London 16 February 2006. Agricola Resources plc ("Agricola") is pleased to announce that it has finalized and signed a formal option agreement with Cooper Minerals Inc ("Cooper"), a company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada. The property is located in the Joensuu magistrate in Eastern Finland. Joensuu is a major town with a population of some 65,000 inhabitants and is located 400 kms northeast of Helsinki. The mining town of Outokumpu is some 50 kms to the west. The project area is made up of ten claim reservations totalling 90 square kilometers. These claims include the only previously operated uranium mine in Finland, called Paukkajanvaara.
The agreement provides that Cooper can earn a 50% interest in the Property upon fulfillment of the following conditions:
a) incur a total sum of Canadian $500,000 of work expenditures on the Property in two stages:
(i) a minimum of Canadian $50,000 on or before the ending of six months upon signing of the option agreement;
(ii) the balance of the sum of Canadian $500,000 on or before the ending of two years upon signing of the option agreement;
b) subscribe for 1,650,000 ordinary shares of GBP0.01 each in the capital of Agricola ("Ordinary Shares") at a subscription price of GBP0.03 per Ordinary Share, and simultaneously with the allotment of such ordinary shares Agricola shall issue to Cooper warrants to subscribe for 1,650,000 additional ordinary shares at a subscription price of GBP0.03 per share for a period of 1 year from the date of issue;
c) contribute in equal shares with Agricola to the costs of converting such of the Property as they shall agree to full exploration licences in May 2006 (such costs being estimated to be EUR100,000 in aggregate).
Since the letter of intent was signed, Agricola has applied for a larger area. Further claim reservations have been submitted and these will become part of the joint venture option agreement. This was done to follow a magnetic trend which appears to correspond to the uranium mineralization at Paukkajanvaara.
Further uranium occurrences have been identified along this magnetic trend. This trend extends away from the Paukkajanvaara deposit and appears to have a strike length of some 32 kilometres. Digital data for the entire area will be purchased from the Geological Survey of Finland's ("GSF").
Test mining of the Paukkajanvaara Uranium Deposit in 1960 and 1961 by the Finnish company Atomienergia Oy at Paukkajanvaara produced about 30 tonnes of yellowcake (U3O8) from 30,700 tonnes of ore assaying 0.12 per cent U3O8. The mineralization at Paukkajanvaara shows similarities to the well-known unconformity-type uranium deposit. Approximately 53 drill holes have been drilled in the immediate vicinity of the Paukkajanvaara uranium deposit.
Uraniferous boulders are found throughout the area but are especially prevalent down ice from the Paukkajanvaara uranium deposit. During a recent radon survey Agricola identified six radioactive boulders; these boulders contained abundant yellowish uranophane and pitchblende. Samples of these boulders were sent to Chemex in Vancouver for analysis. Results received from Chemex indicate (Agricola press release dated July 18, 2005), that the uranium content of the boulders are as follows, 0.170, 0.303, 0.471, 0.711, 0.745 and 1.170 per cent U3O8.
Cooper plans are being drawn up to carry out an extensive radon survey using "Alphatrack" detectors. Radon techniques have been shown to be very effective in detecting buried uranium mineralization in the Paukkajanvaara area. The first radon survey carried out at Paukkajanvaara was done by Outokumpu Oy in 1980 with positive results. As mentioned in the first press release (dated December 12, 2005.)
Agricola's recent radon survey in the area produced some very encouraging results. Four new areas of potential interest were identified. Three of these areas indicate new target zones for potential uranium mineralization and the fourth indicates a possible southern extension of the uranium bearing horizons of the Paukkajanvaara uranium deposit (for details see, Agricola Press Release dated: 4th July 2005).
It is Cooper's intention to gain access to cores from holes drilled in the area. It is understood that they are currently held in storage at the Geological Survey of Finland's ("GSF") core storage facility.
Cooper intends to carry out a complete literature search through the GSF archives and to examine and assay any core samples from the Paukkajanvaara uranium deposit that are currently stored with the GSF. Following this a further radon survey will be carried out. Once this has been completed a drilling program designed to test new targets and extensions to known mineralization will commence.
The Directors of the Issuer accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.
Richard Newstone
Finance Director
Thursday 16th February 2006
For further information contact :
Contact :
Dr. Robert Young, Chairman
Agricola Resources plc
Tel: +44 (0) 1353 648 931
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