FOR:  LUNDIN MINING CORPORATION

TSX SYMBOL:  LUN

DECEMBER 16, 2004 - 10:27 ET

Lundin Mining Announces Re-Commencement of Drill
Program for Discovery Zone, Norrbotten Copper-Gold
Project, Northern Sweden-Also Reports on Recent
Drilling at Nearby Ailatis Target

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(CCNMatthews - Dec. 16, 2004) -  Lundin
Mining Corporation ("Lundin Mining" or the "Company") (TSX:LUN)(O-List
Stockholmsborsen:LUMI)is pleased to announce the re-commencement of
drilling on the Discovery Zone at Rakkurijarvi located within its
Norrbotten Copper-Gold Project area in northern Sweden. The Company is
also pleased to report on drill results from the nearby Ailatis target
located 8 kilometers west of the Discovery Zone.

The Discovery Zone drill program is designed to continue defining the
extent of copper/gold mineralization as previously reported April 5 and
June 1, 2004. Mineralization is characterized by massive, sometimes
brecciated, magnetite, with stockworks and veins of chalcopyrite and
pyrite. The objective of the program is to define a commercially viable
deposit of copper and gold amenable to open-pit bulk-mining methods.

The Company is also pleased to report on the result from a drilling
recently completed on the nearby Ailatis target located 8 kilometers
west of the Discovery Zone where results indicate additional follow-up
drilling is warranted in search of new copper deposits.

Drilling commenced at Ailatis in early September, 2004 and was completed
in late October 2004. Twenty-three drill holes totalling 2,559 meters
including overburden were drilled to test a number of chargeability and
magnetic anomalies within an area of about 4 square kilometres (To view
map please visit Lundin Mining Corporation's website at
www.lundinmining.com) where basal till samples of bedrock indicate
anomalous values of gold and copper. Underlying bedrock consists of
mafic volcanics, gabbro, ultramafic rocks and hydrothermal alteration
zones with carbonate and clays. Numerous holes were drilled previously
in the area by Swedish Geological Company (SGAB) in 1990 indicating
anomalous geochemical values of copper and gold. Several linear
east-west trending chargeability anomalies (IP) were defined in recent
geophysical surveying by the Company and used to design the current
drill program.

Encouraging copper mineralization was in several scout drill holes
designed to test anomalous trends defined by IP chargeability. In the
eastern part of the area a single drill hole, AIL04023, intercepted 26
meters averaging 0.27% copper along a chargeability anomaly with an
un-tested strike length of 1.5 kilometers. Drill hole AIL04005
intercepted 21.1 meters averaging 0.18% copper and drill hole AIL04009
intercepted 37.10 meters averaging 0.15% copper along a chargeability
anomaly which is open to the west for 1 kilometer. Drill hole AIL04022
intercepted 10.85 meters averaging 0.29% copper and 11.5 meters
averaging 0.22% copper along a chargeability anomaly with 2 kilometers
of previously untested strike length.

/T/

             Total
Drill        depth                   From       To  Interval   Copper
hole            (m)  Strike   Dip      (m)      (m)       (m)      (%)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
AIL04001    134.40      180   -60  117.00   124.10      7.10     0.24
AIL04003     87.30      150   -60    9.60    18.90      9.30     0.14
AIL04004     94.60      180   -60    8.70    22.00     13.30     0.17
AIL04005     97.80        0   -55   37.50    58.60     21.10     0.18
AIL04006    130.00      180   -60   76.30    79.00      2.70     0.75
AIL04007     80.00      180   -55    8.20    12.20      4.00     0.45
                                    28.20    30.20      1.90     0.60
                                    53.60    54.60      1.00     0.79
AIL04009     99.90      180   -60   57.60    94.70     37.10     0.15
AIL04010    120.70      180   -60   91.50    99.90      8.40     0.61
including                           94.50    96.20      1.70     1.40
AIL04011    119.90      180   -60  100.10   107.10      7.00     0.30
                                    73.80    79.90      6.10     0.17
AIL04014    100.10      180   -60   82.50    82.90      0.40     2.13
AIL04015     89.40      180   -60   14.35    16.30      1.95     0.62
AIL04016    136.00      180   -60   56.60    68.00     11.50     0.18
AIL04022    120.60      180   -60   19.80    30.65     10.85     0.29
                                    94.60   106.10     11.50     0.22
AIL04023    128.00      180   -60   46.00    72.00     26.00     0.27
---------------------------------------------------------------------

/T/

The Discovery Zone and the Ailatis targets are within the area of the
agreement the Company announced October 17, 2003 with Anglo American
Exploration BV ("Anglo") and Rio Tinto Mining and Exploration Limited
("Rio Tinto"). Both targets are located within 20 kilometers of the town
of Kiruna where the largest underground iron mine in the world is
operated by the Swedish iron mining company LKAB.

All drill core was split, sampled and shipped to the preparation lab of
North Atlantic Natural Resources AB in Uppsala, Sweden. Samples were
subsequently shipped to the ALS Chemex laboratory in Vancouver, Canada
where the samples were analyzed for 27 elements by HF-HNO3-HCIO4 acid
digestion, HCL leach and ICP-AES (Method code ME-ICP61a) which includes
copper, silver, cobalt, nickel, lead and zinc. Gold, platinum and
palladium were analyzed by fire assay with ICP-MS finish (Method code
PGM-MS23). Mr. Robert Lilljequist, Senior Consulting Geologist for
Lundin Mininig is the Qualified Person responsible for the project the
technical content of this news release.

Lundin Mining is a Canadian mining and exploration company with a
primary focus in Scandinavia. The main asset of the company is the
Zinkgruvan mine, located about 200 kilometers southwest of Stockholm,
Sweden. The mine has been producing zinc, lead and silver on a
continuous basis since 1857. Zinkgruvan has consistently ranked in the
lowest cost quartile among zinc mines in the world. Lundin Mining holds
approximately 37 percent of the shares of NAN, a mining and exploration
company listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol
NAN. NAN's primary asset is the Storliden copper and zinc mine in the
Skellefte District of northern Sweden, which has been in production
since 2002. Lundin Mining also holds a large copper/gold exploration
project in the prolific Norrbotten Mining District in northern Sweden.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Edward F. Posey, President

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