Berg shaping up for Terrane Metals (November 05, 2008)

Vancouver – Terrane Metals (TRX-V) may be primarily focused on developing its mega Mt Milligan copper project but the company is still finding time to drill its Berg copper-moly-silver project in west-central British Columbia and the effort is paying off.

The company completed a 31-hole drilling program in 2008, pulling almost 12,000 metres of core from the ground. Importantly the cores show that the West, South, and Northeast zones at Berg actually form a continuous ring-shaped deposit. The ring stretches more than 2 km in circumference, spreads across 300 metres width, and extends to roughly 500 metres depth.

Eight of the program’s first 12 holes returned intersections longer than 65 metres grading better than 0.07% molybdenum. Hole 167 cut 65.7 metres grading 0.24% copper, 0.125% moly, and 2.3 grams silver within a 186-metres interval grading 0.22% copper, 0.068% moly, and 2 grams silver, from 29 metres downhole on the west side of the ring. From the north side of the deposit hole 176 returned 75 metres averaging 0.23% copper, 0.1% moly, and 2.8 grams silver within a 220-metres interval grading 0.24% copper, 0.064% moly, and 2.4 grams silver. And hole 178, collared in the northeast corner of the zone, hit 147.4 metres grading 0.35% copper, 0.097% moly, and 3.9 grams silver within 300 metres averaging 0.28% copper, 0.072% moly, and 3.6 grams silver.

The drill program also produced some encouraging silver results. Hole 169, punched into the northwest corner of the ring, returned 386.6 metres of 0.24% copper, 0.047% moly, and 7.4 grams silver from 32 metres downhole. And nearby, hole 171 cut 271.5 metres grading 0.28% copper, 0.044% moly, and 8.5 grams silver.

Berg is a calc-alkaline porphyry deposit with copper-molybdenum-silver mineralization hosted in andesite and quartz diorite in a ring around a circular monzonite stock. Terrane’s first resource estimate for the site, completed in April, came in at 372.5 million indicated tonnes grading 0.31% copper, 0.036% molybdenum, and 2.1 grams silver plus 140.9 million inferred tonnes grading 0.25% copper, 0.039% molyndenum, and 2.2 grams silver.

Between 1965 and 1980 Kennecott Exploration and Placer Dome drilled 119 holes into Berg to outline a significant copper-moly resource. The partners also conducted metallurgical tests, environmental studies, and financial analyses; development plans called for an open pit operation. But in the early 1990s the project was shelved due to falling metal prices.

In 2006 Terrane acquired full ownership of the property, which lies 85 km southwest of Houston, BC. The company’s work through 2007 revealed, for the first time, thick panels of molybdenum mineralization within the porphyry zones.The company plans to update the April resource estimate when full results from the recent drill campaign are available and will soon initiate metallurgical testwork.

Terrane’s share price lost a penny on the news from Berg, slipping to 19.5. The company has a 52-week trading range of 9.5 to 62 and has 113 million shares issued. The company is primarily focused on developing the 60,000-tonne-per-day Mt Milligan copper project near Prince George.