Tertiary Minerals Regulatory News (TYM)

21 Feb 2008 07:00

Tertiary Minerals PLC21 February 2008 Tertiary Minerals plc TERTIARY TO FAST-TRACK EVALUATION & DEVELOPMENT OF ITS MAJOR FLUORSPAR DEPOSIT IN NORTHERN SWEDEN •Spring Start Scheduled For Start Of Drill Definition Programmes •Strong Industry Interest In Off-Take Agreements And Project Participation •Work At Kolari Validates Potential For Near Surface Bulk-Mineable Iron Ore •Exploration Licence Awaited At Ghurayyah, Saudi Arabia__________________________________________________________________ Tertiary Minerals plc ("Tertiary" or "the Company") will be providing thefollowing update on its exploration activities at its AGM later today. In late January the Company announced the acquisition of the Storuman project inSweden where drilling in the 1970's indicated the potential for a world classdeposit of the industrial mineral fluorspar which is mainly used as feedstockfor the production of hydrofluoric acid and value added derivative fluorinechemicals. The Company plans to fast track the evaluation and development of the Storumandeposit having already received a number of approaches from industryparticipants interested in fluorspar off-take and project participation. TheCompany has applied for the necessary permits to allow a March/April start toresource definition drilling where the first programme will comprise 10-12 drillholes to a maximum depth of 60m each spread evenly over the full 2km by 1.2kmextent of the deposit. Most holes will be sited to twin drill holes reportedfrom the 1970's discovery drilling programme to confirm the grade anddistribution of fluorspar mineralisation and also to collect a representativeset of samples for metallurgical characterisation and testwork. A few strategicdrill holes will test for extensions to the known mineralisation. The Company is targeting a combined open-pit and underground mine at Storumanproducing at least 100,000 tonnes per annum of acid grade fluorspar whichcurrently sells in Europe for over US$300 per tonne, more than double the pricea few years ago. The world market for fluorspar is just over 5 million tonnesper annum. At present, China accounts for over half of world fluorsparproduction but exports only 25% of its output and supplies to Europe are verytight. Further drilling is also scheduled for the Company's Sivakkalehto iron-oreclaims at Kolari in Finland where in early January the Company announced theintersection of wide zones of magnetite iron ore in three shallow drill-holes.Based on these results the Company inferred the possibility of a large body ofnear surface, bulk-mineable, disseminated magnetite mineralisation. In order to validate this potential, detailed logging of magnetitemineralisation in old drill holes was carried out in February. These drillholes, and historic assaying, generally appear to have targeted narrow zones ofhigh-grade mineralisation at depths that could only be mined by undergroundmining methods and, at that time, drilling did not establish continuity of thehigh grade zones. The potential for wide zones of disseminated mineralisationwas not considered. Detailed magnetic susceptibility logging was carried out systematically on over3.9km of drill core in 12 key drill holes. Magnetic susceptibility is a rockproperty measurement that is proportional to magnetite iron-ore content where noother significantly magnetic minerals occur and when calibrated against knownassays values can provide an estimate of magnetite and iron content. Whilst nosubstitute for actual assays, when used correctly, this method is sufficientlyreliable to quickly and cheaply indicate the form and extent of magnetitemineralisation. This work has clearly validated the potential for substantial tonnages of nearsurface bulk- mineable iron mineralisation. Over the 550m strike length so farconsidered, it has defined a coherent envelope of disseminated magnetitemineralisation over 100m wide with a magnetite content of approximately 30%(equal to approximately 20% Fe). Most historical drill intersections were madein this body at depths of 100-300m but interpretation of ground magnetic surveysand the results from Company's three shallow drill holes suggests that the bodyis sub-vertical and sub-crops beneath glacial till cover. In Saudi Arabia the Company is still waiting for the re-issue of its explorationlicence over the World class Ghurayyah tantalum-niobium-rare-earth project. TheCompany remains confident that a new licence will be issued in due course andthat the delays currently being experienced are not unique to its owncircumstances but a result of licence processing requirements that areapplicable to all new licences in the process of being issued. Further details on the Company's Storuman and Kolari projects, including 3-Dvisualisations and schematic drill cross-sections, will be given in apresentation to the Annual General Meeting later today and this presentationwill be available on the Company's website shortly. Further info: Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman, Tertiary Minerals plc. Tel: +44 (0)1625-626203Ron Marshman/John Greenhalgh, City of London PR Limited. Tel: +44(0)20-7628-5518Jonathan Wright, Seymour Pierce Limited. Tel: +44(0)20-7107-8000 Note:The information in this release has been compiled and reviewed by Mr. PatrickCheetham (MIMMM, MAusIMM) who is a qualified person for the purposes of the AIMGuidance Note for Mining Oil & Gas Companies issued on March 16, 2006. MrCheetham is a Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining and also amember of the Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange