A Vancouver mining company says the Canada Tibet Council is not adverse to foreign companies doing business in Tibet as long as the firms do the business with due respect for the people and environment of the Himalayan nation.

Continental Minerals Corporation of Vancouver said it was contacted by a representative of the Canada Tibet Council shortly after an article appeared in The Asian Pacific Post in January to state that the organization does not object to foreign companies doing business in Tibet especially if there is an economic benefit for the people of Tibet.

The article said Continental Minerals Corporation and Inter-Citic of Toronto had been singled out by the Dalai Lama as having plans that could irreversibly damage the ecology of the Tibetan plateau.

The companies had taken up invitations by China to prospect for gold and copper in Tibet's western region.

In a letter to The Asian Pacific Post, Continental Minerals said it had been advised by the Canada Tibet Council that the Dalai Lama did not make the statements attributed to him in the article.

However the company and others were cited by the Environment and Development Desk of the Central Tibetan Administration which is part of the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India.

The report said indiscriminate mining in the Tibetan plateau will impact local and global climatic patterns.

Ronald Thiessen, President and CEO of the Vancouver-based Continental Minerals Corporation said on his website that the agreement for the Xietongmen Gold-Copper property in Tibet has been finalized and received Canadian and Chinese regulatory approvals. It is located 240 kilometres southwest of Lhasa in Tibet. Exploration is to begin this year.

"The article refers to a report suggesting that development of the Xietongmen project in Tibet could cause irreparable ecological damage. The Xietongmen project is at a very early stage and there is no basis on which any such an assessment could be made. On the contrary, our company is committed to working with government agencies and local communities and stakeholders to ensure that projects we are involved in are developed in an environmentally responsible way that also brings local and regional social and economic benefits," Continental Minerals Corporation said.

The article also suggested that Continental Minerals may have entered into an option agreement which might not be recognized by Chinese law, quoting from the Tibetan report.

Continental Minerals Corporation says there is no basis for this statement.

"Continental Mineral Corporation and our Chinese partners have spent the past year working with the authorities in Tibet and Beijing, as well as our own regulators here in Canada, to ensure that our agreements are recognized and approved by those authorities. This approval has been finalized."