Minera Andes Announces Drilling Commences At Los Azules

SPOKANE, WA - Minera Andes Inc. reported that a planned 10,000 meter, 24 hole drilling program has commenced on the Los Azules porphyry copper project in Argentina as part of the 2007-2008 exploration program. The exploration program at Los Azules is designed to define an inferred resource and provide sufficiently detailed engineering and technical information to allow the completion of an economic scoping study (a Preliminary Assessment as defined by NI 43-101) of the property by mid next year.
Minera Andes is advancing the Los Azules project under an option agreement with Xstrata Copper, one of the commodity business units within Xstrata plc. The scope and size potential of the project increased dramatically in 2006 when Minera Andes drilling discovered a near surface high-grade area of copper mineralization when AZ-06-19 encountered 221 meters of mineralization averaging 1.62 percent copper that was 200 meters from hole AZ-06-20 containing 173 meters of 1.00 percent copper. Drilling in several holes ended in copper mineralization, including two holes that bottomed in high-grade copper over 1 percent. This field season an aggressive program is designed to define the size and scope of the entire Los Azules copper target.
Allen Ambrose, president of Minera Andes said, "Over the past few field seasons the drilling at Los Azules has discovered new high-grade copper mineralization as we gain an understanding of this exciting project. Los Azules is evolving as a sizeable porphyry copper target, with a high-grade near-surface copper discovery at its core that is still open at depth."
The company's address is 111 East Magnesium Road; Ste. A, Spokane, WA 99208, (509) 921-7322 , fax: (509) 921-7325.