Great Basin Gold Ltd. (fka GBGLF)

[amarksp]

miningweb article:
http://www.mips1.net/MGGold.nsf/Current/4225685F0043D1B288256D4B00074599?OpenDocument

Great Basin firms up resource

By: Nicole Mordant


Posted: 2003/06/19 Thu 18:19 PDT / © Mineweb 1997-2003


VANCOUVER - Canadian junior, Great Basin Gold [TSX-V: GBG], has firmed up confidence in the size of the gold resource at its South African Burnstone project, recently described in a study as the world's ninth largest undeveloped gold deposit. The market did not move a muscle on the news, but then the stock is up 18% in the past week, having risen off six-month lows.
The news that Burnstone now has 3.6 million ounces in the highest resource category coincided with the Vancouver-based company's annual meeting and gave President and CEO Ron Thiessen and Projects Director David Copeland an opportunity to talk to a small group of attendees about the property.

What is called Area 1 of the Burnstone project, located on the far-east shoot of the Witwatersrand Basin near Harmony's Evander mine, has just completed a 20,000 metre six-month drilling programme. This has resulted in the previously announced 5.8 million ounce indicated resource being turned into a six million ounce indicated resource, 60% of which now meets the standards to be classified as a measured resource. Copeland says that with 10 years of potential production in hand, he is not certain it is worthwhile spending money to harden up the remaining resource ounces in Area 1.

The next step for Area 1 is a feasibility study, which is expected to be complete by the end of March next year. A decision also has to be made on whether to sink a shaft and trial mine, a common practice in the South African mining industry. Another decision for Great Basin is whether to go it alone or to bring in a contractor or a partner, most likely a South African mining group.

Drilling work has started to firm up the 11 million ounce inferred resource on Burnstone's so-called Area 2. The two areas taken together give Burnstone a resource of 17 million ounces of gold, a tidy sum which saw it ranked as the world's ninth biggest undeveloped gold deposit by Paul Burton of World Gold in a study presented at the PDAC in February.

London listing
Thiessen confirms rumours that Great Basin might seek a listing on London's junior AIM market. But a decision hinges on weighing the dear cost of a London debut against the advantages of a potentially wider shareholder base, more comfortable with investments in Africa.

Like many other non-London juniors, Great Basin finds itself second in line behind the foreign majors when it comes to investment by the UK's large mutual funds industry. "Once the funds have bought a bit of Placer or Newmont, their foreign content limit has been used up," Thiessen says.

Given Great Basin's 35% slide this year, and if Thiessen's optimism about the interest from London funds is correct, the company could well be leaning the way of a secondary listing.