Cominco Begins Drilling On Minera Andes' Joint Venture; Agua Blanca Project Returned.

SPOKANE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 26, 1997--Minera Andes (Alberta Stock Exchange:MAI.) The Argentine subsidiary of Cominco Ltd. has begun a reconnaissance drilling program of between 1,800 and 2,000 meters at Minera Andes' Santa Clara copper prospect in Mendoza Province, Argentina.

Separately, Newcrest Resources, Inc. has released results of its reconnaissance drilling program at the Agua Blanca gold-copper prospect in San Juan Province, Argentina and has elected to return the property (see results and drill map below). The best values are associated with zones of phyllic alteration. There are zones of phyllic alteration that remain untested. SANTA CLARA

Cominco's first target at Santa Clara is Quebrada del Azufre, a potentially large (1,500 meters by 2,000 meters) mineralized copper porphyry prospect in Mendoza Province. Quebrada del Azufre is one of a number of porphyry targets at Santa Clara, a high altitude prospect (3,000 to 5,000 meters above sea level) in the Andean Cordillera.

Cominco, whose drilling program has begun about three weeks earlier than originally planned, anticipates drilling six holes of approximately 300 meters each. The goal is to test for a copper-bearing blanket of secondary enrichment at depth. Drilling follows expedited road construction and surface work including a sampling and mapping program. The latter work indicated that two other porphyry anomalies at Santa Clara are parts of the same hydrothermal system.

Work completed at Quebrada del Azufre to date suggests that the system is copper-bearing and may host a blanket of secondary enrichment. The surface cap appears to be intensely leached of copper, but retains molybdenum values. Frequently, molybdenum and copper occur together in a mineralized porphyry system. In the case of a copper-depleted leached cap anomaly, the molybdenum is immobile but the copper tends to be leached. Cominco's drilling program is designed to test the supergene-enriched copper zone as well as the copper grades of the primary sulfide zone.

Cominco holds the Santa Clara property under terms of a joint venture with Minera Andes. Cominco can earn up to a 51 percent interest by making exploration expenditures totaling US$4.7 million over four years. Since joint venturing the property to Cominco in 1996, Minera Andes has increased the size of the property to 26,720 hectares of mineral rights. The exploration program at Santa Clara is being conducted through Cominco's wholly owned Latin American subsidiary, Minera Cominco Chile.

AGUA BLANCA

Newcrest recently completed a 12-hole, approximately 2,000-meter reverse circulation drilling program at Agua Blanca, a gold-copper system first prospected by Minera Andes in 1994. Agua Blanca was joint ventured to Newcrest in 1996.

Gold intercepts in a portion of the porphyry with strong phyllic alteration were interesting, including 146 meters of 0.492 g/t gold and 0.19 percent copper in Hole AB-10. It is noteworthy that several zones of this type of alteration remain untested. -0-

    Drill results, summarized, are:

HOLE   BEARING/INCL.   T.D.   FROM-TO   INTERVAL  GOLD  COPPER
         Degrees     Meters   Meters     Meters   g/t   PERCENT
---------------------------------------------------------------
AB-1     0/-90        200    (X)0-194     194     0.215  0.207
                 including     94-194     100     0.285  0.280
                           (X)194-200 no sample recovery
AB-2    330/-60        78        0-78      78     0.062  0.065
AB-3    180/-64       200       0-200     200     0.273  0.096
                 including    128-200      72     0.322  0.094
AB-4    360/-90       200       0-200     200     0.028  0.008
AB-5    360/-60       200       0-200     200     0.067  0.037
                 including      62-88      26     0.155  0.037
AB-6     10/-60       200       0-200     200     0.249  0.125
                 including     92-122      30     0.321  0.157
                 including    134-200      66     0.288  0.143
AB-7    180/-75       200       0-200     200     0.028  0.011
AB-8    360/-80        84        0-84      84     0.116  0.074
                 including      62-84      22     0.130  0.077
AB-9    330/-75        26        0-26      26     0.123  0.078
                 including      20-26       6     0.127  0.142
AB-10   180/-70       249       0-249     249     0.381  0.152
                 including      0-146     146     0.492  0.190
AB-11   330/-70       250       0-250     250     0.111  0.065
                 including      26-70      44     0.145  0.140
                 including    182-190       8     0.280  0.134
                 including    196-250      54     0.154  0.062
AB-12   310/-70       210       0-210     210     0.065  0.024
                 including    180-208      28     0.156  0.025
---------------------------------------------------------------

Minera Andes' Vice President of Exploration, Brian Gavin says, "A preliminary examination of the results of the recent drill campaign at Agua Blanca shows the area to be widely mineralized in both gold and copper. Gold mineralization is present in both potassically altered rock, and, at higher concentrations, in zones of phyllic alteration. A notable feature of the results is that the grade tends to improve with depth. Potassic alteration, including zones of quartz-magnetite stockwork, and phyllic alteration, are mapped as scattered occurrences over an area in excess of ten square kilometers, and extend from the site of the current drilling in Quebrada Mondaca into the adjacent Quebrada Agua Blanca drainage. Additional drilling, particularly to target the phyllic alteration zones, appears to be warranted."

Minera Andes' staff is now evaluating the data and discussions may be held with a number of major mining companies which have expressed interest in the property.

Minera Andes is a mining exploration company that controls approximately 35 projects on about 700,000 acres of mineral exploration land in Argentina. Most of the properties are located in the Andean Cordillera and primarily contain gold, copper and silver exploration targets. -0-

The Alberta Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the information contained herein.

CONTACT: Minera Andes Incorporated

Arthur C. Johnson, 509/921-7322

[e-mail]

or

Minera Andes Incorporated

Allen V. Ambrose, 509/921-7322