Cooper To Acquire Additional Iron Oxide
Copper/Gold/Silver Uranium Property In Contact Lake
VANCOUVER, March 12, 2007 – Cooper Minerals Inc. (TSXV: CQ (the
"Company") wishes to announce that it has entered into a purchase
agreement with Kalac Holdings Ltd., Mountain Island Exploration Ltd., Lane
Dewar and Frontier Asset Management Limited (the "Vendors") to acquire a
100-per-cent interest in certain properties located near the Contact Lake
(the "Property") in the Great Bear Lake area of the Northwest Territories.
The property is located approximately 423 kilometers north of Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
The terms of the purchase agreement for a 100-per-cent interest in the
property require the company to make cash payment of $350,000 and to issue
three million shares to the vendors. The property is subject to a 2.5
per-cent net smelter return royalty. The Company has the right to reduce
the royalty to 1 per cent by paying $2-million. This acquisition is
subject to exchange approval. A finder's fee, in the maximum amount
permitted under the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, is payable.
The property comprises 45 claim blocks with a total area of approximately
98,800 acres. The majority of the property is located between Cooper's
Contact Lake and Terra properties. This acquisition will make the company
the largest public company landholder in the area. The company has
acquired these properties for their IOCG (iron ore-copper-gold) potential.
These polymetallic targets have the potential to host billions of tons of
copper, gold and uranium mineralization (Olympic Dam type).
The Olympic Dam or IOCG model is proposed as the main exploration target
on Cooper's properties in this part of the Great Bear magmatic zone. The
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
tonnes of 1.6 per cent copper, 0.5 gram per tonne gold, 3.5 grams per
tonne silver and 0.4 kilogram per tonne uranium oxide (U3O8).
Features of the mineralization and geology in the Great Bear magmatic zone
indicate similarities with the Olympic Dam IOCG deposit. 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. These
and other similarities conclude that the Cooper properties are 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-type, high-grade U3O8 and
silver mineralization.
The Great Bear Lake area contains three
historic mining camps, which are in close proximity and are geologically
connected. These are the Port Radium, the Contact Lake and the Terra
camps. The formerly producing mines in these camps produced intermittently
from 1930 until 1985 over 48 million ounces silver, 15 million pounds of
U3O8 and 7,000 tons of copper (Strand, 1996).
The evident structural control on significant mineralization on the new
property is encouraging considering the setting of the property within a
complex set of through-going faults and lineaments and the importance of
structures in the IOCG deposit model. A large hydrothermal system has
affected the area, consisting of intense iron and alkali-rich alteration
zones. Anomalous copper-cobalt-gold geochemistry is associated with
iron-oxide breccias and magnetite-albite-actinolite alteration of the
country rocks. Copper, gold, silver cobalt and bismuth showings have been
documented on the property.
Regional geophysics shows a large
co-incident magnetic and gravity anomaly on the new property. Targets
outlined on Cooper's recently announced airborne geophysical survey extend
onto the newly acquired ground.
Mike Magrum, PEng, a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101,
has approved the technical content of this news release.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
Cooper Minerals Inc.
Simon Tam
Director
THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND
DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS
RELEASE. THIS NEWS RELEASE SHALL NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR THE
SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY SECURITIES IN ANY JURISDICTION. "SAFE
HARBOR" STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF
1995: THIS NEWS RELEASE CONTAINS FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS THAT ARE NOT
HISTORICAL FACTS AND ARE SUBJECT TO RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES WHICH COULD
CAUSE ACTUAL RESULTS TO DIFFER MATERIALLY FROM THOSE SET FORTH IN OR
IMPLIED HEREIN.
ENGLISH