Resource update, Ghurayyah

19 Apr 2006 07:01

Tertiary Minerals PLC19 April 2006 www.tertiaryminerals.com 19 April 2006 SRK QUANTIFIES URANIUM & YTTRIUM RESOURCE AT GHURAYYAH TANTALUM-NIOBIUM DEPOSIT • Resource contains 120 Million Pounds Of Uranium Oxide And Over 1 Billion Pounds Of Yttrium Oxide • Preliminary Feasibility Study Will Examine Recovery Of These Additional Metals • Tantalum Market To Benefit From Sharp Increase In World Mobile Demand - Nokia Estimated a 24% Rise In 2005___________________________________________________________________ Tertiary Minerals plc ("Tertiary" or "the Company") is pleased to announce anupdated resource estimate to quantify the uranium and yttrium content of itsGhurayyah tantalum-niobium (-zircon-uranium-yttrium) deposit in Saudi Arabia. SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd has now estimated the Inferred Mineral Resource atGhurayyah to be 385 million tonnes grading 245 grammes per tonne (g/t) tantalumpentoxide (Ta205), 2,840 g/t niobium pentoxide (Nb205), 8,915 g/t zirconiumoxide (ZrO2), 140 g/t uranium oxide (U3O8) and 1,270 g/t yttrium oxide (Y2O3),all of which is potentially open-pittable. This represents nearly 120 million pounds (lbs) of U3O8 and over 1 billion lbsof Y2O2 - in addition to 208 million lbs of Ta205, over 2.4 billion lbs of Nb205and 7.6 billion lbs of ZrO2. The resource remains open below 250m. Previous Mineral Resource estimates have been made only in respect of tantalum,niobium and zircon contents, but uranium and yttrium were recovered alongsidetantalum, niobium and zircon in previous testwork. Given the potential for recovery of uranium and yttrium, and the increasingdemand, price and more favourable outlook for uranium in particular, the Companywill consider the recovery of these two metals as a part of the preliminaryfeasibility studies now in progress. These studies are being funded by theCompany's Saudi industrial joint venture partners as part of a recently agreed$US 7 million funding package. The Company's scoping study for development of Ghurayyah considered mining at aninitial rate of 1.5 million tonnes of ore per year. The uranium and yttriumcontents of this ore would be 466,000 lbs per year of U308 and 4.2 million lbsof Y203 per year. Recoveries have yet to be estimated. The spot uranium price is currently over $40/lb. United States Geological Surveypublished commodities information gives a price estimate for yttrium oxide in2005 of between US$4.5/lb and US$38.5/lb depending on parcel size. Yttrium isused in phosphors for television and computer monitors and in various otherelectronics and alloying applications. The Company notes the recent results reported by Nokia whose estimates showWorld mobile device demand, which accounts for a large part of tantalum demand,to be up 24% in 2005. Nokia reports that sales volumes are now growing at rateslast seen in the electronics boom in 2000. Executive Chairman, Mr. Patrick Cheetham said "Given the favourable long termoutlook for uranium and its potential value at Ghurayyah it is logical weconsider uranium recovery, and possibly yttrium too. This pushes themetallurgical process route towards higher-value, more refined tantalum andniobium products with a positive impact on revenues, albeit at higher capitaland operating cost. The recent results from Nokia are very encouraging forfurther growth of the tantalum market." Further information please contact:Patrick Cheetham, Tertiary Minerals plc. Tel: +44 (0)1625-626203. Mob: +44 (0)7767-458751 John Greenhalgh/Ron Marshman, City of London PR Ltd. Tel: +44 ( 0)20-7628-5518 Notes:1. Information in this report relating to the estimation of MineralResources is based on data compiled by SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd, who act as aconsultant to the Company. The estimation was supervised by Mr Martin Pittuckwhom SRK consider to satisfy the criteria for a Competent Person in accordancewith the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, MineralResources and Ore Reserves (the JORC Code, 2004). Mr Pittuck has in excess offive years Mineral Resource experience relevant to the style of mineralisationand type of deposit under consideration and is a full-time employee of SRK. SRKconsents to the inclusion of the data in the form and context in which itappears. 2. Tertiary Minerals plc currently holds a 100% interest in, and is theoperator of, the Ghurayyah exploration licence. The Company has, therefore, a100% attributable interest in the Inferred Mineral Resource being reported butthis will reduce to 50% if, in the future, Bankable Feasibility studies arefully funded by the current Joint Venture partners (for further details seerelease dated 30th March 2006). 3. The information in this release has been compiled and reviewed by Mr.Patrick Cheetham (MIMMM, MAusIMM) who is a qualified person for the purposes ofthe 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 andalso a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy. 4. A "Mineral Resource" is a concentration or occurrence of material ofintrinsic economic interest in or on the earth's crust in such form, quality andquantity that there are reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction.Mineral Resources are subdivided, in order of increasing geological confidenceinto Inferred, Indicated or Measured categories. The Inferred Mineral ResourceEstimate being reported is based on interpolation and extrapolation of drillhole grades into a block model and wire-frame solid using an inverse distancesquared algorithm. There was no capping of any anomalous high-grade values and azero-cut off grade was applied. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange