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Terra Nova is an emerging junior exploration company with two active exploration projects in Newfoundland, located on the east coast of Canada and a new, undrilled, porphyry copper prospect in Michoacan State, Mexico, known as the San Diego Project.

Terra Nova Gold Corporation   TGC   (TSXV)

The San Diego Project, Michoacan. The Company and Noranda Exploration Mexico, S.A. de C.V. have entered into an option agreement to acquire a 50% interest in a new, undrilled, porphyry copper prospect in Michoacan State, Mexico situated roughly 200 km west-southwest of Mexico City and roughly 70 km south of Morelia, the state capital. The 82 square kilometre prospect, known as the San Diego Property, is drill ready with an excellent well defined target and good potential to develop additional adjacent targets as would be expected in any major porphyry system which commonly comprises a cluster of deposits.

The San Diego Property is located within the major structural trend that hosts the world class porphyry copper deposits in the southwest US and Mexico. In Mexico, the porphyry copper related occurrences are concentrated in the states of Sonora – Sinaloa, and Michoacan – Guerrero (Sierra Madre de Sur) and are associated with Laramide aged intrusives (late Cretaceous – early Tertiary).

Work conducted by Noranda in 2002 and 2003, including a detailed silt sampling survey and a soil sampling survey, has defined an extensive copper silt and soil anomaly, approximately 2.5 km by 1 km, and strong hydrothermal alteration, with chalcopyrite and chalcocite, associated with a Laramide aged porphyry. The copper soil anomaly covers an area with copper values greater than 400 parts per million (ppm), and includes anomalous areas greater than 800 ppm, greater than 1200 ppm and spot highs greater than 2000 ppm and as high as 3340 ppm.

There is a gold anomaly coincident with the copper anomaly with gold values greater than 10 parts per billion (ppb) with spot highs greater than 200 ppb, greater than 400 ppb and as high as 660 ppb. Further work will be required to determine how the gold is related to the porphyry copper system.

In addition, Noranda constructed a 9 km long bulldozer trail in January of 2003 that leads to the center of the porphyry mineralization. A small 200 metre spaced grid was installed for a magnetic survey, soil sampling, and to provide geographic control for detailed mapping in the area of alteration and mineralization. Regional work on the Property indicates other anomalous zones that require follow-up and might be quickly upgraded to a similar stage as the main San Diego drill target.

Previous to the government constructing a 26 km truck road into the area in 2001, access was restricted to horseback or mule. For this reason, the area received little exploration attention in the past. The Property is heavily vegetated and thus not amenable to detection using satellite imagery. Attention was initially drawn to the area as a result of a regional silt sampling program conducted by the government’s Consejo de Recursos Minerales.

2004 Work Program

Terra Nova and Noranda are currently planning a CDN$1,000,000 work program primarily to drill test the mineralized and altered porphyry system to determine the extent and the grade of the mineralized porphyry and the degree of supergene enrichment.

Noranda’s soil sampling survey indicates that the copper rich core of the system is open to the south and additional grid work is required to determine the size of the system. Silt sample values in the western portion of the Property indicate the potential for another mineralized system in that area. A drill program is expected to begin in December.
 

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