Tertiary Minerals PLC
6 November 2001
Tertiary Minerals plc
TERTIARY AWARDS CONCEPTUAL STUDY ON ROSENDAL TANTALUM PROJECT TO GEOLOGICAL
SURVEY OF FINLAND
* Survey Assembles Special Team To Undertake Work
* Underground And Open Pit Options To Be Considered
* Includes Evaluation Of Ore Treatment At Nearby Processing Plant
AIM-listed Tertiary Minerals plc is pleased to announce the award of the
conceptual study for its Rosendal tantalum/ industrial minerals project in
south-west Finland to the Geological Survey of Finland. The broad parameters
of the study are:
* To examine mine design, capital and operating costs for both an
underground and open cut mining and mineral processing operations.
* To evaluate the project both as a stand-alone operation and one which
utilises the processing plant at the nearby Sibleco industrial minerals
operation.
* To consider any environmental issues relating to the project
* To define a scope of work and budget for a pre-feasibility study on
Rosendal.
The Geological Survey of Finland has assembled a special project team to
undertake the Rosendal study. This comprises:
* Senior mining engineer Arto Hakola, a former consultant to Outokumpu
Engineering Services and technical director of Minera Outokumpu Chile SA
* Senior mineral processing engineer Jukka Karhunen, formerly with Kemira
Oy
* Reijo Alviola, senior economic geologist specialising in the mineralogy
of pegmatites
* Dr Jyrki Parkkinen, senior economic geologist specialising in resource
evaluation and economic modelling
The study will commence immediately and is expected to take approximately 4-6
weeks to complete.
The Rosendal pegmatite deposit is estimated to contain 1.3m tonnes of material
grading 289g/t of tantalum pentoxide to a vertical depth of 100m. Recent
testwork on samples from the deposit undertaken by Lakefield Research, an
independent Canadian laboratory, showed the pegmatite ore to be
mineralogically simple and that the tantalum can be recovered in a relatively
simple processing plant. This work also showed that most of the other
constituents of the Rosendal ore are commercially valuable industrial minerals
which can be recovered as marketable products.
Further information:
Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman, Tertiary Minerals plc. Tel: 01625-626203
Ron Marshman, City of London PR Ltd. Tel: 020-7628-5518