Great Basin Gold Announces the Granting of the Mining Right for its Burnstone Mine in South Africa
October 30 2008 - 8:30AM
PR Newswire (US)
VANCOUVER, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Great Basin Gold Ltd.
("Great Basin or the "Company") (TSX: GBG; AMEX: GBN; JSE: GBG)
today announced the granting of the Mining Right for its Burnstone
Mine in South Africa by the Department of Minerals and Energy. The
Mining Right was granted on 28 October 2008 to the Company's wholly
owned subsidiary, Southgold Exploration (Pty) Ltd ("Southgold") and
authorizes Southgold to mine for gold, silver and aggregate in the
Burnstone Project area. The Burnstone property is located in the
Witwatersrand Goldfield of South Africa. In terms of the
requirements of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development
Act, Tranter Gold (Proprietary) Limited ("Tranter Gold"), a Black
Economic Empowerment ("BEE") company, acquired 26% of the Burnstone
Project using the then Feasibility Study as a basis for valuation.
To enable Tranter Gold to gain full exposure to the international
asset base of Great Basin Gold, approval was given to convert the
26% see-through value of their holding in the Burnstone Project to
shares in the listed entity. Ferdi Dippenaar, President and CEO
commented: "Great Basin Gold and Tranter Gold, our BEE partner,
view this as a significant milestone which paves the way to deliver
the project as planned. What is just as important is that Tranter
Gold, which is Great Basin Gold's largest shareholder with some
9.3% interest in the listed entity, is making good progress in
becoming a black-owned operating mining company in its own right.
Development of the Company's Burnstone Project is progressing well.
The cross-cut to the mineralized reef is expected to be completed
in the first quarter of 2009, at which time trial stoping to
extract a bulk sample of approximately 26,000 tons will commence,
and simultaneously development of the vertical shaft and decline
shaft will continue. The Company plans to mine approximately 40,000
oz of gold at Burnstone in 2009." Ferdi Dippenaar President and CEO
No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information
contained in this news release. This release includes certain
statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All
statements in this release, other than statements of historical
facts, that address possible future commercial production, reserve
potential, exploration drilling results, development, feasibility
or exploitation activities and events or developments that Great
Basin Gold expects to occur are forward-looking statements.
Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such
forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions,
such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual
results or developments may differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results
to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements
include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes,
continuity of mineralization, uncertainties related to the ability
to obtain necessary permits, licenses and title and delays due to
third party opposition, geopolitical uncertainty, changes in
government policies regarding mining and natural resource
exploration and exploitation, and continued availability of capital
and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions.
Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees
of future performance and those actual results or developments may
differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking
statements. For more information on the Company, Investors should
review the Company's annual Form 40-F filing with the United States
Securities and Exchange Commission and its home jurisdiction
filings that are available at http://www.sedar.com/. DATASOURCE:
Great Basin Gold Ltd. CONTACT: For additional details on Great
Basin and its gold properties, please visit the Company's website
at http://www.grtbasin.com/ or contact Investor Services at: Tsholo
Serunye in South Africa, 27 (0) 11 301 1800; Michael Curlook, 1 888
633-9332; Barbara Cano at Breakstone Group in the USA (646)
452-2334
Copyright