News

2008 Drill Program Well Underway At Akie

Vancouver, B.C. – Thursday, July, 17, 2008 – Mantle Resources Inc. (TSX Venture: MTS; Frankfurt: A0F7E1) (“Mantle” or the “Company) is pleased to announce that the 2008 diamond drill program, with two drill rigs, is well underway on its 100% owned Akie zinc-lead property in northeastern British Columbia.  To date, three holes (A-08-54, 55 and 56), for a total of 1,180.15 metres, have been completed, and two new holes (A-08-57 and 58) are currently drilling ahead at depths of 175 and 161 metres, towards proposed final hole lengths of 335 and 500 meters, respectively.  The Cardiac Creek deposit has successfully been encountered in each completed hole over intervals ranging from 20 metres to 24 metres (core length).  At present, one drill rig is tasked with testing the updip extent of the Cardiac Creek zinc-lead mineralization while the second is investigating the continuation of the deposit along strike to the southeast.

2008 Cardiac Creek Deposit Drill Program

The key objectives of the 2008 drill program are to determine both the updip and on-strike extent of the deposit as well as to better define the ore body in key areas.  Information gained from this work will assist in planning for the 2009 exploration program that may include advanced underground drilling and sampling activities.  It is anticipated that this year’s drilling campaign will encompass approximately 10,000 metres of drilling in 15 to 20 holes.  The contractor for the program is Rodren Drilling Ltd. of West St. Paul , Manitoba .

All drill core will be logged for geology, structure and mineralization, and sections of interest identified will be split by diamond saw and sampled.  The samples, generally representing 0.5 to 1.5 m of core packed in plastic bags, will be forwarded to Acme Analytical Laboratories Ltd., in Vancouver , BC , for analysis.

Exploration Elsewhere at the Akie Property

In addition to the Cardiac Creek deposit drilling noted above, the Company plans to conduct an exploration drill program elsewhere on the Akie property along strike of the Cardiac Creek deposit where historical work combined with recent geological work has identified new highly prospective targets. One such target, a large (200 m x 1000 m), open-ended, lead-in-soil anomaly (70 to 624 ppm lead) referred to as the ‘North Lead Anomaly’, is located approximately 2 km north of the nearest Cardiac Creek deposit drill hole.  In 1996, this feature was tested with one drill hole by Inmet Mining Corporation, encountering Gunsteel formation containing 45 m of pyrite-bearing (5% to 12%), siliceous shale, followed by 0.8 m wide interval of massive sulphide mineralization consisting of pyrite, sphalerite and galena.  The massive sulphide horizon yielded grades of 11.60% zinc and 9.05% lead.  This occurrence may represent a new and separate hydrothermal cell, possibly leading to another sulphide depositional centre.

Once the Cardiac Creek deposit drilling is well advanced, several holes are planned to test this feature  as well as other high priority Akie property targets.   In this regard, the Company has received an amendment, dated June 24, 2008, to its existing Mines Act permit for the Akie project authorizing up to 8 drill holes to test the North Lead Zone.

Regional Exploration

In addition to the Akie property, Mantle also owns 100% of an extensive (78,526 ha.) regional exploration land package that covers prospective Gunsteel stratigraphy over a total distance of 160 km.  These rocks host a number of zinc-lead showings and occurrences and exhibit numerous gossans/ferricrete seeps indicating the presence of sulphide mineralization.  During the next several months, regional exploration (soil/silt sampling, prospecting, geologic mapping, data compilation) will be conducted on these tenures to identify new targets and crystallize their potential.

Other Activities

Blackwater Construction Ltd. continues to progress well with construction of the access road to the Cardiac Creek drill area and environmental base-line studies initiated in 2007 are ongoing. “We are very pleased with the progress achieved over the past few weeks,” commented Jim Mustard, President of Mantle.   “All of the drill holes completed so far have encountered the targeted mineralized zone.  2008 should be an exciting year for Mantle as we have established a number of key milestones that will further enhance the value of Akie and our property portfolio..  We look forward to regularly updating our shareholders.”

About the Akie Property

The Akie zinc-lead property is situated within the southern-most part (Kechika Trough) of the regionally extensive Paleozoic Selwyn Basin, one of the most prolific sedimentary basins in the world for the occurrence of SEDEX zinc-lead-silver and stratiform barite deposits.

Drilling on the Akie property by Inmet Mining Corporation during the period 1994 to 1996 and by Mantle in 2005, 2006 and 2007 has identified a significant body of baritic-zinc-lead SEDEX mineralization (Cardiac Creek deposit).  The deposit is hosted by variably siliceous, fine grained clastic rocks of the Middle to Late Devonian ‘Gunsteel’ formation.  The Company recently filed a NI 43-101 report supporting the estimated inferred resource of 23.6 million tonnes grading 7.6% Zn, 1.5% Pb and 13.0 g/t Ag (at a 5% Zn cut off grade).  The complete NI 43-101 technical report, titled “Geology, Diamond Drilling and Preliminary Resource Estimation, Akie Zinc-Lead-Silver Property, Northeast British Columbia, Canada ” and dated May 30, 2008, can be viewed on SEDAR.

 Two similar deposits, Cirque and South Cirque, located some 20 km northwest of Akie and owned under a joint venture by Teck Cominco and Korea Zinc, are also hosted by Gunsteel rocks and have a combined geologic inventory in excess of 50 million tonnes.

The Akie property is road accessible year round from Mackenzie and Prince George , and exploration and other activities are supported by a 50 person, all-weather trailer camp situated a short distance from the Cardiac Creek drill area.

Qualified Person

John R. Fraser, P.Geo. (B.C.), Vice President of Exploration and a Director of Mantle Resources, is the Qualified Person for the Company, as defined by NI 43-101, and is responsible for the technical information contained in this release.

The TSX Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. 

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MANTLE RESOURCES INC.

“PEEYUSH VARSHNEY”

PEEYUSH VARSHNEY, LL.B

CEO & CHAIRMAN