Excelsior Welcomes Two Leading Arizona Citizens to Board of Directors

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Feb. 16, 2012) - 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