LATIN AMERICA — Rio Tinto to resume work on Taca-Taca

Junior explorer Corriente Resources (CTQ-T) has signed an option agreement allowing London-based Rio Tinto (RTP-N) to drill the Salar Arizaro area of the Taca-Taca copper-gold project in Argentina.

The Taca-Taca project comprises the Taca-Taca Lower property and 27 surrounding exploitation concessions situated 50 km east of the Argentina-Chile border.

Rio Tinto can earn a 60% interest in the Salar Arizaro area (10 by 6 km) of the Corriente-owned property by spending US$2.5 million on exploration before July 2004.

The current drill target is copper oxide mineralization at the Salar prospect, where chip samples have defined two copper anomalies grading up to 0.3%. The company says the prospect may represent the migration of copper solutions into surface sands from a shallow copper source.

Earlier this year, three of the seven holes drilled by Rio Tinto outlined shallow copper-gold mineralization over a 750-by-300 metre area at the Cerro Cobre prospect. Drill hole 2 returned 0.45% copper over 78 metres from surface. This included 0.58 gram gold per tonne over 66 metres from surface. After evaluating the results, the company determined the mineralization is not large enough to warrant further work.

From 1996 to 1998, the project was under option from Corriente by BHP Minerals, which spent $2.8 million drilling the Taca-Taca Lower property. A total of 9,200 metres of drilling outlined a deep seated copper-gold-inferred resource of 440 million tonnes grading 0.58% copper and 0.18 gram gold. Owing to the depth and grade of mineralization, BHP withdrew from the joint venture in March 1998.

In related news, Corriente is gearing up for a 2,000-metre drill program on its newly acquired Famatina gold property in Argentina.

Situated in La Rioja province, the 25-sq.-km property has several gold and copper porphyry prospects. Corriente will follow up the high-grade gold intercepts encountered by CRA-Rio Tinto in the early 1990s. Rio Tinto completed two drill programs over the Mexicana area and intersected up to 23.7 grams gold per tonne over 20 metres.

Under the terms of an agreement, Corriente can earn up to an 80% interest in the property from a local group by spending US$4.7 million on exploration, making payments of US$4.2 million over five years and producing a feasibility study in seven years.