QUATERRA GOES AFTER ANOTHER LYON COUNTY MINE

Quaterra Resources Inc. has reported that the company has signed a "heads of agreement" for a lease with option to purchase the Gray Hills gold project in Lyon County Nevada. The project includes 43 unpatented federal mining claims located 15 miles SE of Yerington, Nevada . The terms of the agreement include an initial payment of $15,000 and annual lease payments of $20,000/ $25,000/ $30,000 and $35,000 with each succeeding anniversary payment capped at $40,000. The company has an option to purchase the mineral rights at any time for $500,000 subject to a three percent royalty, two percent of which can be purchased by Quaterra for $1.0 million.

Quaterra president, Dr. Thomas Patton, said, " the Gray hills project is an attractive target for a large tonnage, disseminated gold deposit". A regional stream sediment survey consisting of 244 samples delineated a clustering of anomalous gold values assaying up to 1,380 ppb in the Gray Hills vicinity. Of 133 assays of rock samples previously taken from the property, 50 returned above 0.5 g/t Au and 13 samples contained more than 5 g/t Au. The highest grades were found in samples from several small north-south trending, poly-metallic veins on the prospect where gold assays returned up to 50.3 g/t. Additional sampling and detailed mapping is being conducted to define targets for a possible future drilling program.

Gold mineralization on the Gray Hills property occurs in relation to a 1,000 foot wide zone of strongly altered (albitized) and deformed granodiorite intrusive that outcrops within a one by three mile area of structurally anomalous and altered rocks along the northern flank of the Gray Hills . Widespread hydrothermal alteration includes extensive areas having been affected by potassic, sodic and sodic­-calcic events. The central core of albitized granodiorite is bordered to the north and south by overlapping zones of equally intense, magnetite-rich, potassic and calc-silicate alteration. The style of alteration appears similar to the Refugio Au porphyry in Chile or the Ridgeway Au/Cu porphyry in Australia .

Studies of rock samples from the property indicate the presence of disseminated gold both within limonite pseudomorphs after magnetite in brecciated intrusive rock and as oxidized pyrite in sericitized, silicified and calc-silicated granodiorite just south of the central abitite core. The extent and orientation of this material are not well-known as alluvial material mantles much of the area. The auriferous zones generally do not form outcrops and are usually only seen at the surface in areas where they have been exposed in old dozer cuts or small prospects. In at least two places, the zones appear to be truncated at or near the surface by flat structures that dip shallowly northward. The project area has not been tested by drilling.

Quaterra has options to purchase and has been conducting an ongoing investigation of deposits at the MacArthur Pit near Yerington. 

(Posted October 22, 2006)

ANN MASON HAS HIGH CONTENT

Two days after trading was halted on the Australian Stock Exchange, PACMAG Ltd. announced results from its recent investigation of the Ann Mason Mine.  This most recent investigation, conducted at PacMag's request by Golder Associates, shows a content of 64% more copper than previous studies conducted by Anaconda in in the 1970's.  A mining study, (scoping level), has commenced to determine the costs associated with establishing and operating an open-pit mine at the site. 

USEPA MAY BE GIVING UP ON NATION'S LARGEST SUPERFUND SITE

A Pending Deal Between BP/ARCO and USEPA Could Leave Butte Contaminated for Centuries

A report issued August 8, 2005 by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, (PEER), alleges that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is prepared to walk away from the country's largest Superfund site, (Butte, Montana).  Millions of cubic yards of mine tailings, smelting slag and other wastes could therefore "drain in perpetuity into the headwaters of the Clark Fork and Columbia Rivers, thus relegating the Butte-Silver Bow area into an industrial dead zone with dim economic prospects." 

The Butte site covers five square miles, lies in the upper Silver Bow Creek valley near the continental divide, and has for generations received massive amounts of smelter waste.  Under the pending arrangement, EPA will make a formal finding of "Technical Impracticability" that the "tailings and other wastes cannot be feasibly removed and therefore the aquifer on which is sits must be sacrificed. This EPA finding will allow the responsible party, Atlantic Richfield Company (now British Petroleum/ARCO), to walk away without fully cleaning up the site." 

For a full report, click here: Cut and Run: EPA Betrays Another Montana Town.  Note: You will not be able to return directly to the YAMSite after viewing this report. 

Many professional scientists and engineers disagree with the science behind the decision and discuss the long-term consequences: 

Cut and Run argues that EPA is making this Technical Impracticability finding "without proper characterization of the tailings and without knowing how fast the contaminant plume is growing."  

“EPA’s plan to let the site be cleaned over geologic time condemns Butte to centuries of contamination,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch.  “EPA is doing BP/ARCO a huge favor that will save the company shareholders millions and leave taxpayers holding the bag.”

New Alaskan Mine

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