Continental heads to Tibet

Continental Minerals (KMK-V) intends to drill-test an early-stage copper-gold discovery at the Xietongmen project, 240 km southwest of Lhasa in Tibet. The Vancouver-based junior, part of the Hunter-Dickinson group of companies, recently secured rights to earn a 60% interest in the project from China NetTV.

The deposit consists of porphyry-like, disseminated and quartz stockwork mineralization. Continental will explore a 4-km-long alteration zone that has been tested by two vertical diamond drill holes separated by a 200-metre-long underground adit.

The drill holes and adit samples returned encouraging results. Drill hole 301 intersected 234.5 metres (from 34.6 to 269.2 metres) grading 0.58 gram gold per tonne and 0.47% copper, which includes 115.5 metres of 0.68 gram gold and 0.57% copper. Hole 701 returned 206.5 metres (starting at 25.4 metres) grading 1.43 grams gold and 0.68% copper, which includes 92.65 metres of 1.96 grams gold and 1% copper.

Adit samples also provided some nice gold-copper assays, notably 76.2 metres of 1.9 grams gold and 1.23% copper, which includes 20 metres of 4.01 grams gold and 1.87% copper. Continental notes that the mineralization is open in all directions.

The project area has moderate-to-gentle relief, and some basic infrastructure, with a road and powerline traversing the southern edge of the property.

To earn a 50% interest in the project, Continental must pay China NetTV US$2 million and spend US$5 million on exploration over two years. The junior can boost this to 60% by spending a further US$3 million on exploration. The option agreement is still subject to the acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Once Continental earns its maximum 60% interest, ongoing development would be carried out on a joint-venture basis.

The Hunter-Dickinson group announced two other deals.

Rio Tinto (RTP-N) signed a letter agreement to earn up to a 100% interest in a majority of claims that make up the Ricardo property from Rockwell Ventures (RCW-V). The copper project is in the Calama mining district of Chile, along a structural trend that hosts numerous copper deposits, including Chuquicamata. Rio Tinto must make annual option payments totaling US$6 million over four years, and pay all property taxes and maintenance costs for the duration of the agreement. The major must also spend US$4 million on exploration during the four years to get the option in good standing. Rockwell will retain a 1% net smelter royalty, which can be purchased in stages by Rio Tinto for a total of US$12 million.

In South Africa, Great Basin Gold (GBG-T) exercised the second part of an option to acquire 100% of Southgold Exploration, which in turn owns the Burnstone gold property, near Johannesburg.

Great Basin President Ronald Thiessen says the company intends to “delineate, engineer, permit and construct a classic, multi-million-ounce, Witwatersrand gold mine with production in excess of 200,000 ounces per year.” Four gold deposit areas have been identified to date, with resource drilling under way or planned for each area