Terra Ventures Inc. / Hathor Exploration Limited: Midwest Northeast Project Update
Vancouver, B.C. - February 27, 2008 - Terra Ventures Inc. (TSX-V: TAS) is pleased to provide an update on the Midwest Northeast uranium project in the Athabasca Basin. Terra Ventures owns an 8-per-cent production carried interest in the project and is not required to contribute any exploration expenditures until a positive feasibility study is produced. Hathor Exploration Limited (TSX-V: HAT) has a 90-per-cent interest in the property and is the operator. The Athabasca Basin accounts for approximately 25-per-cent of the world's annual mine production of uranium. All of this production comes from unconformity-style uranium ore deposits, the highest-grade uranium ore deposits in the world.
In a news release dated February 26, 2008, Hathor Exploration Limited has reported that: "Hathor has encountered anomalous uranium mineralization during its winter 2007/2008 Midwest Northeast project drill program. The mineralization occurs in hole MWNE-08�12, the 12th hole of a planned 24-hole program.
Natural gamma emission radiation in drill core was measured in counts per second (cps) using an Exploranium GR-110G gamma-ray scintillometer. Drill core from hole MWNE�08-11 intersected a 20-centimetre-thick zone of elevated radioactivity, ranging from 800 to 1,200 cps, compared with a background of 100 to 200 cps.
In drill hole MWNE-08-12, the sandstone column is moderately fractured throughout the lower portions (depths greater than 130 metres) with discreet zones of strong to intense fracturing. The basal conglomerate is highly fractured from 220 to 226 m with up to 25�per-cent core loss over the interval.
The unconformity occurs at 226 m (uncorrected depth), with a one-metre-thick interval of virtually pure clay lying immediately beneath the unconformity.
The basement rocks occurring immediately beneath the unconformity (uncorrected depths from 227 to 242.5 m) show evidence of variable clay alteration to clay replacement, but without any significantly elevated radioactivity with the host rock being a heterogenous mix of pelitic gneiss, graphitic pelitic gneiss, granitic pegmatite and microgranite.
The first interval of elevated radioactivity measured from drill core is at 242.5 m (1,000 to 3,000 cps) and increased radioactivity continues throughout the drill core until 273.3 m. However, the amount of radioactivity over this interval is highly variable. It can be summarized as a zone of approximately 30 metres of elevated radioactivity (1,000 to 1,500 cps) with discreet zones of highly radioactive (5,000 cps to greater than 9,999 cps (off-scale)) intervals including 244 to 245.5 m; 252 to 255.8 m; 262.4 to 264.1 m; 265.4 to 270 m; and 271 to 273.3 m. The zone also contains intervals of background radioactivity (200 to 500 cps) from 245.5 to 252 m and 255.8 to 261 m. The geology of the mineralized interval comprises extremely clay-altered to clay-replaced graphitic pelitic gneiss, pelitic to psammopelitic gneiss and leucogranite. Hole MWNE-08-12 ended at 331 m.
Because of the nature of the relatively high-grade mineralization and the corresponding often poor core recovery in such mineralized zones, the standard operating procedure is to use a downhole probe to obtain a radiometric log, with measurements taken through the drill rods, whereby grade equivalents can be calculated for a drill hole. Due to the highly radioactive nature of some of these intervals, the signal from a single crystal gamma-ray downhole radiometric probe is saturated throughout parts of the zone. A second probe was used to verify the high-grade nature of some of the intervals and results are currently being processed and will be used for future comparison with chemical results.
Drill core samples from the uranium mineralized section of the core have been submitted for analyses to the Geoanalytical Laboratories of the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC), with facilities operating in accordance with ISO/IEC 17025:2005 (CAN-P-4E) general requirements for the competence of mineral testing and calibration laboratories. Chemical results will be released when received.
Benjamin Ainsworth, PEng, a director of the company and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure contained in this news release.
Hathor's 90-per-cent-owned Midwest Northeast project is located in Northern Saskatchewan's Athabasca basin, immediately adjacent to the Midwest property of Areva Resources Canada Inc., Denison Mines Corp. and OURD Canada Co. Ltd. There, subject to regulatory approvals, mine site construction is slated to begin in mid-2009 and open-pit mining of a shallow (depth of about 200 metres) orebody that grades 5.47 per cent uranium oxide, 4.37 per cent nickel and 0.33 per cent cobalt is planned for early 2010. Points North Landing, a regional service centre to the region, is located about eight kilometres from Hathor's Midwest Northeast property, and the modern Areva-operated McClean Lake uranium mill facilities are located approximately 10 kilometres to the east.
The current winter exploration program includes about 8,000 metres and uses two diamond drills contracted from Boart Longyear Inc., a global drilling company. Hathor has now completed in excess of 3,300 metres of diamond drilling in 12 of a planned 24 NQ-sized diamond drill holes. Holes completed to date are a combination of vertical and angled holes that dip approximately 70 to 80 degrees to the northwest or north-northwest. Uncorrected depth to the unconformity ranges from about 200 to 226 metres."
Terra Ventures has more than $8 million dollars in its treasury and a number of other uranium exploration projects.
For further particulars about the Company please contact 604-683-0911 or visit the Company's website at www.terrauranium.com.
On behalf of the board of directors of
TERRA VENTURES INC.
"Gunther Roehlig"
Renmark Financial Communications Inc.
Christopher Wells : cwells@renmarkfinancial.com
Julien Ouimet : jouimet@renmarkfinancial.com
Tel. : (514) 939-3989
Fax : (514) 939-3717
www.renmarkfinancial.com
THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
