Puget Ventures Inc. and Benton Resources Corp. Sign Letter of Intent for Werner Lake-Rex Lake Area Claims

Thursday, August 14th 2008

Puget Ventures Inc. and Benton Resources Corp. announced that they have entered into a Letter of Intent for Puget Ventures to acquire an option to earn an initial 50% interest and a further 10% interest in Benton’s interest in eight claims in the Werner Lake-Rex Lake area in North Western Ontario. Benton has the right to earn a 100% interest in the eight claims from the underlying owner, subject to a 2% NSR, 50% of which can be purchased for $1 million.

“Puget Ventures is currently working to consolidate the Werner Lake-Rex Lake Mineral Belt (the ‘Belt’) and with these additional claims, Puget now has access to a significant majority of the land position in the Belt and most of the historically recorded mineral occurrences,” said Erin Airton, President of Puget Ventures. “Puget expects to move quickly to commence exploration operations in the Belt, especially focused on the Nickel-PGE and Copper-Cobalt mineralized trends and showings.”

“Benton is pleased that Puget Ventures has signed the Letter of Intent regarding the Werner Lake-Rex Lake properties. We look forward to significant work being completed on these properties of interest,” said Stephen Stares, President and CEO of Benton.

The eight claim group covers approximately 1,237 hectares at the east end of the Werner Lake-Rex Lake Mineral Belt. Historical shallow diamond drilling on the project completed by Eastern Mining and Smelting in 1956 intersected 23.9m (metres) grading 1.02% Cu and 15.1gpt (gram per tonne) combined precious metal (interpreted as silver) at approximately 60m vertically below surface.

Diamond drilling completed by Falconbridge Nickel Mines Limited during the late 1980s intersected 1.17% Cu and 9.5gpt Ag over 29.5m (at approximately 50m vertical) that included 2.04% Cu and 5.3gpt Ag over 11.95m. An undercut drill hole intersected a metamorphosed ultramafic (peridotite) that yielded 22.8m grading 0.1% Cu and 0.31% Ni (at 140m vertical), suggesting better potential for nickel mineralization. All intervals are core lengths and true thicknesses are currently unknown. Surface channel sampling completed by Atikwa Minerals Limited in 2003 returned anomalous levels of platinum and palladium values (0.09 to 0.145gpt).

The mineralization host is described as metamorphosed intrusive mafic-ultramafic (gabbro, pyroxenite, peridotite) units in sulphide-rich metasediments of Archean age. Other base and precious metal occurrences are also documented in the Ontario Geological Survey Open File Report 5975: “Geology of nickel-copper-chromite deposits and cobalt-copper deposits at Werner-Rex-Bug lakes, English River Subprovince, Northwestern Ontario, by Jack R. Packer in 1998. The abstract of this report states: The fact that ultamafic-mafic bodies are widely scattered throughout the medasedimentary migmatite assemblage and distributed along several regional fault systems enhances the possibility of discovering more potentially economic nickel-copper and cobalt sulphide deposits in the English River Subprovince.”

Transaction Terms

Puget Ventures Inc. can earn a 50% interest in Benton’s interest on the eight claims in the Kenora District with expenditures totalling $1.5 million over a four year period, expended annually as follows:

* Minimum $250,000 by end of year one; * Minimum $350,000 by end of year two; * Minimum $450,000 by end of year three;

* Minimum $450,000 by end of year five.

In addition to the expenditures, upon approval of the transaction by the TSX Venture Exchange, Puget Ventures will issue to Benton common shares valued at $50,000 at a deemed price equal to the then prevailing market price of Puget’s shares.

Puget Venture will also reimburse Benton for payment obligations of Benton to Dave Healey in an underlying agreement regarding the claim package. These obligations include three payments totalling $40,000 over three years and Puget Ventures common shares equal to the market value of 30,000 Benton shares to be issued to the underlying owner total over three years, the value of the shares to be based on a 20 day rolling average.

The Letter of Intent also provides provision for Puget Ventures to acquire an additional 10% of the interest in the claims by making an additional $750,000 in expenditures within two years of earning its initial 50% interest.

The Letter of Intent between Puget and Benton is subject to Board approval by both parties, a due diligence review and TSX Venture Exchange approval prior to closing.

Clinton Barr (P.Geo.), V.P. Exploration for Benton Resources Corp. is the qualified person responsible for this release on behalf of Benton.

The TSX Venture Exchange has in no way passed judgement upon the merits of the proposed Transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

About Puget Ventures Inc.

Puget Ventures Inc. is a Toronto Venture Exchange listed mineral exploration company currently exploring the Trout Bay base metal property in Red Lake, Ontario. Puget Ventures is in the process of acquiring the Werner Lake Mineral Belt properties, which includes the Werner Lake Cobalt Mine and the Norpax Nickel Deposit.

About Benton Resources Corp.

Benton Resources Corp. (the “Company”) is a mineral exploration company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol BTC. Benton’s aggressive and experienced management team is focused on base and precious group metal exploration. The Company’s diverse property portfolio includes Canadian projects which are highly prospective for gold, uranium, platinum, palladium, nickel and copper. The Company currently has approximately $19 million in working capital and has joint ventured several of their projects to major and junior companies.