Company Acquires Option on Arizona Uranium Deposit

Vancouver, British Columbia - Rodinia Minerals Inc. (“Rodinia” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an Option Agreement with Cooper Minerals Inc. (“Cooper”), a Nevada based company, to acquire a 100% interest in the Workman Creek uranium deposit located in Gila County, Arizona. The Option Agreement, which is subject to regulatory approval, provides that Rodinia can acquire a 100% interest, subject to a 3% Yellowcake royalty, in 33 unpatented mining claims by paying $135,000, expending US$2,000,000 on exploration over 4 years, issuing 2.5 million of its shares and issuing non-transferable share purchase warrants entitling the purchase of up to 1.5 million of its shares for five years.  The shares and warrants are to be issued when Rodinia graduates to Tier 1 of the TSX Venture Exchange (the “Exchange”) and completion of the acquisition of the claims from Cooper cannot occur until the shares and warrants are issued. The warrants will be exercisable at a price equal to the greater of (1) $0.01 in excess of the closing price of the Company’s shares on the Exchange on the day prior to the announcement of the acquisition of the claims from Cooper and (2) the price of any financing completed by the Company concurrent with the completion of the acquisition of the claims from Cooper. As part of the Option Agreement, Rodinia also acquired the database compiled by Westinghouse Electric Corporation (“Westinghouse”) on the Dripping Springs geological uranium bearing unit, Gila County, Arizona. A Finder’s Fee, in the maximum amount permitted under the policies of the Exchange, is payable.

In 1955 the United States Atomic Energy Commission conducted an airborne radiometric survey over Gila County and discovered 20 radiometric anomalies, nine of which were considered significant. This prompted a massive staking rush which resulted in the discovery of 46 known uranium deposits in the area. With the subsequent decline in the price of uranium, activity in the area was completely shut down until the late 1970’s. At that time, Wyoming Mineral Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Westinghouse, blanket staked the area and embarked on an intensive exploration and development program. This program identified the Workman Creek deposit as their primary focus. Their work included drilling 432 holes, geological mapping, geochemistry, metallurgical testing, designing a mining plan, and commissioning Dravos Engineers and Contractors (“Dravos”) to complete a feasibility report, at a total estimated cost of US$10 Million.

The Dravos geo-statistical estimate of reserves encompassing both open pit and underground mining was 4.4 million tons containing 9.8 million pounds of U308 with an average grade of 0.11% and a cutoff of 0.05%. This estimate was made prior to implementation of NI 43-101 and, in order to confirm grade estimates, Rodinia will twin four holes and with that data and the data from the previous 432 holes, a reserve/resource estimate will be recalculated to conform with NI 43-101 standards.

Joe Montgomery PhD., the Qualified Person under NI 43-101 for purposes of this news release, has authored a report conforming to NI 43-101 and in it he describes the Workman Creek deposit as stratiform and lying within the Dripping Spring Quartzite, a unit of the Upper Precambrian Apache Group.  Mineralization is present mainly in the upper siltstone member of the Dripping Spring Quartzite.  This uranium bearing unit is in excess of ten miles in length. Controls of mineralization aside from the stratigraphic control, are north-trending faults and monoclinal folding and contact with a complex system of dykes and sills. A technical report completed in 1979 stated that authigenic uraninite and coffinite (primary uranium minerals) were subject to thermal metamorphism caused by intrusions of diabase.  This caused recrystallization, oxidation, and remobilization of the uranium minerals near the intrusive contact.  Dr. Montgomery also noted that the resource is open on two sides and believes that it could be expanded considerably with further exploration.  Rodinia has staked additional ground around the known deposit. 

Metallurgical studies conducted by Westinghouse indicated that leaching recovery was in the neighborhood of 94% and in their feasibility report Dravos noted that by implementing conventional mining methods including underground and open pit, and by building a $12 million mill site, the internal rate of return (IRR) was calculated at 86% with U308 at US$22/pound.  Should In Situ leaching (ISL) be possible, the cut-off grade would drop and the IRR would increase as long as recovery rates remained constant. Although much work needs to be done to confirm the viability of ISL, early indications are that the deposit could be amenable.

Most of the work conducted by Westinghouse was concentrated on or around the Workman Creek deposit and by the time they abandoned the property in 1981 because of the collapse of uranium prices, very little work had been performed on other targets—in particular, on the eight other significant radiometric anomalies that were identified.  All of these anomalies are within a 10 mile radius of the Workman Creek deposit and have recently been staked by Rodinia.  Rodinia has also staked the most significant of the 46 known deposits discovered during the 1950’s staking rush.

Dr. Montgomery has recommended in his NI 43-101 report a two phase program of exploration and development.  Phase One consists of compilation and evaluation of the Westinghouse database, the twinning of four holes to confirm the nature and grade of mineralization, and additional claim acquisition. This phase is expected to take about 3 months to complete at an estimated cost of US$250,000. Cooper is to be the operator. Phase Two consists of a detailed geological study, calculation of an ore reserve estimate, preliminary work on newly-staked ground, additional metallurgical tests including those for In Situ and heap leaching, and completion of a new preliminary feasibility study.  This phase is expected to take about 6 months to complete at an estimated cost of US$550,000.  The Company has the necessary funding in place to complete phase One of the recommended program.

The Option Agreement with Cooper provides that the 2.5 million shares and the 1.5 million share purchase warrants will be issued when the Company has graduated to Tier 1 of the Exchange.  Rodinia anticipates that completion of the first phase of the work program, recommended by Dr. Montgomery, will enable the Exchange to accept the Workman Creek deposit as a Tier 1 property.  The other components required to enable the Company to graduate to Tier 1 include certain levels of financing and management expertise and the Company is pursuing satisfaction of these. In the meantime, the Company has raised $350,000 and secured the Option Agreement and intends to make immediate application to the Exchange to graduate to Tier 2. The Company also announces the grant, pursuant to its Stock Option Plan, of incentive stock options to purchase up to 93,000 of its shares at $0.60 per share for two years.

As part of this graduation process, Ken Thorsen, BSc Geological Engineering, P Eng, has agreed to join Rodinia’s Board of Directors and oversee the Workman Creek project.  Mr. Thorsen has in excess of 40 years’ experience in base metal and uranium projects including as Project and then Senior Project geologist for SMDC (now Cameco) based in Saskatoon.  Prior to retirement from a 21 year career with Teck Cominco Ltd., Mr. Thorsen held several senior positions including a two year term as President of Teck Exploration Ltd.  In this position he was responsible for administration of 17 exploration offices and all field operations of the exploration department.  Mr. Thorsen is currently President of Thorsen Consulting Ltd. which offers services to the mining exploration industry, and serves as a member of the board of directors of several junior mining companies.  Rodinia is pleased to have Mr. Thorsen’s invaluable experience available to it for the Workman Creek project. 

Rodinia’s main focus is on the expansion of the Workman Creek deposit and the development of the numerous areas of interest that have been recently staked by the Company. The extensive Westinghouse data base will allow Rodinia to accelerate its exploration and development plans at significant cost savings.

Rodinia is a junior resource company that intends to respond to opportunities in uranium exploration and development world-wide.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
 
RODINIA MINERALS INC.
      
(sgd.) “Donald Morrison”, President

For further information contact:

Don Mosher, Director
(604) 685-6465

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.  In addition, this release is not for distribution to U. S. newswire services or for dissemination in the United States.