Mr. D. Bruce McLeod reports

MERCATOR MINERALS REPORTS FOURTH QUARTER AND YEAR END 2012 RESULTS

Mercator Minerals Ltd. has released its financial results for the three months and year ended Dec. 31, 2012. (All amounts are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise specified.) For 2012, the company reported revenues of $262.6-million, an operating profit of $24.7-million before the El Creston asset impairment charge, a net loss of $128.7-million (loss of 48 cents per share, basic) or an adjusted net loss of $1.2-million (nil per share). Included in the net loss is the $119.8-million (or 44-cent-per-share) non-cash accounting charge for the impairment of the El Creston project. Cash flow from operations, before non-cash working capital changes, was $20.6-million in 2012. For the fourth quarter of 2012, the company reported revenues of $77.6-million, with operating profit of $10.6-million before the El Creston asset impairment charge, net loss of $115.2-million (43 cents per share, basic) or income of $4.4-million (two cents per share) on an adjusted net income basis. The net loss recorded during the fourth quarter includes the previously mentioned writedown of the El Creston project. Cash flow from operations before non-cash working capital changes was $9.8-million in the fourth quarter of 2012.

"During 2012, we delivered consistent quarter-over-quarter production improvements, which, combined with cash generated at the operations and our improved financial position, should provide the momentum for a stronger 2013," commented Bruce McLeod, president and chief executive officer of Mercator. "We are focused on delivering shareholder value by executing our plan of continual improvement through increased production and reduced costs at Mineral Park while pursuing value-accretive options to build our El Pilar SX/EW copper project."

Year ended 2012 highlights and significant items:

• Implemented a safety program called safe production, which has significantly improved safety at Mineral Park -- the mine has now achieved 472 consecutive days without a lost-time accident;
• Achieved record molybdenum and record copper equivalent production:
• • Production of 87.5 million pounds of copper equivalent for the year, composed of 40.9 million pounds of copper in concentrates and cathode, 10.3 million pounds of molybdenum in concentrates, and 677,498 ounces of silver;
• Comparing the year ended 2012 with 2011, Mineral Park has:
• • Achieved sustained, quarter-on-quarter improvements in copper equivalent production, mill throughput and metal recoveries;
  • Increased copper and molybdenum recoveries to 79.9 per cent and 79.5 per cent, respectively, for gains of 4 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively;
  • Increased average throughput by 28 per cent to 45,570 tons per day;
  • Increased total material mined by 27 per cent to 29.5 million tons;
  • Reduced on-site operating costs by 7 per cent to $10.29 per ton milled;
• Working capital position as at year-end 2012 at $2.0-million, which includes a current liability of $15.2-million for the company's 2013 copper forward sales and considered discounts that will be applied to future revenues; also included in working capital is $27.7-million of cash and current restricted cash;
• Based primarily on the decline in molybdenum prices since the June, 2011, acquisition, has elected to defer development of the El Creston project and therefore has reviewed its estimated net present value of future cash flows; the review has resulted in a non-cash accounting charge of $119.8-million, which was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2012; the reduced carrying value does not alter the importance of El Creston for the company's long-term future;
• In October, 2012, increased its financial flexibility and enhanced its financial position through the restructuring of the Mineral Park credit facilities and a $29-million private placement and replaced the expiring El Pilar preconstruction facility with a new three-year facility and repaid overdue trade payables;
• In 2011 and 2012, repaid $48.6-million in total debt principal and reduced its forward sales commitments on its copper hedges by 50 per cent;
• In October, 2012, reported the results of an optimized 2012 feasibility study on the El Pilar project, which further enhanced the project's already robust economics from the 2011 feasibility study.

Fourth quarter 2012 highlights and significant items:

• Production for the fourth quarter of 2012 was a record for a single quarter and totalled 23.8 million copper equivalent pounds, composed of 10.9 million pounds of copper in concentrates and cathode, 2.9 million pounds of molybdenum in concentrates, and 156,985 ounces of silver.
• During the quarter, the company achieved recoveries of 83.1 per cent and 85.5 per cent for copper and molybdenum, which, for the third consecutive quarter, was above design rates of 80 per cent and 75 per cent, respectively.
• Average throughput was a record of 44,978 tons per day.
• Mineral Park generated stand-alone cash flows from operations before non-cash working capital changes of $14.3-million.

                                   OVERVIEW
                     ($ millions unless otherwise noted)

                                               Three months                
                                                      ended      Year ended
                                                    Dec. 31,        Dec. 31,
                                               2012    2011    2012    2011

Revenues                                      $77.6   $70.7  $262.6  $263.0
Operating profit before the El Creston                                     
asset impairment charge                        10.6     9.3    24.7    42.7
El Creston asset impairment charge           (119.8)     --  (119.8)     --
Net (loss) income                            (115.2)  (32.9) (128.7)   91.7
(Loss) earnings per share (basic)            $(0.43) $(0.13) $(0.48) $ 0.41
Adjusted net income                             4.4     1.5    (1.2)    8.0
Adjusted earnings per share (basic)           $0.02    $nil    $nil   $0.04
Production (million pounds)                                                
Copper                                         10.9    11.3    40.9    42.4
Molybdenum                                      2.9     2.3    10.3     7.0
Copper equivalent                              23.8    21.7    87.5    74.1
Throughput (tons per day)                    44,978  44,264  45,570  35,503
Recoveries (%)                                                             
Copper                                         83.1    80.1    79.9    77.2
Molybdenum                                     85.5    71.6    79.5    70.1
On-site operating costs ($/ton milled)        10.83    9.62   10.29   11.04
Cash costs on a co-product basis ($/lb)                                 
Copper                                         2.56    2.23    2.48    2.32
Molybdenum                                     9.52   10.43   10.37   11.58
Average realized prices ($/lb)                                             
Copper (excluding hedges)                      3.52    3.60    3.64    3.89
Molybdenum                                    11.35   13.44   12.21   14.90

Objectives for 2013

Mineral Park mine

Mercator's objectives for 2013 are to continue to maximize cash generation through continual improvements, with a focus on increasing throughput and lowering unit costs. Specific goals are to produce 93.0 million to 102.0 million pounds of copper equivalent, composed of 41.5 million to 46.5 million pounds of copper, 11.0 million to 12.0 million pounds of molybdenum and 600,000 ounces of silver, with cash costs to $2.25 to $2.50 per pound of copper and $8.55 to $9.45 per pound of molybdenum.

In the first quarter of 2013, Mineral Park has taken additional maintenance downtime to reinstall the company-owned natural gas turbine, which, since reinstallation, has been exceeding expectations. As planned, the company is currently mining through harder sections of the mineral reserves and has also recently completed the dewatering of Ithaca allowing for mining to resume in that pit. Mining in the Ithaca pit, which has softer ore, should help increase mill throughput as it will provide additional blending options for the various ore types at the mine. As a result of the increased maintenance downtime and temporarily mining through harder ore sections of the mine, the company expects production in the first quarter of 2013 to be lower than the previous quarter. However, with increased ore-blending options and continuing optimization initiatives, the company anticipates sequential quarterly production improvements during 2013 to achieve its production goals.

As previously disclosed, in 2012, the company encountered lower than expected copper grades as it mined through the transition zone from the supergene-enriched copper material into the primary hypogene copper mineralization, while also mining through harder than expected ore in the Turquoise pit at the mine. As such, the company is presently in the process of revising the mineral resource model to predict transition zone copper grades and the hardness of certain zones in the orebody more accurately to help with mine planning. Once fully assessed, the company will update Mineral Park's mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates.

As part of the cost reduction and productivity improvement initiatives in 2013, the company has revised its capital program to $11.7-million at Mineral Park, which includes capital investments in the mill to increase throughput rates, $1.7-million for additional mining fleet to improve flexibility in the mine's ore-blending options to increase throughput rates and $6.3-million being spent on sustaining capital.

El Pilar

Plans at El Pilar for 2013 include continuing efforts to derisk the project through additional metallurgical testing, which has already commenced, and completion and receipt of the final environmental permits for constructing the power line to the project. All permits necessary for the commencement of construction of the mine have been received.

Although extensive external and internal metallurgical studies have already been conducted for the project, including over 100 column tests and two larger-scale run-of-mine crib tests, additional metallurgical column testing has commenced to evaluate the potential to attain the same projected copper recoveries (56.9 per cent over the project's life of mine) while reducing acid consumption, by potentially as much as 20 per cent. These column tests will be conducted by managing solution application rates and raffinate pH.

Meanwhile, the company continues to explore various value-accretive options to finance the project. After financing is secured, with a 15-month construction timeline, the company has the potential for a short cycle to convert its investment into cash flows.

Financial statements and management's discussion and analysis

Webcast/conference call

Mercator's senior management will hold a conference call and a live audio webcast on March 21, 2013, at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time to discuss results for the fourth quarter and year ended 2012. To participate in the call, dial 877-240-9772 (North America) and 800-2787-2090 (international). A presentation will accompany the call and will be available on the company's website under investor relations, presentations.

An archived recording of the conference call will be available for playback after the event until April 4, 2013, by dialling 1-800-408-3053 (North America), 905-694-9451 (local) and 800-3366-3052 (overseas) with conference passcode 2945338 followed by the number sign.

Quality assurance/quality control

The technical information contained in this news release has been prepared under the supervision of, and its disclosure has been reviewed by, the following who are deemed to be qualified persons under NI 43-101: Gary Simmerman, BSc, mining engineering, FAusIMM, Mercator's vice-president, Mineral Park mine, and Mike Broch, BSc, geology, MSc, economic geology, FAusIMM, the company's vice-president, exploration and evaluations.

National Instrument 43-101 compliance

Unless otherwise indicated, Mercator has prepared the technical information in this news release based on information contained in the technical reports, annual information form, news releases, material change reports, and quarterly and annual consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis available under Mercator Minerals's company profile on SEDAR. Each disclosure document was prepared by or under the supervision of a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 (standards of disclosure for mineral projects) of the Canadian Securities Administration. Readers are encouraged to review the full text of the disclosure documents, which qualifies the technical information. Readers are advised that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The disclosure documents are each intended to be read as a whole, and sections should not be read or relied upon out of context. The technical information is subject to the assumptions and qualifications contained in the disclosure documents.

We seek Safe Harbor.