New Nickel Intercepts From The Araguaia Nickel Project In Brazil
Lara Exploration ("Lara" or the "Company") (LRA-TSX.V) is pleased to report that Teck Cominco Brasil S.A. ("Teck Cominco"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Teck Cominco Limited, has completed an infill diamond drilling program on the Vila Oito target on Lara's Araguaia ("Araguaia") nickel project in Pará State, Northern Brazil. The program comprised 42 vertical holes drilled on a 200 meter spaced grid, where previous wide-spaced drilling indicated significant lateritic nickel mineralization over an area of approximately 1.4 by 1.0 kilometers (see Lara press release of May 15, 2006). Teck Cominco has also initiated field testing and scout drilling of other priority geophysical anomalies on the Araguaia project.
Teck Cominco and Lara entered into an Option and Joint Venture Agreement in October 2007, covering 310,000 hectares of mineral rights in the Araguaia Belt held by Lara. Under the terms of this agreement, Teck Cominco can earn up to a 60% interest in the property by paying Lara $600,000 in cash and incurring exploration expenditures of $4,000,000 over a 36 month period (see Lara press release of October 1, 2007). The Vila Oito target is adjacent and contiguous to areas already being explored by Teck Cominco and approximately 100 kilometers to the south of the Serra da Tapa and Vale dos Sonhos nickel laterite deposits owned by Xstrata plc.
Vila 8 Drill program
Analytical results for 33 of the 42 holes (total of 965.03m) drilled at Vila 8 are available and summarized on Table 1. Nickel intersections are reported with a minimum of 2 meters width and with a lower cut-off grade of 0.9% nickel. This new drilling shows that the mineralization is reasonably consistent across the 1.4 by 1.0 kilometer area, with a well-defined NNE-SSW trend that extends onto Teck Cominco property to the northeast and south. Mineralization reaches over 20 meters in thickness and grades can be in excess of 1.5% nickel have been intersected in places.
Scout diamond drilling (four holes in total) on geophysical targets in the area from 1.0 to 1.5 kilometers north of Vila 8 did not intersect any significant nickel mineralization.
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Table 1 - Vila Oito Drill Intercepts - 2007 Infill Program (Partial)
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Drill Hole Target From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Nickel%
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PCA-DD-0419 Vila Oito 8.5 16.5 8.0 1.375
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PCA-DD-0420 Vila Oito 7.3 12.43 5.13 1.375
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PCA-DD-0421 Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0422 Vila Oito 10.50 17.0 6.5 1.894
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PCA-DD-0423 Vila Oito 16.00 27.9 11.9 1.069
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PCA-DD-0424 Vila Oito 1.00 8.4 7.4 1.378
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13.4 19.0 5.6 1.176
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PCA-DD-0425 Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0426 Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0427 Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0428 Vila Oito 1.90 9.77 7.87 1.217
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PCA-DD-0429 Vila Oito 4.00 26.3 22.3 1.343
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PCA-DD-0430 Vila Oito 21.00 23.2 2.2 1.344
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PCA-DD-0434 Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0436 Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0438 Vila Oito 3.10 11.6 8.5 1.474
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PCA-DD-0440 Vila Oito 4.10 11.2 7.1 1.375
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PCA-DD-0442 Vila Oito 22.00 28.0 8.0 1.118
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PCA-DD-0444 Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0446 Vila Oito Results Pending
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PCA-DD-0448 Vila Oito Results Pending
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PCA-DD-0449 Vila Oito Results Pending
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PCA-DD-0450 Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0451 Vila Oito Results Pending
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PCA-DD-0452 Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0453 Vila Oito Results Pending
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PCA-DD-0460 Vila Oito 12.05 15.0 2.95 1.281
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PCA-DD-0461 Vila Oito 1.11 4.41 3.3 0.948
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PCA-DD-0462 Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0463 Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0464 Vila Oito Results Pending
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PCA-DD-0465 Vila Oito Results Pending
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PCA-DD-0466 Vila Oito Results Pending
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PCA-DD-0467 Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0468 Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0469 Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0471 Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0472 Vila Oito Hole abandoned and re-drilled
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PCA-DD-0472A Vila Oito 0.00 24.3 24.3 1.241
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PCA-DD-0473 Vila Oito 1.00 4.5 3.5 1.192
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PCA-DD-0474 Vila Oito 4.10 13.79 9.59 1.227
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PCA-DD-0475 Vila Oito 0.00 2.17 2.17 1.006
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PCA-DD-0477 Vila Oito 1.8 15.0 13.2 1.321
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PCA-DD-0445 N. Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0447 N. Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0485 N. Vila Oito No significant results
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PCA-DD-0486 N. Vila Oito No significant results
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Priority Geophysical Anomaly Testing
Teck Cominco has also completed field checking on eight of the priority geophysical targets previously identified by Lara in the area west of Conceição do Araguaia (see Lara press release of May 29, 2007). Soil sampling has been carried out on seven of the targets and scout drilling on two. Drill hole PCA-DD-0487 (see Table 2 below), which tested an area where disseminated nickel and copper sulphides were seen in outcrop, returned an interval of 4.5 meters at 1.21% nickel in saprolite, indicating potential for the discovery for further lateritic nickel resources.
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Table 2 - Araguaia Regional Drill Intercepts - 2007 Program (Partial)
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Drill Hole Target From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Nickel%
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PCA-DD-0484 Anomaly 50 No significant results
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PCA-DD-0487 S of
Anomaly 49 20.5 25.0 4.5 1.21
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Quality Control
Michael Bennell, Lara's Vice President Exploration and a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and is responsible for the preparation and verification of the technical information in this release.
Teck Cominco is the operator of the Project and employs a rigorous QA/QC protocol including the use of standards and blanks and insertion of duplicate samples at regular intervals. Samples are taken at nominal one meter intervals with breaks occurring at geological contacts. Sample preparation is made locally in a dedicated sample preparation facility operated by Teck Cominco near Conceição de Araguaia and samples are assayed using X-Ray Fluorescence methods at the commercial SGS-Geosol Laboratory in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State.
About Lara
Lara is a well-funded junior exploration company with projects in Brazil and Peru. Lara's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "LRA".
For further information on Lara Exploration Ltd. please consult our website www.laraexploration.com or contact: Miles Thompson, President or Kim Casswell, Corporate Secretary at (604) 669-8777.