I little snippet for folks who like area plays.
In this case, we are talking about a play that envelops the largest greenfield porphyry copper deposit on Earth and which is under development by Rio Tinto and Ivanhoe.
Entree Gold is a junior in Mongolia that stands to benefit when a final investment agreement is concluded with the GOM.
There is a lot of optimism that such an agreement may soon occur.
There has been a dearth of news about the ongoing exploration that has been underway in the Oyu Tolgoi development pending the government go ahead.
This is a very interesting comment made by Rio Tinto last month and intimates that Entree may be a monster in waiting.
"In October 2006, we took just under a 10% stake in Ivanhoe Mines in order to jointly develop the Oyu Tolgoi resource. We now have fixed price options to progressively increase our stake to 43%, with a rightto go to 46%. As we said, this is an example of a phased, risk-managed entry into an outstanding resource, which is capable of supporting an average production rate of some 440,000 tons of copper a year, with significant gold by products. As you can see from this picture, development continues. And in fact, there is a 1.3km deep mine shaft already in place and another one is progressing well.
The political situation in Mongolia is very fluid and we are actively engaged with the government in progressing the investment agreement. I was there just three weeks ago and I'm scheduled to be there during the week of December 10 again to meet with the President, as well as with the new Prime Minister.
We are actively engaged with parties to conclude an agreement by the end of this session of parliament, subject to reasonable terms.
We also, though, see extensive exploration potential in Mongolia, something we haven't talked about much and I'd like to touch on here, including on the Entree ground around Oyu Tolgoi. Rio Tinto is the single largest shareholder in Entree and, jointly with Ivanhoe, we own about just under 31% of the company. Ivanhoe has an option for up to an 80% interest in the Entrée ground, over the north and south extensions of the Oyu Tolgoi deposit, and Entree is also exploring on adjacent ground in its own right.
Exploration by Ivanhoe on the Entree joint venture property has recently identified the Heruga deposit, just south of Oyu Tolgoi. And drilling so far has delineated an 1,100 meter long strike of continuous moly-rich copper and gold mineralization up to 400 meters wide. Overall, the Oyu Tolgoi mineralized trend now has a strength of -- a strike lane of over 20km and is in a very prospective belt."
riotinto.com
Entree currently has a market cap of under $200,000,000., no debt, cash in the bank and a monster land position completely surrounding Oyu Tolgoi, the majority of which is outside of, but contiguous to the referenced JV with Ivanhoe.
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