Franconia Acquires Additional Exploration Lands as Part of Birch Lake PGM-Copper-Nickel Project; INCO Becomes Shareholder.

SPOKANE, Wash. -- FRANCONIA MINERALS CORPORATION (TSX VENTURE:FRA)(OFEX:FRA) and its joint venture partner, the Beaver Bay Joint Venture ("BBJV"), announce that BBJV, on behalf of the Birch Lake Project, has acquired from American Copper & Nickel Company, Inc. ("ACNC") an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of INCO Limited, a total of 5,201 acres of mineral rights on the Duluth Complex, in St. Louis and Lake Counties, Minnesota.

Following the terms of a Letter of Intent signed in December 2003 Franconia will reimburse ACNC for land holding costs since that date by issuing 395,821 of the common shares of Franconia Minerals Corporation for a deemed value of US$114,708 (CDN$0.36 per common share). In addition ACNC will retain the right to receive 7.5% of the net distributable earnings from any future production from the lands.

As part of its Birch Lake Project, Franconia Minerals will reevaluate the exploration and development potential of the newly acquired ACNC lands and plans exploration in the as yet unexplored but highly prospective area between the Birch Lake PGM-copper-nickel deposit and the newly acquired Maturi zone The newly acquired lands were explored by ACNC and its parent company between 1950 and 1974.

Extensive drilling during this period (in excess of 240,000 feet of drilling between 1951 and 1974) delineated two major mineralized zones. The northeastern Spruce Road zone contains a body of copper-nickel mineralization potentially amenable to open pit mining. This zone was extensively drilled and bulk sampled by ACNC. A second smaller, higher-grade zone of copper-nickel and PGM mineralization, Maturi, is located about 3 miles north of Beaver Bay's Birch Lake PGM-copper-nickel project. The Maturi zone was explored by ACNC by drilling and a test shaft. Although extensive amounts of mineralized material were delineated by ACNC, no NI 43-101 compliant studies of the area are currently available.

The mineral rights being acquired from ACNC are contiguous with the existing 9,460 acre mineral rights held as part of Franconia's Birch Lake Project. The Birch Lake landholdings now extend for more than ten miles along the prospective basal area of the Duluth Complex.

Franconia Minerals Corporation trades on both the TSX-V in Canada and OFEX in the UK under the symbol FRA. Franconia's property portfolio consists of the Birch Lake PGM property in the Duluth Complex of Minnesota; the San Francisco high-grade zinc property (up to 55ft of 19% Zinc in previous drilling) in Utah, the Mahoney high-grade zinc property in New Mexico and a number of other platinum-palladium targets in the Duluth Complex of Minnesota. Franconia currently has exploration agreements with Teck Cominco American Inc. and Impala Platinum Holdings. (For additional information see www.franconiaminerals.com.).

The directors of Franconia Minerals Corporation accept responsibility for this announcement. Franconia presently has 22,064,108 shares issued and outstanding.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

FRANCONIA MINERALS CORPORATION

Brian Gavin

President

This document, which has been issued by Franconia Minerals Corporation (Franconia), has been approved solely for the purposes of Section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, by Lion Capital Corporation Limited (Lion), 4th Floor, 2 Cromwell Place, London SW7 2JE, who is authorised to carry on Investment Business by the Financial Services Authority. Lion, is acting as advisers for Franconia and to no-one else and will not be responsible to anyone other than Franconia for providing protections afforded to customers of Lion for providing advice in relation to any investment made pursuant to this announcement and makes no recommendation for the suitability of any investment, which is the subject of this announcement. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT: Although Franconia Minerals Corporation believes many of its properties have promising potential, its properties are in the early stages of exploration. None have yet been shown to contain proven or probable mineral reserves. There can be no assurance that such reserves will be identified on any property, or that, if identified, any mineralization may be economically extracted. Incorporated in Alberta Canada No. 207953670

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Franconia Minerals Corporation (TSX VENTURE:FRA)