| December
5, 2003
BETTER SENTIMENT TOWARDS MINERALS
SECTOR ENABLES TERTIARY TO STEP UP EXPLORATION TEMPO IN 2003
- Winter Drilling
Programmes Planned For Three Scandinavian Projects
- Ghurayyah
Well Placed To Take Advantage Of Strong Tantalum Market Recovery
- Company Replenishes
Treasury With Share Placement At 9p To Raise £438,750
AIM-listed Tertiary
Minerals plc says that over the past year, it has been able to advance
several of its exploration ventures to the stage where it can now
focus on a limited number of drill-stage projects. This will maximise
the company’s opportunity to discover and delineate mineral
resources thereby creating value for its shareholders says executive
chairman Mr Patrick Cheetham in his statement for the year-ended
September 30, 2003.
The sentiment towards the mining/exploration sector has improved
over the past year as a result of higher metal prices and this enabled
the company to raise additional funds and step up the tempo of its
exploration activity for gold and base metals in politically stable
Scandinavia, the chairman states. In this context, Tertiary today
announces that it has raised a further £438,750 (before expenses)
by a placement of 4,875,000 new ordinary shares at 9p each.
Drilling at Notträsk in Sweden earlier this year resulted in
discovery of a new zone of nickel mineralisation and, although the
nickel tenor was relatively low, the discovery “underlines
the abilities of our exploration team”, the chairman states.
Because the project is highly prospective, Tertiary will drill test
a number of new targets at Notträsk over the coming winter
months.
The company’s programme to acquire and explore for “Olympic
Dam-style” iron ore-copper-gold deposits in Sweden and Finland
has gathered pace, with new project acquisitions and definition
of drill targets, says Mr Cheetham. The first such target, at Ahmavuoma
in Sweden, will be drilled this winter with the objective of extending
and better defining a known zone of copper-gold-cobalt mineralisation
and testing other high priority targets within a broader mineralised
belt.
Tertiary’s long-term commitment to Scandinavia and the company’s
ability to acquire advanced exploration projects in a cost effective
way were demonstrated last month with the acquisition of the Kaaresselkä
gold project in Finland after two years of patient monitoring of
previous tenement holdings which have now lapsed. Earlier work at
Kaaresselkä by the Geological Survey of Finland outlined several
zones of significant gold mineralisation and Tertiary is now evaluating
data from that work to plan drilling programmes to define resources
and test for extensions.
The company’s major project is the Ghurayyah tantalum project
in Saudi Arabia where solid, value-adding progress has continued.
To some extent this has been masked by stock overhangs in the tantalum
market which have impacted on Tertiary’s share price. However,
Mr Cheetham says that recent improvements in the tantalum market
should see this trend reversed as the market is recovering strongly
and stock levels have returned to normal at end-user level.
Demand growth continues to be led by sales of consumer electronics
which account for around 80p.c. of world tantalum consumption in
the form of capacitors, an essential component in DVD players, mobile
phones, laptop computers, games consoles and digital cameras.
GHURAYYAH PROTENTIAL CONFIRMED BY
SCOPING STUDY
Tertiary is well placed to take advantage of this market recovery
with Ghurayyah, reportedly the largest tantalum deposit in the world
containing an inferred mineral resource of 385m tonnes grading 245g/t
tantalum pentoxide, 2,840g/t niobium pentoxide and 8,915g/t zirconium
oxide. During the year, a detailed economic and technical scoping
study was completed which confirmed its potential profitably to
supply substantial quantities of tantalum and niobium over many
decades.
The company says it intends to seek external funding for feasibility
studies and future development of Ghurayyah. In this way, it adds,
shareholders will be able to participate in the valuable upside
of this project with little further financial exposure whilst the
company focuses future expenditure on its Scandinavian exploration
projects.
The group’s exploration activities resulted in a loss of £397,037
for the year, after interest of £7,992, administration expenses
of £225,577 and £179,452 written off for expenditure
on abandoned exploration projects.
COPIES OF FULL PRELIMINARY REPORT AVAILABLE ON REQUEST OR VIA THIS
WEBSITE
Further info: Patrick
Cheetham, Executive Chairman, Tertiary Minerals plc. Tel: 01625-626203
Ron Marshman/John Greenhalgh, City of London PR Limited. Tel: 020-7628-5518
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