General Minerals Corporation Acquires Porphyry Copper/Silver Target: Monitor-Arizona.

Business Editors

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 27, 2004

General Minerals Corporation ("GMC")(TSX SYMBOL: GNM) is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Monitor copper-silver property located approximately 5 kilometres northeast of Grupo Mexico's (formerly ASARCO's) Ray porphyry copper-silver producing mine and approximately 100 kilometres east of Phoenix, Arizona.

Geologic mapping and sampling and geophysical surveys carried out by General Minerals in recent months have delineated an area of approximately two square kilometres with characteristics suggestive of an underlying porphyry copper target. These characteristics include high grade copper-silver mineralization at surface, a two square kilometre zone which includes areas displaying porphyry-style and hematite alteration and a coincident, two square kilometre Self Potential ("SP") geophysical anomaly. This target is located near the intersection of the NE extension of the Rustler Fault from the Ray Mine and a NW trending fault that extends towards the new, very large Resolution discovery of Kennecott Minerals Company, 15 kilometres to the NW of the Monitor property.

A number of outcrops of copper-silver mineralization have been mapped and sampled within an area of approximately 1,600 x 600 meters elongated in a northeast direction parallel to the Rustler Fault and within the 2 square kilometre zone containing areas of porphyry style alteration. The sampling results of some of the cuts and quarries are reported in the following table:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sample            Area       Sample Type   Sample Length Copper Silver
Numbers                                           metres     %     gpt
----------------------------------------------------------------------
47539-40       Monitor   continuous chip            12.2    0.86    89
                                 samples
----------------------------------------------------------------------
47501-4    Saddle area   continuous chip            24.4    0.79    65
additional 520 m SW of           samples
results        Monitor
pending
----------------------------------------------------------------------
47433-41 Big Cut 300 m   continuous chip            54.9    0.78    59
        SSW of Monitor           samples
----------------------------------------------------------------------
47409-15 Merrimac area   continuous chip            21.3    1.46    66
           1000 m E of           samples
               Monitor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
47403-04 Merrimac area   continuous chip            10.7    1.94    17
                                  sample
----------------------------------------------------------------------
47477-82   Saddle area      dump samples 0.6 x 0.6x 0.6m    1.19   103
47484      490 m SW of    Average sample
               Monitor          pit size
----------------------------------------------------------------------
47485-6   Below Saddle      dump samples 0.6 x 0.6x 0.6m    0.90    82
         area 440 m SW    Average sample
            of Monitor          pit size
----------------------------------------------------------------------
47487-9  Big Cut 290 m      dump samples 0.6 x 0.6x 0.6m    1.08    90
         SW of Monitor    Average sample
                                pit size
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sampling by Mr. Randall Moore, professional Geologist number WA RPG # 1390, a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, prior to GMC's involvement included the following very comparable results:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sample            Area       Sample Type   Sample Length Copper Silver
Numbers                                           metres     %     gpt
----------------------------------------------------------------------
51301-4    Saddle area   continuous chip            24.3    0.83    67
                                  sample
----------------------------------------------------------------------
51308-15       Big Cut   continuous chip            48.8    0.70    66
                                  sample
----------------------------------------------------------------------
51324-26 Merrimac area   continuous chip            12.8    1.62    75
                                  sample
----------------------------------------------------------------------
51322-23 Merrimac area   continuous chip             6.1    2.95   129
                                  sample
----------------------------------------------------------------------

The geological setting at the Monitor has many similarities to the Ray Mine five kilometres to the SW, where more than 4.5 million tons of copper have been recovered since 1911. Surface exposures consist of Precambrian Apache Group sedimentary rocks, diabase sills, Tertiary age rhyodacite porphyry dykes and Teapot Mountain Porphyry dykes. High-grade copper-silver mineralization is associated with numerous sets of faults which are dominated by the regional northeast-southwest trending Rustler Fault extending from the Ray Mine through the GMC Monitor property. Several parallel structures to the Rustler Fault have been identified and represent untested exploration targets. In addition, GMC has identified numerous east-west oriented structures containing high-grade copper-silver mineralization which have the potential to host significant, near surface mineralization.

Reconnaissance SP geophysics (Self Potential mapping) indicates that sulphides exist at depth below the oxide mineralization listed in the tables. The best defined geophysical feature is approximately 1 km across and encompasses the Merrimac area, where geological mapping indicates a strong color anomaly and development of actinolite skarns and hematite alteration. Other Self Potential targets to the west, southwest and south, suggest an overall potential for deep mineralization within an area of 2 km2 or more. GMC management believes that this may represent a porphyry copper-silver target at depth similar to Ray or the very large Kennecott Resolution discovery which is reported to contain a significant volume of mineralization of greater than 1% copper with dimensions in excess of 750 x 300 x 250 meters.

GMC has carried out a geological reconnaissance of the area and collected rock samples to confirm the presence of mineralization, which is often visible as copper oxides and silver chlorides at surface. Rock samples varied from a few ppm copper to greater than 10% copper, with elevated molybdenum values of a few ppm to a high of 1159 ppm. Silver values varied from less than one ppm to greater than 200 ppm and were related to high copper values and elevated lead and zinc values (up to 0.4% over 6 m and 0.48% over 6 metres respectively).

The Company has acquired a number of leases on a large area encompassing the historic Monitor Mine that produced very high grade copper-silver ore. In total, the Company has acquired mineral rights to approximately 785 ha of mining claims and State of Arizona Leases. A total of 69 lode claims have been acquired along with 146 ha in approved State mineral leases and 187 ha in pending leases.

The Monitor property was bypassed during the years of intense porphyry exploration in the 1970's and 1980's because during this time it was owned by a local business person who did his own prospecting and mined the high-grade structures at the historic Monitor Mine. His activities, and that of early miners in the area, provided some excellent exposure of mineralized material in the form of trenches, quarries, tunnels and short drill holes. Limited information is available to the Company regarding sporadic exploration efforts by a number of companies in the area, but none of these programs appears to have focussed on the Merrimac Area.

General Minerals' rock samples were analyzed by ACME Laboratories in British Columbia. ACME is a fully ISO 9002 certified facility. Analyses were carried out by ICP. Mr. Ralph Fitch, President of General Minerals Corporation, is the Qualified Person on the Project as set out by the Toronto Stock Exchange Disclosure Standards and National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Fitch was assisted by Mr. Randy Moore, Professional Geologist number, WA RPG # 1390 also a Qualified Person, and Dr. Jacob Skokan, consulting geophysicist.