Canada-based Alturas Minerals Corp. announced that it has increased its share in the Huajoto zinc-gold-rare earth element project in central Peru to 100%.

The company has earned this share after having completed a minimum exploration expenditure of US$1.5 million to earn an initial 65%.

Joint Venture partner Teck Cominco Peru subsequently has opted to pass the remaining 35% share to Alturas in consideration for 1 million Alturas shares plus a 1% NSR royalty on gold and a 0.5% NSR on all other metals extracted from the property.

The issue of shares to Teck is subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange and the agreement is expected to be closed within one month.

In addition the Company reports on a recently completed geological study that greatly expands the Rare Earth Element (REE) potential of the property.

The Huajoto Project is situated 22 kilometers northwest of the historical mining town of Huancavelica in central Peru. It is comprised of eight contiguous mineral concessions with a totalling 3,700 hectares.

Paul Pearson, President and CEO of Alturas commented, "Huajoto is emerging as an exciting REE play with considerable bulk tonnage potential. Recent petrological work has confirmed the alkalic chemistry of some of the intrusive rocks at Huajoto, which is very unusual for the Andes. Detailed ground radiometrics completed by the Company has revealed the existence of a radiogenic anomaly approximately 4 x 4 kilometers in size that outlines an alkalic injection sill complex, with associated garnet skarns that are related to the REE concentrations. The radiometrics revealed that the "Caty-Pablo" prospect, where we have focused much of our previous work, lies on the extreme northwestern edge of this large anomaly and there are extensive areas yet to be explored. On July 18, 2008 Alturas previously reported strongly elevated REE values from trenches at Caty-Pablo that included up to 74.5 meters @ 0.49% total REE oxides, with a section of 10.4 meters @ 1.05% total REE oxides. Currently we are in the process of reanalyzing several of our previous drillholes from the Caty-Pablo area for the full suite of rare earth elements and expect results in the coming months."

A recently completed internal study of key samples from Huajoto using Scanning Electron Microscopy, Optical Microscopy, plus Induced Couple Plasma and X-ray Diffractometry whole rock analysis methods, has highlighted a close genetic relationship between alkaline volcanic / intrusive rocks and strong phosphorus and REE anomalies. The alkaline rocks identified comprise alkali trachytes, tephrites and basalts, and in general exhibit high calcium contents. Concentrations of the REE's have been identified within phosphate minerals from the project such as carbonated monazite, dahllite, apatite and fluorapatite genetically associated with the alkalic sill complex.

REE results from trenches at the Caty-Pablo prospect, expressed as total percent rare earth oxides and previously released in 2008, are tabled below. Trenches were cut perpendicular to the strike of lithogic layering in a strongly altered tephrite / skarn breccia sequence and sampled an area of outcrop approximately 180 x 180 meters in size.

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Trench        Meters   Zn (%)   Cu (%)   Rare Earth Oxides %

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Caty 1         114.5    0.05     0.09                   0.18

 including     12.00    0.03     0.13                   0.41

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Caty 2            54    0.46     0.09                   0.24

 including      4.00    1.45     0.13                   0.21

                74.5    0.19     0.08                   0.49

 including      10.4    0.27     0.12                   1.05

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Caty 3          69.6    0.90     0.18                   0.29

 including      8.00    2.70     0.05                   0.17

                32.0    0.20     0.05                   0.31

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Caty 4          40.0    2.00     0.14                   0.24

 including      4.30    5.26     0.27                   0.42

                52.0    0.06     0.01                   0.19

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Alturas' properties include four drill-ready mineral exploration projects located in central and southern Peru, which includes the Chapi Chapi-Utupara Copper-Gold Project, the Sombrero Copper-Gold Project, the Ccaccapaqui Gold-Silver Project and the Huajoto Gold-Silver-Zinc Project.