WINDARRA MINERALS LTD.

 

First Five Drillholes Confirm Excellent Potential

of Gold Mineralization at Windarra’s Pukaskwa Property

Intersections averaging 5.51 g/t (0.16 oz/t) gold over 2.97 metres (or 11.57 g/t (0.34 oz/t) gold over 1.04 metres; or 3.76 g/t (0.11 oz/t) gold over 4.93 metres) in the first five drillholes (see Table below) of a 14 hole, 824 metre drilling program have confirmed the potential of the Middle Finger Lake zone on Windarra’s wholly-owned Pukaskwa property.

The drilling, which was undertaken in early- to mid-June, tested a zone exposed in an earlier trenching program (see News Releases dated April 5, 2006 and July 25, 2006), which yielded an average gold grade of between 5 and 6 g/t across nearly 6 metres in five channel samples.  It was this work, along with geophysical, and geochemical surveys, which suggested the sizeable near-surface potential of the zone. The gold mineralization, which remains open along trend and at depth, was intersected at shallow depths in all holes in the program, but assays for the remaining nine holes have not yet been received. The intersections, which yield significant intersections across a variety of mineable widths, confirm that the Middle Finger Lake zone has the potential to host a significant tonnage of near-surface gold mineralization on the Pukaskwa property.  The property also has significant potential to host narrower but much higher-grade mineralization, as is evidenced in the Bonanza-Grade zone (see News Releases dated July 25, 2006 and July 25, 2005).       

Four of the first five holes were drilled from the same set-up, as a fan along a single drill section. The set-up was approximately 30 metres north of where the roughly east-west trending Middle Finger Lake zone is exposed in a trench. The fifth hole was drilled approximately 25 metres to the west of the first drill set-up, along with the sixth hole, the results for which have not yet been received. The remaining holes in the program were drilled either along strike or down-dip from these set-ups, as pairs of holes from different set-ups. As mentioned above, channel samples from the Middle Finger Lake zone trench yielded an average grade of greater than 5 g/t gold across nearly 6 metres, and the grades of the drillhole intersections are therefore consistent with those obtained in the trench, which exposed approximately 35-40 metres of strike length of the zone. The difference between the thickness of the zone as intersected in the drilling and that sampled in the trench is attributable to the fact that the zone dips shallowly--the channel samples therefore somewhat exaggerate the thickness of the zone.

The aim of this small-scale drill program was to test the down-dip potential of the Middle Finger Lake zone and its coincident geochemical and IP chargeability anomalies in the immediate vicinity of the Middle Finger Lake zone trench.  The zone is otherwise poorly-exposed, and the program has therefore tested only a very limited portion of the coincident anomalies, which can be traced continuously from the area of trenching for nearly a kilometer along strike, and which are paralleled by anomalous zones of broadly similar character to the southwest and northeast.

Mineralization at the Middle Finger Lake zone consists of variably sulphide-infused well-foliated fine-grained quartzofeldspathic metasedimentary rocks. The sulphide-rich zones are typically cored by decimetre-scale boudinaged quartz-carbonate-tourmaline veins, with which the most abundant sulphides and the best gold grades are closely associated. The veins are richer in quartz toward the center, and the quartz is intergrown with calcite.  Calcite increases in proportion toward the vein margins, and there it occurs in close association with tourmaline and with sulphides. Pyrrhotite is typically the most abundant overall sulphide in the zones, and is commonly intimately intergrown with tourmaline near vein margins.  Gold grades appear to be most closely associated with arsenopyrite, which is typically most abundant in the immediate selvages of the quartz-carbonate-tourmaline (pyrrhotite) veins. Local pyrite and chalcopyrite are also present, and the host rocks are strongly chlorite- and sericite-altered, as well as locally intensely veined by foliaform calcite veinlets. The mineralizing event appears to be pre-kinematic.

The Pukaskwa property is located 50 kilometres west of Wawa, Ontario, less than 20 km northwest of Wesdome’s Eagle River Mine, which has produced approximately 600,000 ounces gold since 1995. The property, which consists of a belt of 55 contiguous unpatented mining claims spanning a length of over 13 km, also lies 20 km southwest of the formerly-producing Magnacon mine, in which Windarra holds an interest. Like the Pukaskwa property, the Magnacon properties lie along the highly prospective Mishibishu gold belt.

The field and analytical data described in this release has been reviewed and approved by C.J. Greig, M.Sc. P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. A quality assurance/quality control program is in place for the Pukaskwa drilling, with the insertion of blank samples in the field, and standards in the lab.  All samples from the drilling program were split using a diamond saw, with one half of the core submitted to ALS Chemex Laboratories of Thunder Bay, Ontario and North Vancouver, B.C. for preparation and analysis, respectively.  All gold analyses reported in this release were completed using standard fire assay procedures. Samples returning significant gold values have been re-submitted for metallic screen assays, with results of this work pending.

On behalf of the Board of Windarra Minerals Ltd.

“John Pallot”

President

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the

Susan Tessman

Corporate Secretary

Messina Minerals Inc.,

Windarra Minerals Ltd.,

Westward Explorations Ltd.

2300-1066 W. Hastings St.

Vancouver, B.C. V6E 3X2

Ph: 604.688.1508

Fx: 604.601.8253