Kolari Iron-Ore Project (Finland)
The Kolari Iron Ore Project is a prime magnetite iron-ore target on the Company's "Sivakkalehto" claim in Kolari at the heart of Finland's main iron ore district.
The European market for iron ore is approximately 200 million tonnes and only 30 million tonnes is produced within Europe, mostly from the Kiruna mine in Northern (Arctic) Sweden which produces a similar magnetite iron ore to that found at Kolari. The balance is sourced mainly from Brazil and Australia and so 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.
The "Sivakkalehto" target represents the strongest known magnetic anomaly in the Kolari iron district where magnetite iron ore was last worked on nearby properties in the 1980's by Finnish company Rautaruukki Oy. In assessment, 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 tonnes 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 where Canadian company Northland Resources is undertaking intensive exploration and feasibility studies on surrounding claims for the development of a new iron ore mine.
Recent exploration by Tertiary Minerals plc
A drilling and magnetic separation testwork programme conducted by the Company has confirmed wide intervals of near-surface magnetite iron mineralisation are present over a significant strike length and that this material is capable of being easily upgraded to a commercial product grading >68%Fe with the potential for production of sinter feed or high grade pellets. This testwork also demonstrated that in every case over 98% of the gangue minerals (SiO2, Al2O3, MgO, CaO, K20 and Na2O) were rejected to waste. Phosphorus was also successfully rejected to the non-magnetic waste. Based on these initial results the Company is now targeting a large body of open-pittable magnetite mineralisation with magnetite content of approximately 30%.
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 and is therefore speculative.
