Tertiary Minerals PLC
05 September 2007
Tertiary Minerals plc
PLAN TO DRILL PRIME IRON TARGET
IN HEART OF FINLAND'S MAIN IRON ORE DISTRICT
• Testing Strongest Magnetic Anomaly in Kolari Iron District
• Historic Work Points To Over 200 Million Tonnes Of Magnetite
• Joint Venture Offer Turned Down From Leading Company In Order To
Value-Add
• Emphasis On New Nordic Projects Whilst Saudi Licence Awaited
___________________________________________________________________
Tertiary Minerals plc ('Tertiary' or 'the Company') is pleased to announce that
it intends to drill a prime iron ore target in Kolari at the heart of Finland's
main iron ore district.
The 'Sivakkalehto' target represents the strongest known magnetic anomaly in the
Kolari iron district where magnetite iron ore was last worked in the 1980's by
Finnish company Rautaruukki Oy. The Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) has
reported that geophysical interpretation of this magnetic anomaly suggests that
the Sivakkalehto deposit may contain over 200 million tonnes1 of the iron
mineral magnetite within a 2km by 300-500m broad area within Tertiary's claims.
The Sivakkalehto target sits in the heart of the Kolari-Pajala iron province
which stretches over the border into Sweden. Today, Canadian company Northland
Resources, capitalised at over £210 million, is undertaking intensive
exploration and feasibility studies on surrounding claims for the development of
a new iron ore mine. Last month Northland released a NI43-101 compliant2
iron-copper-gold resource at its 100% owned Hannukainen deposit at Kolari which
lies 10km to the north of Tertiary's Sivakkalehto target. Total Measured plus
Indicated resources are reported by Northland to be 84.6 million tonnes with an
average grade of 34.6% Fe, 0.20% Cu, and 0.093 g/t Au using a cut-off of 15% Fe.
An additional 81.6 million tonnes @ 35.7 % Fe + 0.13%Cu + 0.036 g/t Au have been
defined in the inferred category.
Northland's Hannukainen iron deposits give rise to distinctive magnetic
anomalies, but the Sivakkalehto magnetic anomaly is the strongest known in the
whole Kolari iron district and previous drilling by Rautaruukki Oy has returned
significant intersections of iron mineralisation which warrant follow up,
including:
Hole No. From To Interval Fe %
R1 36m 347m 311m 14% Fe
inc 298m 303m 5m 62% Fe
R4 203m 219m 16m 54% Fe
R21 239m 355m 116m 26% Fe
inc. 259m 304m 45m 40% Fe
R22 278m 296m 17m 56% Fe
R12 273m 304m 31m 56% Fe
Copper mineralisation has not been evaluated at Sivakkalehto although it is
known from limited historic assays to be present in places at low grades.
'The historic drilling results for iron compare favourably to those reported at
Hannukainen by Northland and suggests at least a similar resource potential
within our project, but this can only be confirmed by drilling.' commented
Patrick Cheetham, Tertiary's Chairman. 'There is a big economic advantage to
have production within the European market with significant savings on the cost
of importing iron ore from the southern hemisphere.' he added.
The Company has been approached in recent months by a leading company for a
farm-in at Sivakkalehto but has opted in favour of adding value itself before
talking to interested parties. It has just completed modelling of recently
collected airborne magnetic data, and is planning a drilling programme in
October to test for shallow iron-ore positions.
Tertiary is placing more emphasis on its Nordic portfolio, with new prospects
being generated, while awaiting the granting of its exploration licence on the
giant Ghurayyah tantalum-niobium, deposit in Saudi Arabia.
'Our activities in the Nordic countries have been on the backburner and
consequently overlooked by the market in recent times. We hope to be able to
give details of additional developments there soon.' commented Mr. Cheetham.
The Company has held its Kolari property for five years as part of its IOCG
(iron oxide-copper-gold) project portfolio. Other Tertiary IOCG deposits are at
Vahajoki, Finland and Ahmavuoma in North Sweden.
Further info:
Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman, Tertiary Minerals plc.
Tel: +44 (0)1625-626203
Ron Marshman/John Greenhalgh, City of London PR Limited.
Tel: +44(0)20-7628-5518
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.
1. The historical tonnage figure referred to by GTK for Sivakkalehto does not
conform to any resource categories in any recognised resource estimation Code or
Instrument. The Company believes that this tonnage figure is speculative and
should not be relied upon. The Company does not have - and is not aware of - any
resource estimates which conform to the standards laid out in any recognised
Code or Instrument.
2. National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) is a rule developed by the Canadian
Securities Administrators and administered by the provincial securities
commissions that governs how issuers disclose scientific and technical
information about their mineral projects to the public. It incorporates
definitions of resources and reserves adopted by the Canadian Institute of
Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange