MRK Merc International Minerals Inc.

TORONTO, Jan. 20 /CNW/ -- TORONTO, Jan. 20 /CNW/ - Merc International Minerals Inc. ("Merc") (TSXV: MRK) announced today that it has staked an additional 28 mining claims (45,473 acres or 18,403 hectares) in the Northwest Territories as part of its expanded gold exploration program. The newly staked ground consists of several gold showings and forms a buffer linking the properties Merc recently optioned from Ursa Polaris Developments Corporation. (See January 10, 2011 news release.) Through this staking initiative, Merc has consolidated much of the Indin Lake Gold Camp's ground encompassing the contact region between the volcanic rocks and sedimentary rocks (contact zone). With these newly staked claims, Merc has assembled over 50 kilometres of contact zone that also hosts the Colomac Gold Mine, the Treasure Island and Laurie Lake gold deposits, the Echo-Indin gold showing, the North Inca gold deposit, the Diversified gold deposit, the Lexindon gold deposit, and the Kim gold deposit. "With these additional claims, we continue to expand our land package and establish a regional presence in a historic gold camp in the Northwest Territories that remains underexplored," said David Wiley, President and CEO of Merc. "We have two drill rigs on site and will now focus on drilling many of these targets through a program that is expected to commence in the near future." To view a map of the Indin Lake property, please go to http://files.newswire.ca/926/Merc_Indin_Lake.doc. Property Highlights Spider Lake Area Properties JPK Gold Property The property is located just east of the Treasure Island gold deposit and lies within an iron formation, geologically similar to Merc's Damoti Lake Gold property, the Colomac Gold deposit, and the past producing Lupin Gold Mine. Historical surface sampling along a 550 metre section of the JPK iron formation returned assays ranging from 5.04 g/t Au to 15.63 g/t Au. No drilling has been reported for this area, and as such, JPK represents a primary target to be tested in 2011. Pop Gold Showing The Pop showing (contact zone) is located 1 kilometre south of Laurie Lake and is interpreted to lie within the same stratigraphic horizon as the Treasure Island and Laurie Lake deposits. Historic sampling of Pop surface trenches yielded results including 8.7 metres of 13.91 g/t Au, 9.6 metres of 10.88 g/t Au, 11.20 metres of 5.73 g/t Au, and 7.0 metres of 4.76 g/t Au. Additional work is planned in 2011 prior to drilling. Nautilus Lake Area Properties Swamp Gold Showing The Swamp showing is located 1.5 kilometres west of Nautilus Lake and 10 kilometres southwest of the Treasure Island deposit along the contact zone where it is exposed in several trenches over 150 metres within a northeast trending shear zone. Prospecting in the 1940s involved trenching that was re-sampled in the 1980s and returned assay results with highs of 17.47 g/t Au, 14.64 g/t Au, and 13.20 g/t Au. Drilling will be contingent upon the results of the 2011 summer work program. McMeekan Gold Showing The McMeekan showing, located 600 metres east of the south end of Nautilus Lake, consists of quartz stock-work mineralization within gabbro. Assay results from historical trenching and surface sampling warrant further exploration as the showing has yet to be drilled. Historic trench samples report several 1.0 metre intervals of 1.00 g/t to 5.00 g/t Au, 2.0 metres of 10.05 g/t Au, 0.35 metres of 23.95 g/t Au, 1.5 metres of 302.51 g/t Au, and 1.5 metres of 1,268.92 g/t Au. Drilling will be contingent upon the results of the 2011 summer work program. Schwerdt Lake Area Properties Echo-Indin Gold Property Historical work at Echo-Indin included channel samples from trenches that returned anomalous gold values, the best being 31.54 g/t Au. Thirty-one holes were also drilled intersecting two quartz stock-work mineralized zones with an average grade of 9.26 g/t Au. In 1988, re-sampling of five old trenches exposed a north trending mineralized zone roughly 100 metres by 30 metres. Assay highlights included channel samples over 1.0 metre returning values less than detection to 7.00 g/t Au with higher grades of 17.42 g/t Au and 11.14 g/t Au over 1.0 metre intervals reported. Field work is planned for the summer of 2011 on this high priority target area that will include surface prospecting, mapping, locating historic drill collars, and building a geological model as a base for future drilling.  Lucky Lake and Goose Lake Gold Showings Both the Lucky Lake and Goose Lake showings occur within a 1.0 metre to 8.0 metres shear zone that appears to be the northward extension of the Echo-Indin property from the Lex Fault to Schwerdt Lake. Quartz-carbonate veins and veinlets containing pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite and pyrite are hosted in contact zone related silicified basalt. Cross-fractures of flat lying quartz veins were also noted. Additional exploration work is needed to advance this area to the drill stage. About Merc International Minerals Merc is a Canadian-based exploration company focused on acquiring and developing gold mineral properties in the Northwest Territories. The company's flagship asset is the Damoti Lake Gold property, located 200 kilometres north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. The technical information in this news release was reviewed and approved by Merc Director, Dr. Michael J. Byron, a Qualified Person under NI 43-101 standards. Forward-Looking Statements Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of Merc, including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, volatility of commodity prices, risks associated with the uncertainty of exploration results and estimates, currency fluctuations, dependency upon regulatory approvals, the uncertainty of obtaining additional financing and exploration risk. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. This press release is not, and is not to be construed in any way as, an offer to buy or sell securities in the United States. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view this news release in HTML formatting, please use the following URL: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/January2011/20/c3941.html pbDavid Wiley, President and CEO/bbr/ Merc International Minerals Inc. br/ (647) 260-1247br/ (416) 363-4567 (FAX) br/ Email: a href="mailto:dwiley@mercinternational.ca"dwiley@mercinternational.ca/a/p pb- or -/b/p pbMehdi Azodi, Vice President Investor Relations /bbr/ Merc International Minerals Inc. br/ (416) 779-3268 br/ (416) 363-4567 (FAX) br/ Email: a href="mailto:mazodi@mercinternational.ca"mazodi@mercinternational.ca/a/p br/

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