Argentina Mining Play

[Tackler]

Marifil to drill Esperanza Cu-Ag deposit

2006-07-26 08:54 ET - News Release

Mr. John Hite reports

MARIFIL TO DRILL ESPERANZA COPPER PROPERTY

Marifil Mines Ltd. is preparing for a 3,000- to 5,000-metre drilling program on its wholly owned Esperanza stratabound copper silver deposit in Neuquen province, Argentina. Numerous targets have been identified, the company is soliciting bids for a drill contractor, and drilling is to begin as soon as possible.

Marifil has recently acquired an addition 12,000 hectares at Esperanza, bringing the company's total propertyholdings there to 24,000 hectares. The Esperanza property is located about 100 kilometres northwest of Neuquen, the capital of Neuquen province. The property is easily accessible by good roads and can be worked all year. The ore targets are large shallow heap leachable copper-silver deposits.

Esperanza was discovered by Richard Walters, now Marifil's executive vice-president, in the early 1990s and first drilled by MIM (now Xstrata) in 1995. MIM drilled 52 rotary air blast (RAB) holes totalling 2,467 metres and 68 reverse-circulation (RC) holes totalling 3,135 metres. This work outlines a historical estimated resource of 1.5 million tonnes grading 0.5 per cent copper. (Note: This is not a 43-101-compliant resource and caution should be used with regard to the accuracy of these historic results.) This resource crops out in the valley of the Neuquen River and several geologists suggest that the original resource may have exceeded 50 million tons, most of which has been removed by erosion.

Following a recent re-examination of the data, Mr. Walters determined that the known mineralization may represent the north limb of a very large roll front copper deposit. The postulated south limb would lie perhaps two to five kilometres to the south, concealed by a thicker section of overlying rocks. Cross-sections of the prior drilling clearly show red, unaltered sandstones lying north of a zone 300 to 500 metres wide containing copper and silver in bleached white altered sandstones. Mineralization is flanked to the south by a very large area of bleached sandstones containing strongly anomalous copper values.

The size and strength of the alteration and mineralization suggest that the front of this roll front deposit could comprise a very large and rich copper silver target, believed to be approximately 30 metres thick. Most of this target lies at depths of less than 35 metres. The company is planning to drill 3,000 to 5,000 metres to trace mineralization east to the roll front. Marifil's objective is to delineate a deposit of between 30 million and 50 million tonnes grading over 0.4 per cent copper along with significant silver credits and amenable to low-cost open-pit mining and heap-leach extraction.

The property is underlain by the Middle Huincul member of Upper Cretaceous age. The Middle Huincul rocks are coarse-grained porous and permeable sandstones bounded by impermeable siltstones and claystones. Mineralization includes chalcocite, silver sulphosalts and copper oxides. Copper minerals have been identified along a zone 300 to 500 metres wide, 6,000 metres in length and up to 15 metres thick. This zone is open ended to the east.

This news has been reviewed and approved by John Hite, president of Marifil Mines, and Richard Walters, vice-president, under whose direction the exploration program is being carried out. Mr. Hite and Mr. Walters are qualified persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101.