Excelsior Welcomes Two Leading Arizona Citizens to Board of Directors

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/16/12 -- Excelsior Mining Corp. (TSX VENTURE: MIN)(OTCQX: EXMGF)(FRANKFURT: 3XS) ('Excelsior') is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Jim Kolbe and Mr. Steven Lynn to the Board of Directors of Excelsior, effective immediately.

Mr. Kolbe is a veteran Republican member of the US House of Representatives for Arizona's 8th congressional district, having retired after serving 11 terms from 1985 to 2007. Excelsior's Gunnison Copper Project is located in Arizona's 8th congressional district. During his tenure as congressman, Mr. Kolbe served as chair of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs of the House Appropriations Committee. He was also instrumental in the drafting and passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). After retiring from office, President Barack Obama appointed Mr. Kolbe to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations in September of 2010. Currently Mr. Kolbe is a fellow at the German Marshall Fund, as well as a consultant for McLarty Associates, a strategic advisory and advocacy firm, offering high-level strategic consultancy services to a broad spectrum to U.S. and multinational companies.

Mr. Lynn recently retired from his position as Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at both UniSource Energy Corporation and Tucson Electric Power Company (TEP). Mr. Lynn joined UniSource Energy and TEP in 2000. Prior to that, he spent sixteen years as CEO and owner-partner at Nordensson Lynn & Associates, Inc., one of Arizona's leading marketing and communications firms based in Tucson. Active in his community, Mr. Lynn currently serves as Chairman of the Arizona Early Childhood Development and Health Board, as well as Chairman of the University of Arizona College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Advisory Board.

'I am extremely pleased to be able to welcome two long-time Arizona residents of the calibre of Jim and Steve to the Excelsior board,' stated Mark Morabito, Chairman of the Board for Excelsior. 'The breadth of their combined experience, spanning both government and the private sector, will be invaluable as we work to advance the Gunnison Copper Project to production.'

Excelsior has granted certain directors and officers, under the terms of its stock option plan, options to purchase up to 1,441,333 common shares at a price of $0.73 per share. The options are subject to vesting over a two year period and have an expiry date of February 15, 2017.

About Excelsior

Excelsior is an exploration and development company with a copper project located within the copper porphyry belt of Arizona. The Gunnison Copper Project is located close to the required infrastructure and its oxide resource has the potential to be mined using in-situ recovery methods. The Excelsior team consists of experienced professionals with proven track records of advancing projects towards production.

Further details about Excelsior can be found at: http://www.excelsiormining.com. Further information about the Gunnison Copper Project can be found in the technical report filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com entitled: 'Gunnison Copper Project Preliminary Economic Assessment, NI 43-101 Technical Report' dated November 18, 2011.

ON BEHALF OF THE EXCELSIOR BOARD

Mark Morabito, Chairman of the Board

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as 'anticipate', 'believe', 'plan', 'estimate', 'expect', and 'intend', statements that an action or event 'may', 'might', 'could', 'should', or 'will' be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation; statements about future exploration on and the development of the Gunnison Project and the ability to mine Gunnison using in-situ recovery mining techniques are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mineral exploration; fluctuations in commodity prices; title matters; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers, directors or promoters with certain other projects; the absence of dividends; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume and the additional risks identified in the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

Neither the 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, and no securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this release.

Contacts:

Excelsior Mining Corp

JJ Jennex

Vice President, Corporate Affairs

604-681-8030 x240

604-681-8039 (FAX)
info@excelsiormining.com
www.excelsiormining.com