Asia Now Drills Habo Copper-Gold Project

With the close of southern China’s rainy season, Asia Now Resources (NOW-V) has begun a scout drilling program at its Habo copper-gold project in Yunnan province.

The 1,000-metre program consists of two holes that will test a large copper-gold-molybdenum system in the Habo South Block. The system has porphyry-style mineralization at surface. Channel samples collected from trenches returned up to 1% copper and 1.3 grams gold per tonne.

Asia Now is hoping for a grade of 1% copper equivalent, but will have to wait a year or so for the results.

The Toronto-based company also has three other projects on the go in China, but vice-president Jim Borland is reluctant to choose one that stands out.

“In exploration you go through different stages and it’s a bit like a horserace — one’s ahead at one time, then falls behind,” Borland says.

“Right now, we are particularly encouraged by Habo,” Borland says. “Habo is the type of deposit that, if it proves to have a necessary grade of copper and gold (1% copper equivalent), we would have to bring in a major mining company to help develop it.”

The mineralization system at Habo is at least 1,300 metres long and 800 metres wide.

Five adits have been dug into a hillside at Habo, varying in length from 50 to 100 metres for a total of about 400 metres, but assay results have not yet been released. The company is also driving another four adits at Habo that will total 500 metres.

Asia Now has a 70% interest in the 162-sq.-km property, with joint-venture partner Yunnan Geology and Mineral Resources Co. holding the remainder.

The company has been active in China since 2002 and began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange in March 2006. It has about 48 million shares trading at about 27, valuing Asia Now at about $13 million.

Asia Now’s Beiya and Dongchuan properties are in Yunnan province as well.

Beiya is 350 sq. km in size and involves two joint ventures, one with Yunnan Non-Ferrous Geology and Mineral Resources Co., and the other with Yunnan Geology and Mineral Resources Co. Asia Now is earning a 70% interest in the property overall.

Borland says that after Habo, Beiya is the company’s next priority. It’s located next to a producing gold mine that will soon be expanding to 100,000 oz. per year.

“There’s a saying in the industry that the best place to find a new mine is where there’s an old one,” Borland says. “We are optimistic that those mineralized structures extend onto our property, and one of the drills is targeting that now.”

A drill program has been under way at Beiya since November. Chip and channel samples taken across a stockwork system over 100 metres wide at surface returned values from 0.3 to 20.9 grams gold per tonne, with most results between 0.5 and 2 grams gold.

The company’s Dongchuan copper, gold and base metals project, which is 202 sq. km in size, consists of two adjacent properties in the Dongchuan area. Asia Now has two separate joint-venture partners on the properties: it is the majority partner on one section with Junnan Jinsha Mining, a subsidiary of China’s third-largest copper producer, Yunnan Copper Group, holding 25%; and on another section, holds 72% with Yunnan Non-Ferrous Geology and Mineral Resources Co. holding the rest.

The Dongchuan property is 10 km south of Southwestern Resources’ (SWG-T, SWSSF-O) Boka gold project.

Underground sampling at the Yinmin mine, co-owned by Yunnan Jinsha, indicates geochemical anomalies in the gold mineralization similar to Boka, where the Boka 1 deposit hosts measured and indicated resources of 31.2 million tonnes grading 3.05 grams gold with an additional 8.9 million tonnes grading 2.66 grams gold in the inferred category.

Asia Now’s 24-sq.-km Great Wall project, in Hebei province, in northeastern China, is situated next to a small producing gold mine.

The company has an 80% interest with its joint-venture partner, a geological team of the Hebei Prospecting and Developing Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources.

Surface exploration programs are under way at the property, which hosts Carlin-style deposits, to identify drill targets.

Despite the company’s name, Borland says Asia Now is solely focused on exploration in China.

Borland says investors often value developed properties that will soon go into production, but with China’s underdeveloped mining industry, that’s not the best route to take.

“We feel that in China, there are a lot of legacy issues with taking over an existing operation — employment, the environment,” Borland says. “It seems much more manageable for a Western company to come in at the grassroots level.”

Borland says he’s confident that substantial mines will be built in China over the next decade.

“China’s been developing a First World economy, but they are having trouble feeding its requirements with a Third World mining industry,” Borland says.

Borland is prepared to deal with Chinese bureaucracy along the way, as the country sorts out its legal framework for mining.

“China wants to foster a modern mining industry, so there will be hiccups, but they do want to bring it into the 21st century,” he says.