Adelaide, Oct 9, 2006 (ABN Newswire) - Minotaur Exploration (ASX: MEP) is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, Minotaur Operations Pty Ltd, has entered into a Joint Venture with Gateway Mining NL (ASX: GML), to explore the Cowra Project in NSW for copper and gold.

The Cowra Project, comprising two Exploration Licences EL5514 and EL6102, is located immediately south of the Cowra township in the prodigious Lachlan Fold Belt of NSW, that hosts significant mineral deposits such as Cadia, Ridgeway and Lake Cowal.

Key terms of the JV agreement are:

- Minotaur to spend a minimum $200,000 in the first 12 months before it can exit - Minotaur may earn up to 75% of the Project by spending a total of $2.0 million over 54 months, in two tranches:

- a first tranche of $700,000 to earn 51% of the Project and

- a second tranche of a further $1.3 million to earn 75% of the Project.

The Project covers over 50 kilometres of prospective Ordovician rocks and is of interest for its potential to host porphyry related copper-gold mineralization and volcanic massive sulphide base metal deposits. Initial exploration by Gateway, including geochemical, geophysical and limited drilling has advanced the project quickly and cost effectively.

Work by Gateway identified the Kiola region, a large copper-gold anomalous zone covering an area of 7 km x 4 km. Drilling by Gateway at the Nasdaq copper-gold skarn returned 4 metres @ 5g/t gold. Other results from drilling returned grades of up to 25.30 g/t gold and 8.41 g/t gold in narrow zones. Subsequent work at other prospects intersected skarn alteration and mineralisation at a number of localities. Better results included 30 metres @ 0.6% copper and 0.5% zinc, 24 metres @ 0.2% copper and 2.4% zinc and 4 metres @ 1.0 g/t gold.

The Company believes Nasdaq is part of a larger system that warrants further exploration.

The Directors are pleased to be involved with Gateway in the Project, and are confident that the two Companies together bring the needed mix of skills that will advance the Project positively. The Company will urtilise its geophysical and geochemical expertise to re-appraise the targets at Nasdaq and elsewhere across the Project area to define new targets for drill testing in 2007.