NEWS RELEASE

  INTERNATIONAL MINERALS CORPORATION

March 8, 2004     

    Toronto and Swiss Exchanges – Symbol “IMZ”, Frankfurt – Symbol “MIW”                                             

           INTERNATIONAL MINERALS REPORTS HIGH-GRADE GOLD INTERSECTIONS FROM FEASIBILITY STUDY DRILL PROGRAM AT RIO BLANCO PROJECT, ECUADOR

 International Minerals Corporation (“IMC”) has received assay results from the first twenty core drill holes totaling 2,729m that form part of an on-going feasibility study for the high-grade Alejandra North Zone within IMC’s Rio Blanco epithermal gold-silver project located in southern Ecuador.

 In an October 14, 2003 news release, IMC announced a positive scoping study with strong economics (over 50% pretax IRR at US$350/oz gold and US$5/oz silver) for this high-grade zone based on an inferred resource estimate of approximately 744,000 tonnes at an average grade of 18.3 g/t gold and 146 g/t silver, containing 438,000 gold ounces and 3.5 million silver ounces. The Alejandra North Zone is only one of multiple targets located on IMC’s property.

 A total of 54 drill holes (totaling approximately 10,000m) are planned in the current program, which together with previous drilling by IMC, is designed to produce drill intersections with an approximate spacing of 30m for reserve/resource calculations in the feasibility study. In addition, approximately 120m of underground exploration is underway to complement this drill program.

 The Alejandra North Zone contains a vein-breccia structure with a drill-tested east-west strike length of approximately 500m, which is still open to the east. The structure ranges in width from less than 1.0m up to 30m and averages approximately 6m. Gold-silver mineralization extends from surface to a depth of 300m.

 Notable intersection values from the current drill program with estimated true widths include: 3.8m at 34.5 g/t gold and 171 g/t silver in hole BC-73; 5.1m at 29.4 g/t gold and 202 g/t silver (including 1.9m at 63.2 g/t gold and 449 g/t silver) in BC-79; 1.3m at 21.5 g/t gold and 243 g/t silver in BC-82; 0.3m at 183 g/t gold and 1,110 g/t silver in BC-85; 9.7m at 25.8 g/t gold and 140g/t silver ((including 6.7m at 34.0 g/t gold and169 g/t silver) in BC-87; and 0.5m at 133.5 g/t gold and 1,410 g/t silver in BC-90.

 Of particular interest, are the well-mineralized intersections within other veins in the hanging wall and footwall of the main mineralized structure. Intercepts with estimated true widths include BC-72 with 4.5m at 14.5 g/t gold in a hanging wall vein and 1.3m at 7.9 g/t gold in a footwall vein. Such veins have the potential to add ounces to the existing resource base at Rio Blanco if their continuity can be established by drilling.

 Assay results (at a nominal 1 g/t gold cut-off) are summarized in the table below and drill hole locations are shown on the attached long-section in the plane of the vein. “HW” and “FW” refer to the hanging and footwall zones veins described above. All assay values are uncut.

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Drill Hole

(Depth-meters)

 

Interval

(meters)

Length

(m)

Estimated

True  Width (m)

Gold

g/t

Silver

g/t

Comments

BC 72 ( 289.0 )

 

Includes:

Includes:

 80.9

244.6

244.6

254.0

-

-

-

-

85.5

255.3

246.0

255.3

4.6

10.7

1.4

1.3

4.5

10.4

1.4

1.3

14.5

4.8

15.4

7.9

11

69

219

141

HW Vein (Valeriana)

Alejandra Vein

 

 

BC 73  ( 61.0 )

Includes:

Includes:

21.7

28.3

33.0

-

-

-

49.1

41.2

37.5

27.4

12.9

4.5

23.0

10.8

3.8

9.8

17.1

34.5

73

115

171

Alejandra Vein

BC 74  ( 86.9 )

Includes:

Includes:

52.1

53.4

58.5

-

-

-

78.5

56.4

60.4

26.5

3.0

1.9

20.9

2.4

1.5

4.0

8.8

9.1

38

128

93

Alejandra Vein

BC 75 ( 111.3 )

Includes:

88.7

93.3

-

-

97.5

97.5

8.8

4.3

7.8

3.7

4.9

7.1

22

29

Alejandra Vein

BC 76 ( 302.6 )

253.8

-

254.7

0.9

0.9

30.2

109

Alejandra Vein

BC 77 ( 71.6 )

Includes:

33.5

36.4

-

-

62.8

39.9

29.3

3.5

25.5

3.1

2.9

8.0

62

83

Alejandra Vein

BC 79 ( 59.4 )

Includes:

21.3

28.4

32.6

-

--

39.6

35.0

35.0

18.3

6.6

2.4

14.1

5.1

1.9

12.1

29.4

63.2

94

202

449

Alejandra Vein

BC 80 ( 86.9 )

Includes:

55.2

57.9

-

-

74.9

68.8

19.6

10.9

15.7

8.7

5.0

7.4

50

77

Alejandra Vein

BC 81 ( 250.0 )

219.0

227.7

-

-

219.7

238.1

0.7

10.4

0.7

10.4

13.1

2.9

21

21

Alejandra Vein

BC 82 ( 106.7 )

Includes:

Includes:

 

Includes:

69.7

74.5

80.5

87.8

87.8

-

-

-

-

-

-

85.8

76.1

82.0

94.5

89.4

16.1

1.6

1.5

6.7

1.6

13.8

1.3

1.3

5.8

1.4

6.2

10.0

21.5

4.6

13.6

64

84

243

30

95

Alejandra Vein

 

 

BC 83 ( 309.6 )

 

 

Includes:

246.1

255.0

266.2

267.2

-

-

-

-

246.6

258.2

268.2

268.2

0.5

3.6

2.0

1.0

0.4

3.3

1.8

0.9

12.8

4.3

4.5

8.2

92

7

10

14

HW Vein

Alejandra Vein

BC 84 ( 111.3 )

 

Includes:

Includes:

13.4

86.0

86.0

97.7

-

-

-

-

14.2

105.4

90.0

101.2

0.7

19.4

4.0

3.5

0.7

17.7

3.6

3.2

16.9

4.5

7.1

6.2

25

49

54

103

HW Vein (Nora)

Alejandra Vein

 

BC 85 ( 176.8 )

49.5

130.1

131.0

 

-

-

-

 

52.5

132.6

131.3

 

3.0

2.4

0.3

 

2.7

2.2

0.3

 

15.3

26.5

183.0

 

7

164

1110

 

HW Vein (Nora)

Alejandra Vein

BC 86 ( 44.4 )

Includes:

Includes:

2.0

4.2

23.9

-

-

-

31.9

11.3

27.8

29.9

7.1

3.9

25.9

6.2

3.4

4.8

9.5

6.9

31

42

27

Alejandra Vein

BC 87 ( 34.4 )

Includes:

2.2

2.2

-

-

12.9

9.6

10.8

7.4

9.7

6.7

25.8

34.0

140

169

Alejandra Vein

BC 88 ( 185.6 )

Includes:

157.1

157.1

-

-

165.7

158.5

8.6

1.4

8.3

1.3

2.9

5.5

8

<5

Alejandra Vein

BC 89 ( 97.9 )

70.2

-

 

71.6

1.4

1.2

3.3

14

 

BC 90 ( 125.0 )

Includes:

Includes:

 

91.3

108.9

111.9

-

-

-

 

112.3

109.5

112.3

21.0

0.6

0.5

17.2

0.5

0.4

9.2

133.5

27.0

114

1410

345

Alejandra Vein

BC 91 ( 193.8 )

Includes:

 

Includes:

146.3

154.4

161.5

168.1

-

-

-

-

155.9

155.9

174.2

171.9

9.6

1.6

12.7

3.7

7.0

1.1

9.3

2.7

2.9

8.0

4.5

10.8

31

97

27

45 </