Terrane Grows Berg

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 indicated resources at the project at 372.5 million tonnes grading 0.31% copper, 0.036% moly and 2.1 grams silver.

At presstime, Terrane’s shares were trading at 36¢ in a 12-month range of 9.5-49¢.

As tonnage has increased, so too has 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 largely relied on a $40- million non-revolving credit facility that its majority shareholder, Goldcorp (G-T, GG-N),secured for it last summer. As of Dec. 31, 2008, Terrane had drawn it down by $6.5 million.

In return for Goldcorp’s support, Terrane agreed to give the major an option to convert its equity interest in the junior 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 stakeholder will be the project’s operator.

In its latest release, 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.