Valterra Increases Financing, Undertakes Resource Evaluation of the Swift Katie Project

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Jan. 17, 2011) - Valterra Resource Corporation ("Valterra" or the "Company") (CNSX:VTA)(FRANKFURT:3VA) reported today that it has increased its non-flow-through unit private placement to issue up to 41,000,000 units at a price of $0.05 per unit for gross proceeds of up to $2,050,000. Each unit consists of one common share and one share purchase warrant, with each warrant exercisable to purchase one additional common share at an exercise price of $0.10 per share for a period of two years.

Valterra has closed two tranches of this non-flow-through private placement and raised gross proceeds of $838,666 by issuing 15,048,319 units on November 17, 2010 and 1,725,000 units on December 30, 2010. 

Valterra intends to use proceeds from the sale of the units for general working capital purposes and development of Valterra's mineral property portfolio in south-eastern British Columbia. Finders' fees may be payable. The private placement and finders' fees are subject to regulatory approval.

Exploration is expected to focus mainly on drilling of several zones within the Au-Ag-Cu Star, Toughnut, and Rozan properties ("Star Project") that are contained in a prospective land package covering almost 4,000 hectares. Drill targeting remains active and the tenured region covers a well mineralized 3.5 kilometre trend that is currently defined by a combination of previous wide-spaced drilling, geochemical, and geophysical surveys. In 2010, Valterra completed two phases of drilling on the Star Project totalling 2,274 metres in 11 holes targeting the Toughnut, Eureka, Star, Gold Eagle, and Alma N zones. Recently in December 2010, Valterra completed Phase II drilling on the project where a total of 836 metres of BTW-sized coring was completed in four holes on the Gold Eagle and Alma N zones; core-logging has recently ended and assays are pending.

Historical (unverified) high-grade assays for drilling conducted in 1988 at the Gold Eagle included 90.0 g/t Au and 80.9 g/t Ag over 1.52m in hole S88-43. Also, Valterra previously drilled the Alma N zone in 2008 and 2009, where a highlight intercept included 2.12 g/t Au and 1.63 g/t Ag over 44.5m in hole VST09-007, which contained a higher grade zone of 11.29 g/t Au and 5.6 g/t Ag over 2.0m. Valterra has currently outlined approximately 250 metres of mineralized strike length to the zone which remains under-explored and open for further expansion.

Update on the Cu-Au Swift Katie Project

The company owns a 60% interest in the Swift Katie copper-gold porphyry/shear-hosted project and expects to increase such interest in 2011 to 100% by issuance of 225,000 shares and making a C$60,000 cash payment as the residual consideration to be paid. Tosca Mining Corp. ("Tosca") which held an option from Valterra to earn a 60% interest in the property, elected to terminate the option agreement to pursue opportunities in Arizona, USA.

President Lawrence Page, Q.C. commented, "Valterra is excited to resume a controlling position once again at Swift Katie, and thanks Tosca for its exploration efforts and advancement of the project. Since Valterra optioned the property in 2007, copper prices have risen approximately 30% and spot gold prices have almost doubled. Additionally, British Columbia has seen several new mines permitted attesting to the important role that responsible mining has to the Province's future."

The Swift Katie project is located near Salmo BC and benefits from an excellent infrastructure network (roads, rail, power, and proximity to the Trail smelter), is in a favourable 'brown-fields' region of the province, and has a strong community of knowledgeable and experienced people on which to draw (regional population >25,000).

In August 2010, Valterra operated a C$178,713 dollar exploratory drill program for Tosca. The drilling targeted two of the numerous anomalies identified through geological/geophysical studies conducted during Q1 of 2010. Testing included undrilled regions of the property where coincident historical ground IP chargeability and Fugro DIGHEM V Electromagnetic / Resistivity / Magnetic airborne geophysical anomalies were identified.

Drilling totalled 786 metres in two NQ2-sized holes collared at the "17" and "Roaring" zones. Significant bulk-tonnage results were not returned as potential fault(s) offset the mineralization at the 17 zone drill hole. The Roaring zone hole contained abundant pyrrhotite mineralization throughout. The mineralization averaged between 1-3% pyrrhotite-pyrite-chalcopyrite and was hosted in an intercalated to fold-repetitive sequence of andesite and argillite resulting in a significant change to the current understanding of the geological contacts mapped in that region.

Overall, the company believes that the majority of the project results previously returned remain very encouraging and necessitate further exploration. Additionally, numerous targets identified in 2010 remain to be investigated.

Valterra has drilled Swift Katie in excess of 4,850 metres since 2007 and believes a mineral inventory review is warranted in Q1/Q2 2011. The review will incorporate Valterra's work, as well as the historical drilling which collectively account for over 70 drill holes and more than 19,500 metres of drilling. A NI43-101 qualifying technical report dated July 2007 was authored by Price and Makepeace (available for viewing at www.sedar.com), and the company plans a re-evaluation of all the drill data to obtain an independent evaluation of the property and its resource potential. Exploration planning for 2011 is ongoing.

About Valterra Resource Corporation

Valterra is a Manex Resource Group Company. The Group provides expertise in exploration, administration, and corporate development services for the Company's mineral properties located in the Kootenay Region of BC.

This region of the province has produced several million ounces of gold and precious metals from numerous past producers. The BC MINFILE records lists such operations as the Rossland Camp (past production estimate of 3.5M ounces of gold), and the Silver King mine - BC's first lode mine ca. 1888 (reportedly produced 4.4M ounces of silver⁽¹⁾). Valterra's claims are centrally located on the Silver King Shear Zone, to the east is the Kena Gold project (1.0M ounce NI43-101 compliant gold resource⁽²⁾ - Sultan Minerals Inc.), and to the northwest is the Kenville Mine (386,000 ounce NI43-101 compliant gold resource⁽³⁾ - Anglo Swiss Resources Inc.).

The Company has interests in approximately 11,100 hectares in southeast BC that currently focus on four primary projects: the Star gold-silver-copper claims, located southwest of Nelson BC, the Toughnut gold-silver-copper-lead-zinc claim block which adjoins the Star claims, the Rozan gold-silver-lead-zinc property situated just south of the Toughnut claims, and the Swift Katie copper-gold porphyry/shear-hosted project located near Salmo, BC.

Since 2007, Valterra has aggressively explored and expanded its claim blocks within the gold-enriched "Rossland Volcanic Belt" by completing over 9,250 metres of diamond drilling, conducting 810 line-kilometres of heli-borne geophysics, undertaking a variety of mapping-sampling and staking programs, as well as acquiring new properties and joint venturing.

Brian McGrath, P.Geo., is the Qualified Person responsible for reviewing the technical results reported in this release.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Lawrence Page, Q.C., President and Director, Valterra Resource Corporation

This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. These statements are based on a number of assumptions, including, but not limited to, assumptions regarding general economic conditions, interest rates, commodity markets, regulatory and governmental approvals for Valterra Resource Corporation's projects, and the availability of financing for Valterra Resource Corporation's development projects on reasonable terms. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, the timing and receipt of government and regulatory approvals, and continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. Valterra Resource Corporation does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law.

(1) Historical production/inventory statistics for mines at Rossland and Silver King were obtained from public documents available from the BC Government Mineral Inventory File (MINFILE) database. The reporting standards used in this specific file were obtained prior to the establishment of NI43-101 regulations. Valterra Resource Corporation has not independently verified this historical data. Valterra Resource Corporation has no reason to believe that these results are not representative of mineralization associated with the mining activity.

(2) Resource information gathered from the Kena Property Technical Report dated June 3, 2004.

(3) Resource information gathered from the Kenville Gold Mine - 257 Level Technical Report dated July 22, 2009.