Tibet-focussed Continental Minerals in talks for sale of company

Continental Minerals, an explorer and developer of minerals in Chinese-occupied Tibet, yesterday said that it is advanced talks with an unnamed third party for a potential sale of the company, the second such potential sale of a Tibet-focussed mining company this month.

Earlier this month another Vancouver-based company, China Gold International Resources Corp, formerly known as Jinshan Gold Mines had said that it would acquire Skyland Mining Ltd, which owns the Jiama copper mine in Tibet in an all-stock deal valued at $742.3 million. (See: CGI to acquire Tibet focussed Skyland Mining for $742.3 million) 

Vancouver-based Continental, one of the few Canadian mining companies operating in Chinese-occupied Tibet, said that while it anticipates a resolution to the discussions, it can give no assurances at this time about the outcome.

Continental,  which has a market capitalisation of around $340 million, is currently developing the Xietongmen copper-gold project that was discovered in 2005 and covers an area of 1,290 acres located 240km southwest of Lhasa in the remote Tibetan plateau.

The project holds proven and probable reserves of e182.1 million tonnes of copper, gold and silver. The ore is to be mined via open pit method and the feasibility study foresees a production capacity of 40,000 tonnes of copper per day.

The company had said that it would aim to produce 116 million pounds of copper and 190,000 ounces of gold and 2.4 million ounces of silver annually and the life of the mine is expected to be 14 years.