Business
Resource update, Ghurayyah
Resource update, Ghurayyah.
About this update from Tertiary Minerals Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n Tertiary Minerals PLC\n19 April 2006\n\n\n\n www.tertiaryminerals.com\n\n 19 April 2006\n\n\n SRK QUANTIFIES URANIUM & YTTRIUM RESOURCE AT\n GHURAYYAH TANTALUM-NIOBIUM DEPOSIT\n\n • Resource contains 120 Million Pounds Of Uranium Oxide And Over 1 Billion\n Pounds Of Yttrium Oxide\n\n • Preliminary Feasibility Study Will Examine Recovery Of These\n Additional Metals\n\n • Tantalum Market To Benefit From Sharp Increase In World Mobile Demand -\n Nokia Estimated a 24% Rise In 2005\n___________________________________________________________________\n\nTertiary Minerals plc ('Tertiary' or 'the Company') is pleased to announce an\nupdated resource estimate to quantify the uranium and yttrium content of its\nGhurayyah tantalum-niobium (-zircon-uranium-yttrium) deposit in Saudi Arabia.\n\nSRK Consulting (UK) Ltd has now estimated the Inferred Mineral Resource at\nGhurayyah to be 385 million tonnes grading 245 grammes per tonne (g/t) tantalum\npentoxide (Ta205), 2,840 g/t niobium pentoxide (Nb205), 8,915 g/t zirconium\noxide (ZrO2), 140 g/t uranium oxide (U3O8) and 1,270 g/t yttrium oxide (Y2O3),\nall of which is potentially open-pittable.\n\nThis represents nearly 120 million pounds (lbs) of U3O8 and over 1 billion lbs\nof Y2O2 - in addition to 208 million lbs of Ta205, over 2.4 billion lbs of Nb205\nand 7.6 billion lbs of ZrO2. The resource remains open below 250m.\n\nPrevious Mineral Resource estimates have been made only in respect of tantalum,\nniobium and zircon contents, but uranium and yttrium were recovered alongside\ntantalum, niobium and zircon in previous testwork.\n\nGiven the potential for recovery of uranium and yttrium, and the increasing\ndemand, price and more favourable outlook for uranium in particular, the Company\nwill consider the recovery of these two metals as a part of the preliminary\nfeasibility studies now in progress. These studies are being funded by the\nCompany's Saudi industrial joint venture partners as part of a recently agreed\n$US 7 million funding package.\n\nThe Company's scoping study for development of Ghurayyah considered mining at an\ninitial rate of 1.5 million tonnes of ore per year. The uranium and yttrium\ncontents of this ore would be 466,000 lbs per year of U308 and 4.2 million lbs\nof Y203 per year. Recoveries have yet to be estimated.\n\nThe spot uranium price is currently...