NEWS
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INDUSTRY NEWS
February 15, 2006
IOCG Property Acquired
in Contact Lake Area, Northwest Territories
Cooper Minerals Inc. (the "Company") wishes to
announce that the property acquisition announced on October 4, 2005 has closed
and the Company has issued 2,000,000 shares at a deemed price of $0.32. In
respect of any shares issued or issuable pursuant to the foregoing securities, a
hold period with an expiry date of June 14, 2006 applies. This acquisition makes
Cooper the largest landholder in the Great Bear iron oxide-copper-gold ("IOCG")
District.
The newly acquired Contact Lake Property (the "Property") is located southeast
of McTavish Arm, Great Bear Lake, between 390 and 450 kilometres north of the
City of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. The Contact Lake Property
comprises four separate blocks with a total area of approximately 75,000 acres.
Some of the property is adjacent to or is surrounded by property owned by
Alberta Star Development Corp. (ASX:V). Alberta Star plans a major exploration
program, including a 15,000 metre drill program, in the coming field season.
(see www.coopermierals.com for property location map)
The property is situated within the Great Bear Magmatic Zone and cover three
former silver producers: the Terra Silver Bear Mine, the Smallwood Mine and the
Federated/Northrim/Silver Bay/White Eagle Mine. Surrounded by the claims is also
the former producing Norex Mine. In the same geological setting are also the
former producing mines: Eldorado Mine, Echo Bay Mine and Contact Lake Mine.
These mines produced intermittently from 1930 until 1985 over 48 million ounces
silver, 15 million pounds of U3O8 and 7000 tons of copper (Strand, 1996). In
addition numerous mineral showings, prospects and small deposits are documented
within the property.
The Olympic Dam or iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) model is proposed as the main
exploration target for the Contact Lake Property in this part of the Great Bear
Magmatic Zone. The 1.59 Ga old Olympic Dam deposit at Roxby Downs in the Gawler
Craton of SW Australia consists of dike-like, hematite-rich diatreme breccias in
granite and felsic volcanics and has a reported resource of 2.32 billion tons of
1.6% Cu, 0.5 g/t Au, 3.5 g/t Ag and 0.4 kg/t U3O8.
The Property features of mineralization and geology in the GBMZ indicate
similarities with IOCG. Four constants postulated by Skirrow (1999) exist in
both areas: tectonothermal evolution, host sequence composition, existence of
two contrasting hydrothermal fluid types that allow for co-existence of
magnetite and hematite and a setting within a deep, crustal-scale fault system.
This and other similarities conclude that the Contact Lake Property is situated
in a geological setting that has the potential to host high-unit value
polymetallic mineralization associated with large tonnage IOCG-type deposits, as
well the potential to host Echo Bay-Cobalt-type high grade, lower tonnage U-Ag
mineralization.
Mike Magrum, PEng, a qualified person under NI 43-101, has approved the
technical content of this news release.
The company has started a process of applying a full drilling permit and
compilation of all previous exploration work. New geological models and modern
exploration methods will be used to evaluate the properties. The Company's
objective is to bring the properties to the drill-ready stage as soon as
possible.
On behalf of the Board of DirectorsCooper Minerals Inc.
Craig Walker
Director
The TSX Venture Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed
transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press
release.
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