Lara Exploration Ltd. ("Lara" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:LRA) is pleased to report further progress on its Sao Lourenco tin project in northwest Brazil. The Company has now outlined a significant body of exposed primary tin mineralization on the adjacent Isaac and Irene targets, with an average grade of 0.61% tin. An agreement has also been reached with the underlying owners of the Sao Lourenco mining rights to extend the Company's purchase option through until 2012.

Isaac and Irene Targets

The Company has been sampling two granite stocks, Irene and Isaac, that stand out as hills within a wide area of past placer tin mining. Artisanal workings have exposed a wide area of fresh and weathered (saprolite) granite that has now been grid sampled with channel samples. Coarse-grained tin mineralization in the form of cassiterite (tin oxide) is hosted by vein-like zones of alteration known as "greisens" that form a dense stock-working over most of the exposed area and extend into the metasedimentary country rocks. The exposed area represents only 40% of the granite hills and the known mineralization is open in all directions.

The Isaac target has increased in size since last year (see Lara news release of October 2, 2008), to approximately 500 metres in length and 250 metres in width. The target comprises multiple greisen zones ranging up to 500 metres in length and up to 50 metres in thickness, with an average grade of 0.54% tin. The Irene greisen targets (see Lara news release of December 3, 2008) have also been increased in area and sampling has furthermore outlined a wide zone of finer-grained mineralization in the adjacent meta-siltstones, that form the country rocks into which the granites were originally intruded. The Irene target now includes multiple zones of mineralization, with individual zones of up to 300 metres in length and up to 66 metres in thickness, with an average grade of 0.71% tin. In outlining zones of mineralization a cut-off grade of 0.14% tin and a minimum width of 4 metres (2 metres where the grade is over 1% tin) was applied. The Company is currently collecting l arger samples for mineralogical and grain-size characterization studies.

Option Agreement

In January 2007, the Company signed an option agreement to acquire 100% of the rights to Sao Lourenco in return for staged payments of US$73,500 over three years (US$63,000 paid to date) and a one-time exercise payment of US$1 million in January 2010. In January 2009, the Company agreed to an amendment, whereby it could extend its option for an additional two years on the following terms:

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Date                        Payment US$               Status
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January 2009                     15,000                 Paid
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January 2010                     30,000
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January 2011                     55,000
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May 2012                      1,000,000
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The Sao Lourenco property comprises seven mining licenses covering a total of 3,459 hectares, where a local company, Mineracao Oriente Novo S.A., produced some 12,000 tons of tin between 1973 and 1988, before going into liquidation. Production has continued on a small-scale since then to keep the licenses in good standing and there are still roads and camp infrastructure maintained on the property.

Quality Control

Lara's sampling program comprised the collection of 2 meter samples continuously along lines cut perpendicular across the mineralized zones. The samples were continuous chip or channel samples, depending on whether the exposure sample comprised vein material, weathered rock (saprolite) or fresh granite. Samples were prepared and analyzed using X-Ray Fluorescence at the commercial SGS-Geosol Laboratory in Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais State), with blank, standard and duplicate samples included for QAQC purposes.

Michael Bennell, Lara's Vice President Exploration and a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM), is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, and is responsible for the preparation and verification of the technical information in this release.

About Lara

Lara is a well-funded prospect generator, with a multi-commodity exploration portfolio in Brazil, Colombia and Peru. Lara's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "LRA".

SOURCE: Lara Exploration Ltd.

Lara Exploration Ltd.
Miles Thompson
President
(604) 669-8777
Lara Exploration Ltd.
Kim Casswell
Corporate Secretary
(604) 669-8777
(604) 688-1157 (FAX)
Website: www.laraexploration.com