Last checked at 8 Oct 2008 07:00
www.tertiaryminerals.com
8 October 2008
PRELIMINARY TESTWORK CONFIRMS KOLARI IRON DEPOSIT WILL YIELD
HIGH-GRADE IRON CONCENTRATES
Grade Of All Concentrate Samples Exceeds 68% Iron And Averages 70%
Potential For Production Of Sinter Feed Or High Grade Pellets
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Tertiary Minerals plc ("Tertiary" or "the Company" - AIM: TYM) is pleased to announce the very positive results from first stage metallurgical testwork on magnetite mineralised samples from its Kolari iron project in Finland.
The results follow an announcement earlier this year that the Company's initial drilling programme and re-logging of historic drill core has confirmed that wide intervals of magnetite iron mineralisation are present over a significant strike length on the Sivakkalehto claims at Kolari.
The first stage testwork programme comprised Davis Tube Tests ("DTTs") on 10 samples of crushed drill core taken from different parts of the mineralisation and considered to be nominally representative of the mineralisation so-far intersected in drilling. The work was carried out by SGS Lakefield in Cornwall and the results have been interpreted on behalf of the Company by Corus Consulting, a division of the Tata Steel Group.
All of the 10 reported DTT concentrates exceed 68% Iron and they average 70% iron, the desirable level for high grade magnetite concentrates to sell as sinter feed, pellet feed or direct reduction grade pellet feed.
The results of the DTTs also confirm that, in almost every case, the rejection of gangue (SiO2, Al2O3, MgO, CaO, K20 and Na2O) to the non-magnetic product exceeds 98%. This offers the opportunity of removing some gangue at a coarser particle size, pre-concentration, by magnetic cobbing or density separation using heavy media. This could produce significant savings of operating costs in the concentrator.
Phosphorus was also successfully rejected to the non-magnetic waste material and whilst the sulphur content of the concentrates is variable, mineralogical work indicates that the sulphides are liberated in the test samples and could be removed by flotation if necessary.
Tertiary's Chairman Patrick Cheetham commented: "We are very pleased with these initial results. They indicate the potential to produce valuable concentrates of iron that have seen substantial price rises over recent months. They compare well with published results from other iron-ore projects being readied for development in the surrounding region."
Further info:
Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman, Tertiary Minerals plc. Tel: +44 (0)1625-626203
Ron Marshman/John Greenhalgh, Lothbury Financial Tel: +44(0)20-7011 9411
Notes:
The information in this release has been compiled and reviewed by Mr. Patrick Cheetham (MIMMM, MAusIMM) who is a qualified person for the purposes of the AIM Guidance Note for Mining Oil & Gas Companies issued on March 16, 2006. Mr Cheetham is a Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining and also a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy.