VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – Western Copper Corp. (TSX: WRN) (“Western”), and Lumina Resources Corp. (TSX: LUR) (“Lumina”) are pleased to announce that they have entered into an agreement dated September 15, 2006 (the “Agreement”), whereby the parties have agreed to enter into a business combination, such that Lumina will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western (the “Merger”). The Merger will occur by way of plan of arrangement and will be subject to receipt of regulatory, court, and Lumina shareholder approvals.

Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, Western intends to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Lumina on the basis of 1.00 common share of Western for every 1.00 common share of Lumina which represents a 63% premium over the 20 day trading average of the shares of Lumina which closed at $0.72 on September 15, 2006.

As a result of the merger, all validly existing warrants, options and other rights to acquire common shares of Western or Lumina will be deemed to represent comparable securities of Western. Subject to obtaining all necessary shareholder, court, and regulatory approvals and acceptances, and the satisfaction of all conditions precedent, the name of the resulting merged company will be Western Copper Corp.

Officers and directors of Lumina, who hold 29.5% of Lumina, have agreed to enter into lockup and support agreements with Western under which they have agreed to vote in favor of the transaction. The board of directors of Western will consist of the present board and, in addition, will include Mr. Ross Beaty who will serve as cochairman. Mr. Dale Corman will also serve as co-chairman and will continue in his role as President and CEO of Western. Mr. Beaty is also chairman and director of Pan American Silver (TSX: PAA).

The Merger as outlined in the Agreement comports with Western’s strategy for growth through acquisition and development of attractive development stage copper and precious metals properties in geopolitically stable areas into producing mines.

Highlights of the combination of Western and Lumina are as follows:

• A strong management team to develop and acquire promising copper and precious metals properties with a current cash position of approximately C$39.4 million
• In addition to Western’s Carmacks Yukon development stage project (targeted to enter copper production in 2008) and the Sierra Almoloya Mexican silver belt project currently being explored by optionee Queenston Mining Inc. (TSX: QMI), addition of 3 Canadian properties with NI 43-101 compliant resources containing a combined Measured and Indicated resource of 6.1 billion pounds of copper and 9.7 million oz. of gold and Inferred mineral resource of 3.2 billion pounds of copper and 0.6 million oz. of gold.
• The three properties owned by Lumina are the 91,000 acre Hushamu property in the North Vancouver Island copper belt, the Casino property in Canada’s Yukon and Redstone property with 13,990 acres of mining leases and 55 mineral claims totaling 73,000 acres in the Northwest Territories.
• The new discovery at NW Expo in the island copper belt has excellent exploration potential. Lumina encountered 1.00 grams of Au, 0.17% Cu and 0.025% Mo over a 95 m. interval and 0.52 grams of Au, 0.11% Cu, and 0.0046% Mo over a 124.9 m. interval in two drill holes at NW Expo at the end of the 2005 drilling season.

Mr. Corman commented, “We are very pleased with this first acquisition of properties with very substantial metal deposits and excellent exploration potential. This acquisition illustrates our vision for acquiring and developing large strategic and precious metals deposits with excellent exploration potential, abundant low-cost energy, good infrastructure in low geopolitical risk areas. Our view is to sequentially develop a series of projects into producing mines. We arevery pleased that Ross Beaty has agreed to join our board and consented to serve as cochairman.”

A resource summary of the Lumina properties is as follows:

In accordance with NI-43-10, the qualified persons for Lumina Resources are:
Hushamu Q.P. : G.H. Giroux and D.J. Pawliuk
Redstone Q.P: A.W. Gourlay
Casino Q.P.: E.D. Titley

On behalf of the board,

For more information, please contact:

info(at)westerncoppercorp.com

Cautionary Notes
Statements contained in this news release that are not historical fact, such as statements regarding the economic prospects of the Company’s projects, the Company’s future plans or future revenues, timing of development or potential expansion or improvements, are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from estimated results. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the Company’s ability to raise sufficient capital to fund development, changes in general economic conditions or financial markets, changes in prices for the Company’s mineral products or increases in input costs, litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments in Mexico or Canada, technological and operational difficulties or inability to obtain permits encountered in connection with our exploration and development activities, labor relations matters, and changing foreign exchange rates, all of which are described more fully in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed nor accepted responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the contents of this news release, which has been prepared by management.