Berg grows for Terrane

Vancouver – The Berg project is bigger and better defined for Terrane Metals (TRX-V, TRXOF-O).

Drilling completed in 2008 enabled Terrane to report its first resource in the measured category and boost tonnage in the combined measured and indicated categories by 36%.

Berg, 84-km southwest of Houston, B.C., now weighs in at 506 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 0.3% copper, 0.037% molybdenum and 3.8 grams silver per tonne. An April, 2008, resource estimate had pegged the project at 372.5 million tonnes grading 0.31% copper, 0.036% moly and 2.1 grams silver in the indicated.

At presstime and on news of the upgraded resource Terrane’s share price had gained 4¢ and was trading at 27¢.

As tonnage increased so too did Terrane’s handle on higher grade zones of mineralization. The upgraded resource outlined a copper-rich supergene zone as well as a broad molybdenum-rich mineralized area.

With a higher-grade starter pit in mind Terrane notes that the supergene zone, beneath about 40 metres of overburden and a leached cap, has a measured and indicated resource of 135.9 million tonnes grading 0.41% copper, 0.028% moly and 3.8 grams silver.

The supergene mineralization is between 40 and 200 metres thick, Terrane says, and underlain by more than 700 metres of hypogene mineralization.

The molybdenum-rich zone is a 2-km long panel that is 50 to 120 metres thick and has been drilled to a depth of 850 metres. Terrane estimates its measured and indicated resource at 307.7 million tonnes grading 0.27% copper, 0.05% moly and 3.8 grams silver.

The Berg project is Terrane’s second most-advanced, with the Mt. Milligan copper-gold project, also in B.C., the primary focus of the company.

To fund its projects since fall Terrane has primarily relied upon a $40 million non-revolving credit facility that its majority share holder, Goldcorp (G-T), secured for it last summer. As of Dec. 31, 2008, Terrane had drawn it down by $6.5 million.

Terrane, in return for Goldcorp’s support, agreed to give the major an option to convert its equity interest in Terrane into a stake of the Mt. Milligan project. The conversion could not be less than 30% or more than 60% of the project.

The agreement stipulates that the majority stake holder will be the project’s operator.

In its latest press Terrane reported that Goldcorp held a 59% equity interest in the company. Thus if Goldcorp elected to exercise the option, which is open for the 18-month term of the loan, it would become the operator of the project.

Terrane currently has 100% stakes in both Mt. Milligan and Berg.