Mr. D. Bruce McLeod reports

MERCATOR MINERALS SECURES DEBT FACILITY TO REPLACE EL PILAR PRE-CONSTRUCTION CREDIT FACILITY

Further to Mercator Minerals Ltd.'s Sept. 28, 2012, press release, it has executed an agreement with RMB Australia Holdings Ltd. for a $30-million corporate debt facility, arranged by RMB Resources Inc., a resource financing division of the FirstRand Group of South Africa. (All amounts are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise specified.) The company has drawn down $27.3-million of the facility. The remainder of the facility will be available to Mercator once certain security is registered in Mexico.

The facility terms include:

• Full payment due Dec. 20, 2015, bearing interest at the London interbank offered rate plus 7.0 per cent per annum;
• Warrants issued today will entitle RMB to purchase up to 13,864,300 common shares of the company for 48 months at 52 Canadian cents per common share;
• Security interests granted to the lender, which include a first-ranking charge over the El Pilar project and a pledge of the securities of certain of Mercator's subsidiaries;
• Prepayment without penalty.

The facility includes an arrangement fee of 4.5 per cent of the facility amount payable to RMB Resources. The drawn-down portion of the facility was used to repay the company's $25.0-million (Canadian) El Pilar preconstruction credit facility (PCF), which was due January, 2013, the arrangement fee payable to RMB Resources, and the due diligence and legal costs incurred to date by RMB associated with the facility.

We seek Safe Harbor.