NEWS

Company Targets Great Bear, Sparkplug On The Contact Lake Project

Cooper Minerals Inc. is continuing target selection on its properties in the Great Bear iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) district where Cooper is the largest property holder. Gold-rich targets have been identified on the TUT claims which are surrounded by or adjoin Alberta Star Development Corp.'s Contact Lake project. Alberta Star plans a major exploration program, including a 15,000-metre drill program, in the coming field season.

Several gold-rich targets flank a major east-west fault, the Glacier Lineament. The gold showings are similar and consist of quartz veins and breccia zones accompanied by varying amounts of carbonate, chlorite sulphide and epidote. The veins occur in hematized stockworks and individual veins up to six metres wide and 100 metres long. The most interesting area is west of Sparkplug Lake, where a cluster of more than 30 gold showings are located in a 300-metre by 400-metre zone just north of the Glacier Lineament. These showings were interpreted as leakage zones from the main hydrothermal system occupying the Glacier Lineament.

The Olympic Dam or iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) model is proposed as the main exploration target for the company's 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 southwest 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 per cent copper, 0.5 gram per tonne gold, 3.5 grams per tonne silver and 0.4 kilogram per ton U3O8. The property features of mineralization and geology in the Great Bear magmatic zone 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.

The Great Bear Lake district is one of the largest and most prospective base and precious metal and uranium areas in Canada's Northwest Territories. New geological models and modern exploration methods will be used to evaluate the properties in this mineral rich region. The company expects to start the drilling program with an airborne geophysical survey shortly after targets have been generated from the previous work.

Mike Magrum, PEng, a qualified person under NI 43-101, has approved the technical content of this news release.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Cooper 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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