New resource tally at Getty South (July 20, 2007)

Vancouver – Recently emerging from a prolonged round of litigation, Getty Copper (GTC-V, GTCDF-O) has tabled an updated and compliant resource estimate for its Getty South project located near Logan Lake in southwestern B.C., just north of and adjacent to Teck Cominco‘s (TCK.B-T, TCK-N) Highland Valley copper mine complex.

An inferred resource of 28.2 million tonnes at 0.47% copper has been reviewed in the recent Getty South report using a 0.2% copper cut-off grade, for about 290 million lbs. (131,500 tonnes) of contained copper.

Within the estimate, 3.1 million tonnes of oxide material grading 0.51% copper was identified. The remaining 25.1 million inferred tonnes are sulphide mineralized and average 0.46% copper.

Gettys latest study is based on 118 past drill holes totaling over 19,000 metres and updates a historic estimate of 36 million tonnes of 0.47% copper. Additionally, the report also reviewed data from 15 trenches totaling over 1,500 metres and included observations from the more than 1,700 metres of underground workings completed by past operators.

Occurring within the Guichon Batholith, the Getty South deposit is an elliptical shaped composite breccia and shatter zone approximately 300 metres wide by 600 metres long. Chalcopyrite is the main copper mineral and occurs primarily as disseminations in the breccia matrix but also occurs as stringers and fracture fillings.

Getty Copper purchased 50% of the Getty South project from private company Robak Industries in 2003 for six million shares in a deal where it also acquired 100% of the Getty Central and Southwest properties. The agreement also has the company carrying Robaks 50%-interest in the South project through to production.

Robak, owned by company director John Lepinski, also retains a 1.5% net smelter return (NSR) royalty on the projects.

In mid-2004, an RCMP investigation into discrepant valuations of properties vended from Robak to Getty led to legal disputes between the company and certain directors and consultants. In May-2007 the police closed its investigation with no recommendation for any prosecution.

Getty subsequently settled its legal dispute with former directors Robert Gardner and Vittorio Preto, as well as with consultant Ross Glanville.

Its land package in the Highland Valley area also includes the wholly-owned Getty North deposit that was the subject of a mid-1998 engineering study.

More than 160 drill holes totaling over 36,000 metres were completed on Getty North leading to a historic resource estimate of 72.1 million indicated and inferred tonnes of oxide and sulphide material grading 0.31% copper. The review included 44.5 million tonnes of sulphide material at 0.37% copper and 10 million tonnes of oxide averaging 0.4% copper.

A 1999 project assessment report by Bateman Engineering recommended proceeding to feasibility stage on potential development of the oxide material at the North deposit. The study looked at encouraging economics for an 11 million lb. (5,000 tonnes) per year cathode copper operation.

Shares of Getty Copper have recently rallied from the dime-level in April to its current trading range around the mid-30 level. Based on its 67-million shares outstanding, the company posts a $22-million market capitalization.