Markland AGF Precious Metals Corp T.MPM

Maple acquires another Uranium project

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Maple acquires 15 Sierra Pintada exploration permits Maple Minerals Corp (TSX-V:MPM) Shares Issued 9,867,423 Last Close 8/26/2005 $1.59 Monday August 29 2005 - News Release Mr. Gino Falzone reports ACQUISITION OF SIERRA PINTADA DISTRICT URANIUM PROJECT, MENDOZA PROVINCE, ARGENTINA Highlights: Maple has acquired 956 square kilometres of prospective ground in the Sierra Pintada uranium district, Mendoza province, Argentina. Part of the ground covers prospective stratigraphy with radiometric anomalies immediately north of the 30-million-pound U3O8 Sierra Pintada deposit. Maple now holds 2,783 square kilometres of ground in the two areas of Argentina acknowledged to have the best potential for uranium discoveries. Maple Minerals Corp. has acquired 15 exploration permits (cateos), totalling 956 square kilometres, over ground with uranium discovery potential in the Sierra Pintada uranium district, 30 kilometres west of San Rafael in central Mendoza province, Argentina (refer to the attached figure). The exploration permits cover numerous radiometric anomalies detected in airborne surveys conducted in 1960 and 1968 by the Commission Nacional de Energia Atomica de Argentina (CNEA: the National Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina), and contain uranium occurrences located by that organization during its sporadic exploration activities in the area in the 1956 to mid-1980s period. The Sierra Pintada uranium district contains widespread uranium mineralization as relatively minor veins in Carrizalito group volcanics and sediments of Triassic age and as more significant stratabound bodies within the Los Reyunos formation of the Permian Cochico group. The largest known stratabound deposit in the area is Sierra Pintada, comprising the Tigre 1 La Terraza orebodies, which was discovered by the CNEA in 1968 by drill testing of the most prominent radiometric anomaly in the district. The economic uranium mineralization in the Sierra Pintada deposit occurs in the form of two shallow-dipping (generally 20 to 30 degrees) peneconcordant lenses within feldspathic sandstones at two separate stratigraphic levels. At a 0.04-per-cent U3O8 cut-off, the upper orebody has an average thickness of 10 metres (maximum 30 metres) and average grade of 0.12 per cent U3O8. The lower orebody, 10 to 20 metres below, averages five metres in thickness and 0.09 per cent U3O8 in grade. Uranium mineralization, consisting of pitchblende with subordinate brannerite and coffinite, occurs predominantly as disseminations and also as infillings of microfractures. In 1968 to 1974, detailed drilling of the Sierra Pintada deposit delineated Argentina's largest known uranium resource of about 30 million pounds contained U3O8 with an average ore grade of 0.12 per cent U3O8. Over the 13-year period from 1974, a CNEA open-pit/heap-leach operation at Sierra Pintada produced about 1,600 tonnes (3.5 million pounds) of U3O8 from 2.2 million tonnes of ore at an average grade of 0.11 per cent U3O8, but in 1997 activities were suspended due to the low uranium price. Currently the CNEA is preparing for the resumption of mining and processing at Sierra Pintada in 2006. As shown in the attached figure, one of Maple's exploration permits covers prospective stratigraphy with untested radiometric anomalies adjacent to, and north of, CNEA's claims over the Sierra Pintada resource. The other exploration permits cover uranium targets selected by Maple on the basis of radiometric anomalies, uranium occurrences and prospective stratigraphy. As the bulk of CNEA's exploration of the district was focused on the Sierra Pintada deposit and its immediate environs, Maple's main targets were either untested or inadequately investigated in the CNEA programs. Maple's activities in the Sierra Pintada district are being conducted by Hugo Bastias, branch manager of the company's subsidiary in Argentina, Maple Minerals Exploration and Development Inc., and by its geological consultant, Alberto Belluco. Mr. Belluco is a uranium specialist with 40 years of exploration and project evaluation experience with the CNEA in Argentina, and with the International Atomic Energy Commission in Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia and Uruguay. With the CNEA, Mr. Belluco was responsible for the exploration and evaluation of Argentina's uranium resources and played a major role in the organization's exploration of the Sierra Pintada district. Mr. Belluco consults on uranium on an exclusive basis to Maple. With this latest ground acquisition, Maple now has tenure over the largest holding of prospective uranium ground in the two areas acknowledged by the CNEA to have the best uranium discovery potential in Argentina -- the San Jorge Gulf Basin of Chubut province containing the Cerro Solo uranium deposit (Maple, 1,827 square kilometres) and the Sierra Pintada uranium district containing the Sierra Pintada deposit (Maple, 956 square kilometres). Stewart Taylor, Maple's vice-president, international operations, is acting as the qualified person for the Sierra Pintada uranium district project.