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Merc International Minerals Inc.: Merc Increases Land Position at Its Damoti Lake Gold Project

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - April 9, 2009) - Merc International Minerals Inc. ("Merc") (TSX VENTURE:MRK) is pleased to announce the staking of mineral claims contiguous to its Damoti Lake Gold Project. Additional ground was acquired along strike of the host iron formation to the north of the resource area and to the west along the volcanic rock/sedimentary rock contact, an area of known historic gold surface showings. Approximately 1,542 hectares were staked, adding to Merc's previous land holdings of 2,849 hectares.

In a recent news release (April 2, 2009) it was reported that mobilization of a diamond drill rig and drilling equipment to the Damoti Lake Gold Project, located 200 km north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, was completed in preparation for a 6,000 metre drill program scheduled for early June 2009. The Damoti Lake Gold Project has been the focus of several previous surface exploration and diamond drill programs, some of which have produced resource estimates as illustrated in the table provided below.

Damoti Lake Gold Project - Historic Resource Calculations

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 Total
 Gold Grade Ounces of
Resource Author & Date Resource Category Tonnes (grams/tonne) Gold
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(i) Sierra Mining & Geologic Resource 2,084,164 9.238 618,518
 Engineering, July 1997
 (non NI 43-101
 compliant)
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(i) R.H. Russell, Inferred 461,654 15.059 223,517
 January 2004
 (non NI 43-101
 compliant)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(ii) P & E Mining Measured 40,600 26.17 34,200
 Consultants Inc., & Indicated
 December 2005 ---------------------------------------------------
 (NI 43-101 compliant) Inferred 17,800 16.38 9,400
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(i) These historical resource calculations are believed relevant but should
not be relied upon until verified. These historical estimates did not use
mineral resource categories as stipulated in NI 43-101.

(ii) Resource calculated with an 8 gram gold per tonne cutoff to facilitate
the evaluation of a small high-grade mining operation restricted to the
Horseshoe zone.

The Company's ongoing 2009 exploration program is designed to expand upon the known resource and consists of compiling all historical data, auditing historical resource estimates, constructing an updated three dimensional deposit model, defining and testing drill targets, and initiating a NI 43-101 resource estimate for the entire deposit. Twenty to thirty drill holes are planned to infill priority target areas within the current resource and to extend the mineralized zones along strike and to depth within the Horseshoe and Pyrite Zones. Drilling will also focus along the mineralized structures immediately west of the Horseshoe Zone within the Red Mountain, Pink Antler and Lookout Zones.

In November 2008, Merc secured $2.0 million in flow-through financing to support the 2009 Damoti drill program, which is expected to be completed by October 2009. In late 2009 an updated NI 43-101 complaint resource will be completed using all drilling to date within the Horseshoe zone (135 drill holes) as well as the drilling completed in the 2009 program (20 to 30 holes). This NI 43-101 compliant resource will make use of approximately 63 holes not included in the 1997 and 2004 resource estimates. Management believes this should result in an increase to the previous resource figures.

In other news Merc announces that it has granted Dr. Michael Byron, Merc's CEO, 670,000 options to purchase Merc's common shares at a price of $0.25 on or before April 7, 2012.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions and judgments of management regarding future events or results. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to revise or update such statements.

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.