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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