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VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/28/13 -- Columbus Copper Corporation ("Columbus Copper") (TSX VENTURE: CCU) (formerly Empire Mining Corporation) is pleased to report an update on the ongoing diamond drilling program at its 100% owned Karapinar copper-molybdenum project in Turkey. At the end of October 2012, Columbus Copper initiated a drilling program at Karapinar where First Quantum Minerals Ltd., has been granted an option to earn an initial 51% interest.

Seven drill holes have been completed on the program to date for a total of 2,394.6 metres and an eighth hole is currently in progress. Results have been received for six holes and all, except for drill hole KDH022, returned significant intercepts within porphyry or skarn mineralization, confirming interpretations from the 2011 IP geophysical survey and the 2012 mapping campaign.

In 2011, Columbus Copper undertook an IP survey at Karapinar that outlined a chargeable anomaly of 800 metres x 800 metres in the eastern part of the porphyry system where drill hole KDH018 intersected a 60 metre zone of chalcocite enrichment grading 0.93% copper, 0.11 g/t gold and 0.017% molybdenum from a hole depth of 79.6 to 139.6 metres (see news releases of August 23rd and November 1st, 2011). The current drilling campaign aims to expand this zone beneath an area recently mapped as an extension of the porphyry, by more than one kilometre to the east.

In the current program, drill hole KDH021, collared to test an IP anomaly 500 metres north-east of KDH018, intersected a chalcocite enriched interval of 21 metres grading 1.05% copper between 135.0 and 183.0 metres in endoskarn, including 7.9 metres at 1.61% copper between 137.6 and 145.5 metres. Drill hole KDH024 tested another IP anomaly 300 metres south-west of KDH021 and intersected 30 metres of mineralized endoskarn. Assays for this drill hole are pending. Drill holes KDH019 and KDH020/20a, tested IP anomalies along the northern mapped boundary of the porphyry beneath marbles and also returned significant copper intercepts in endoskarns.

Maps with collar locations over plans of IP chargeability and ground magnetics are available at the following link:

www.columbuscopper.com/i/nr/2013-02-28-maps.pdf

The current program developed jointly with First Quantum aims to test the potential of the overall system much beyond the area drilled in previous campaigns between 2003 and 2011. The program contemplates widely spaced step-out holes intended to test the potential margins and outer boundaries of the mineralized system and includes holes collared based on results from re-interpreted geochemical data and Short-wave Infrared (SWIR) and Near Infrared (NIR) spectral analysis performed on drill core samples to investigate alteration trends in the system. This study, carried out with First Quantum expertise and covering 3,036 samples from 21 drill holes spanning all exploration stages indicates that the majority of the Karapinar holes show the transition from argillic to intermediate argillic (dominant) to moderate phyllic alteration, suggesting that drilling done to date has identified alteration consistent with the upper part of the porphyry system. The study therefore recommends that deeper holes within the system are required in order to identify the potential higher grade shell.