Drilling Intersects Significant Mineralization In Northwest Territories
Cooper Minerals Inc. (TSX-Venture: CQ and Frankfurt: JM6) (“Cooper Minerals” or the “Company” is pleased to report that it continues to discover significant base and precious metal values in both drill holes and surface rock chip samples at its Terra IOCG (iron-oxide-copper-gold) project in the Northwest Territories. This project is located in the Great Bear Lake magmatic zone, 430 kilometres north of Yellowknife. Cooper Minerals, holding 480,000 acres, is the largest public company landholder in the area.
High-grade silver, copper, uranium, zinc, lead, bismuth, cobalt, and nickel with significant gold mineralization have been previously reported by the Company for the Terra Property. This press release incorporates new assays recently received for drill core and surface samples that were collected late in the 2007 field season. The Terra mine exploited high-grade bonanza type silver veins and the purpose of the drilling and the surface sampling was to test whether there is potential for much larger systems of polymetallic mineralization, in particular, of Iron-Oxide-Copper-Gold (IOCG) type deposits (the huge Olympic Dam deposit in South Australia is the best example of this type of deposit). The new results confirm the potential for large IOCG-type economic deposits in association with the high-grade veins.
Four drill holes were completed in the vicinity of near surface underground workings to test the alteration system observed in association with the mined conjugate vein system. Drill hole TM-DH07-01 intersected significant polymetallic (silver, copper, zinc, lead, bismuth and cobalt) mineralization separate from the vein system over core lengths of more than 22 meters with 42.3 ppm silver, 0.28% copper, 2.18% zinc, 0.66% lead, 46 ppb gold, 0.02% bismuth and 0.02% cobalt. Drill hole TM-DH07-03 also intersected significant polymetallic mineralization, but due to drilling difficulties when the drill hole intersected mine workings, the drill hole was abandoned in the zone of mineralization. TM-DH07-04 was abandoned before the vein system and appears to have intersected a new zone of silver, copper, zinc and lead mineralization. True thickness and dip of the intersected mineralization was not determined. Results of drilling are summarized as follows:
Drill Hole
From
(m) To
(m) Width
(m) Ag ppm Cu % Zn % Pb % Au ppb Bi % Co %
TM-DH07-01
42.19 64.34 22.15 42.3 0.28 2.18 0.66 46 0.02 0.02
Including
57.80 64.34 6.54 95.4 0.69 5.07 1.48 55 0.04 0.03
TM-DH07-03
57.56 62.49 4.93 29.7 1.09 0.11 0.03 80 0.02 0.03
Including
58.42 59.36 0.94 51.8 4.78 0.39 0.05 270 0.03 0.03
TM-DH07-04
6.35 12.40 6.05 7.3 0.28 0.07 0.02 573 0.00 0.01
TM-DH07-02
9.17 11.79 2.62 39.2 0.13 0.33 0.25 9 0.01 0.05
Three of the completed drill holes were located southeast of the Terra Mine vein system and spaced approximately 50 to 60 m apart along a strike of approximately 125m. The fourth hole was located northwest of the vein system oriented in the opposite direction to the three other holes. Each drill hole was drilled perpendicular to the near-vertical dipping veins with drill collar inclination angles of between 45 and 50 degrees.
During the 2007 field season, Cooper Minerals collected surface grab samples from previous mechanically stripped and washed bedrock around the near surface mine workings. A suite of 50 samples from this area representing the different types of alteration, mineralization, structures and host rocks were collected and submitted for assay. Assays of surface grab samples ranged from 259,000 ppm (7551 oz/t) to <1ppm Silver, 2266 ppb to <5ppb Gold, 6.42% to <0.01% Bismuth, 1.85% to <0.01% Cobalt, 2.18% to <0.01% Copper, 8.01% to <0.01% Nickel, 5.64% to <0.01% lead, 7850ppm to <1ppm Uranium and 5.40% to <0.01% Zinc. The assay results for selected grab samples of the 50 bedrock samples collected are summarized as follows:
Sample Ag ppm Cu % U308 % Zn % Pb % Bi % Co % Ni % Au ppb
T07-036 259,000 0.02 0.93 0.01 0.07 2.28 1.85 8.01 <5
T07-010 9,715 1.28 - 0.02 0.58 6.42 0.55 0.39 289
T07-003 477 0.03 - 0.00 0.12 1.13 1.21 0.04 67
T07-038 54,200 0.02 0.21 0.01 0.02 0.03 1.51 3.33 <5
T07-042 58,400 0.06 0.13 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.64 3.21 <5
T07-013 11 0.09 0.13 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.00 <5
T07-035 4,096 1.70 0.34 0.03 0.06 0.05 0.05 0.02 <5
T07-037 530 0.17 0.17 0.06 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.01 <5
T07-048 7 0.26 0.11 0.01 0.01 0.00 0.01 0.00 <5
T07-050 4 0.06 0.10 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 <5
T07-046 837 1.76 - 5.40 3.87 0.00 0.03 0.01 207
T07-044 34 0.01 - 0.03 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.00 2266
T07-005 44 2.18 - 0.00 0.03 0.04 0.07 0.00 65
T07-011 327 1.28 - 0.01 0.02 0.09 0.53 0.02 <5
T07-039 2,882 0.01 - 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.08 <5
T07-041 1,947 0.00 - 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.03 0.14 <5
T07-002 244 0.89 - 0.02 0.02 0.18 0.11 0.00 71
T07-008 216 0.47 - 0.00 0.01 0.04 0.07 0.00 43
T07-020 173 0.10 - 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.00 21
T07-040 387 0.00 - 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.03 <5
T07-030 83 0.14 - 0.47 5.64 0.00 0.00 0.00 <5
The reported drill core and surface sample results confirm that a much wider zone of alteration and high-grade polymetallic mineralization is present at the Terra Mine site than was previously known. The high-grade silver, copper, uranium, zinc, lead, bismuth, cobalt, and nickel with significant gold mineralization is hosted within the Terra Formation adjacent to the Rainy Lake Intrusive Complex. Adjacent to the contact, the Terra Formation exhibits intense iron alteration and brecciation along a strike of more than 4 kilometers and a width of approximately 500 meters. This location is one of a number of significant IOCG-type targets identified within the Terra Property.
The Olympic Dam (in Australia) or IOCG model is proposed as a significant exploration target on Cooper Minerals' properties in this part of the Great Bear magmatic zone. These polymetallic targets have the potential to host billions of tonnes of copper, gold and uranium mineralization (Olympic Dam type). The resource at the Olympic Dam deposit (owned by BHP Billiton) was recently increased to 7.7 billion metric tonnes grading 0.87 per cent copper, 0.29 kilogram per tonne uranium oxide, 0.30 gram per tonne gold and 1.61 grams per tonne silver. The Olympic Dam deposit is the largest uranium deposit in the world, the fourth-largest copper deposit and the fifth-largest gold deposit.
All sample collection, handling and shipping were supervised and the integrity ensured by an independent professional geoscientist. Samples were shipped in metal or plastic containers and all containers were sealed with tamper evident tags prior to leaving the property. The samples were submitted to Loring Laboratories Ltd., Calgary, Alberta and all tamper evident seals were intact upon receipt at the laboratory.
Mike Magrum, PEng, a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, has approved the technical content of this news release.
We seek Safe Harbor.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
Simon Tam,
President and Director
Gruß S.
