February 5, 2009 -- Vancouver, British Columbia -- Happy Creek Minerals Ltd. (TSX-V: HPY, the "Company") is pleased to announce it has completed the 2008 exploration on its 100% owned Hen property, located approximately 45 kilometres northeast of 100 Mile House, and ten kilometres southeast of the former Boss Mountain molybdenum mine, in south-central British Columbia, Canada.
The Anomaly Creek Prospect During 2008, the Company completed a 3D Induced Polarization (3D IP) and magnetic geophysical survey on the Anomaly Creek prospect on the western side of the Hen property. This work has outlined strong values between 15 to greater than 35 milliseconds in an area of approximately 1.44 square kilometres that remains open in extent. Importantly, this area was previously determined to contain positive copper, lead, zinc, silver and gold in soil and rocks. The geological setting consists of the northerly trending contact between intrusive, monzodiorite in composition to the west and Nicola Group volcanic and minor sedimentary rocks to the east. Dykes of intermediate to mafic composition cut the volcanic rocks. Near the contact, intrusive rocks are fractured and contain quartz, chlorite, epidote, magnetite and k-feldspar alteration minerals, along with trace pyrite (iron sulphide), chalcopyrite and bornite (copper sulphides). An approximately 500 metre wide area of the actual contact zone is covered with glacial till in low, swampy ground. To the east, outcrops of volcanic and sedimentary rocks are hornfelsed and contain chlorite, epidote, pyroxene, garnet, quartz, k-feldspar alteration minerals, and trace to 5% pyrite, pyrrhotite (iron sulphide), chalcopyrite, sphalerite (zinc sulphide) and galena (lead sulphide).
The Anomaly Creek prospect is believed to host potential for a new bulk tonnage copper-gold deposit that remains untested by trenching or drilling. A plan map and sections of the IP survey are posted to the website
www.happycreekminerals.com.
The Hen Prospects Between 1994 and 1996, exploration at the main Hen showings focused on several showings exposed by a logging road. Trench B returned 2.1 metres of 3.98 g/t (grams per tonne) gold, and drillhole 96-3 intersected 0.80 metres grading 2.08 g/t gold approximately 200 metres beneath this trench. Drillhole 94-1 intersected 8.0 metres containing 0.86 g/t gold.
During 2008, some fill-in sampling of core from drill hole 96-4, located approximately 200 metres east of Trench B, returned 0.86 metres grading 1.96 g/t gold. Soil sampling in 2008 returned values of 1.41, 2.65, and 0.027 g/t gold on three grid lines, respectively, that define a potential 500 metre long, northeast trending zone extending from Trench B. Positive gold in soil anomalies occur elsewhere that remain unexplained.
Other gold-bearing outcrop and boulders occur east of the main zone. Previous chip sampling at the Dyke showing returned 3.5 metres grading 3.46 g/t gold that remains open in extent, and grab samples have returned up to 35.0 g/t gold. Further east, the Ledge and Southeast skarn showings have returned grab samples containing 1.10 g/t gold and 1.14 g/t gold, respectively. Rock sampling in 2008 returned 0.96 g/t gold in a new area located between the Dyke and Ledge zones, and 0.99 g/t gold at the southeast skarn.
These positive gold values occur in mafic volcanic rocks, sediment, and limestone of the Nicola Group, that are Upper Triassic-Lower Jurassic in age. Along a three kilometre easterly trending contact, these rocks are cut to the south by a hornblende monzodiorite intrusion, early Cretaceous in age, and dykes and sills of more felsic composition. The volcanic rocks and sediment are hornfelsed, calc silicate and quartz-carbonate altered and contain abundant pyrrhotite and locally arsenopyrite (arsenic sulphide) and stibnite (antimony sulphide) trace elements. Petrography of several samples support potential for a calcic gold skarn to occur. The Hen prospects bear some similarities with calcic gold skarn hosted in Nicola Group rocks at the Nickleplate-Mascot gold mine near Hedley and Keremeos, B.C., where approximately 2.5 million ounces of gold was produced.
The Company feels the Hen property holds potential for several mineral deposit types, including bulk tonnage copper-gold to the west and calcic gold skarn to the east, and is fully permitted for trenching and drilling.
David Blann, P.Eng. is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for the preparation and approval of the technical information disclosed in the news release. On behalf of the Board of Directors,
"David E Blann"____________________
David E Blann, P.Eng.
President