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Continent Resources: Its Copper Time
By James West
MidasLetter.com
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Copper has been performing well, despite an economic downturn that should, by all counts, have taken copper much lower and kept it there. But economies such as China and India, who are still in a growth mode, have embraced the opportunity to reduce construction costs now and in the future by stockpiling while copper is relatively cheap.
It is that reality that makes companies like Continent Resources (CNSX:CTT) worth a closer look.
"Continent is focused on leachable copper which is the least expensive and most accessible copper to mine in big porphyry copper deposits," said Continent president and Chief Geologist Michael Pawlowski. "Today copper companies are expanding their low cost leachable copper projects and shutting down their higher cost sulfide projects, which require large capital costs in the form of mills and flotation plants."
Copper climbed above the psychological US$5,000 per tonne level on Tuesday, as positive economic sentiment buoyed demand expectations, while a weaker dollar also supported prices.
Continent has 6 properties in Arizona and New Mexico, which are historically two of the most prolific states in the union for copper production. Many copper mines there have been in production for over 100 years, and the mines are typically very large and long lived.
In 2007 Arizona was the leading copper-producing state in the US, producing 750 thousand tonnes of copper, worth a record $5.54 billion. Arizona's copper production was 60% of the total for the United States. Copper mining also produces gold and silver as byproducts.[1] Byproduct molybdenum from copper mining makes Arizona the nation's second-largest producer of that metal.
Continent's flagship property is the Lone Mountain porphyry copper system near Silver City in New Mexico, seven miles southwest of the Santa Rita-Chino mine and ten miles northeast of the Tyrone mine; both of which are large open-pit copper mines owned by Freeport-McMoRan. (NYSE:FCX).
The company's 2 State of New Mexico mineral leases and 40 unpatented federal mining claims cover over 1,500 acres and are 100% controlled by Continent. The property covers a large tonnage porphyry copper system with over 23,000 meters of historic drilling in 47 drill holes. It represents a broadly-explored, (drill hole spacing was approximately 250 meters) well-mineralized, porphyry-skarn system with multiple, stacked mineralized targets, and is the company's flagship project and its first target to be tested by drilling.
Two distinct targets are present; a near-surface zone of copper oxide mineralization, as chrysocolla and a deeper, copper-zinc-silver-gold skarn mineralization which can attain high grades of over 1% copper over significant widths. Continent's geologists believe that an average sample grade of 0.29% copper and potentially higher oxide copper provides an excellent foundation to continue to develop the Lone Mountain property.
The oxide portion of porphyry copper systems in the SW USA has cut-off grades from 0.04% Cu to 0.10% Cu, depending on leach characteristics. The Lone Mountain project has excellent leach characteristics as determined from recently completed bottle roll test work by Mountain States Research and Development.
"We hope to have on Lone Mountain a N.I. 43-101 compliant resource calculation completed by the end of 2009, with the goal of drilling a 400 foot grid on the deposit. We've got 47 drill holes into it and so are well on our way. Some of these holes go over a km in depth", Pawlowski says.
The company has also acquired the 2,000+ acre Mimbres property in New Mexico, which has yielded drill results assaying as high as 1 percent copper by previous operator Bear Creek Exploration.
Continent's West Safford Property consists of approximately 2,860 acres of claims, and a 640 acre Arizona State Mineral Exploration lease. The target at West Safford is a large tonnage "Resolution-type" porphyry copper target, buried beneath younger alluvium, in the Safford Mining District.
The Resolution deposit, located near Superior, Arizona, may be one of the largest copper resources ever found in North America and possibly worldwide. The ore body rests more than a mile below the surface and appears to be of good grade. In May 2008, Rio Tinto, Resolution Copper's parent company, announced that Resolution Copper had completed sufficient drilling on the deposit to report an Inferred Resource of 1.34 billion tons, containing 1.51 percent copper and 0.040 percent molybdenum.
The Teague Springs Property consists of 1,920 acres of claims located west of Dos Pobres in the Safford Mining District. The target is a large tonnage, buried Laramide porphyry copper-molybdenum-silver-gold system associated with a large, untested IP anomaly and a Mo-Cu-Zn biogeochemical anomaly.
The Twin Peaks Property is a partially drilled, copper oxide target that has excellent infrastructure and potential for a large open-pit copper oxide body with very low strip ratio. A surface area measuring 750 metres by 520 metres exhibits veins, veinlets, and stockworks of chrysocolla and secondary malachite, tenorite, and cuprite and chalcocite hosted by a pyrite-poor Laramide-age quartz monzonite. Only six drill holes have tested this target, each with highly encouraging results, including one hole with 86.9m grading 0.37% total Copper starting at surface. The copper oxide zone is open and untested under alluvial cover to the north, west, and south.
The West Jerome Property is considered by Continent management to represent a highly-potential massive sulphide target in the western Jerome Mining District, Arizona. The property consists of approximately five square kilometres of claims on the west side of Freeport McMoran (previously Phelps Dodge) patented lands.
Additionally large tonnage porphyry copper and gold acquisitions are currently being pursued.
Pawlowski has more than 28 years experience in mineral exploration, mine development and production, with a particular expertise in porphyry copper oxide systems. He was involved in the discovery of numerous Safford Mining District and Morenci Mining District copper oxide deposits in excess of 5 billion lbs. of copper. Continent also has a very strong Board, consisting of geologists, Lawrence Dick, Paul Cowley, and Daniel Laux, and CFO, Herrick Lau.
Learn more at www.continentresources.com.
SOURCE: http://www.midasletter.com/news/09061106_Continent-resources-its-copper-time.php
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