 cut no values of interest. No further drilling is planned at Domingo in the near term, although the bulk of the plus-four-kilometre gold-in-soil anomaly remains untested.

All core samples (HQ diameter) were cut with a diamond saw. One-half of the core was placed in numbered and sealed bags and sent by a secure transport agency to the company's office in Novo Progresso, and subsequently to Acme preparation laboratory in Itaituba for sample preparation. Core samples were crushed down to two millimetres and a one-kilogram split was pulverized to better than 85-per-cent minus-200 mesh. From Itaituba, Acme sent the pulp samples to Santiago, Chile, for assaying. Gold analyses were conducted on 30-gram representative sample cuts using fire assay with an atomic absorption finish. Other sample cuts were subjected to a four-acid digestion, and analyzed for silver and an additional 35 elements using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Acme is an ISO-9001-registered laboratory and has a quality control program in place which includes the insertion of standard, blank and duplicate samples, as well as conducting repeat analyses.

Magellan's quality assurance/quality control program includes the insertion of standards, field duplicates and blank material into the sample sequence with the normal core samples to monitor sampling variances, laboratory precision and accuracy.

This press release was reviewed by Dennis Moore, BSc, MEng, a member of AIG, AUSIMM and the SEG, a qualified person in compliance with National Instrument 43-101.

We seek Safe Harbor.