09 December 2002

TERTIARY HOPES TO ESTABLISH FIRST TANTALUM OPERATION NEAR BIRTHPLACE OF METAL IN FINLAND

• Plans To Advance Finnish Project in Readiness For Market Improvement
• Longer Term Ambitions Based On Huge Ghurayyah Deposit In Saudi Arabia
• Evaluation Of This Project Assisted By British Government/BAE SYSTEMS Funding

AIM-listed Tertiary Minerals’ hopes for an early tantalum mining operation are centred at Rosendal in Finland where the metal was first identified 200 years ago. In his statement accompanying the final results for the 12 months ended September 30, 2002, Tertiary Executive Chairman Patrick Cheetham says: “During the year, baseline environmental studies were completed on the main pegmatite dyke at Rosendal and a preliminary feasibility study initiated. Exploration beyond the main dyke has found several other tantalum-bearing pegmatites within the company’s claims.”

To date, an inferred mineral resource of 1.05m tonnes grading 225g/t tantalum pentoxide has been established in the main Rosendal pegmatite to a depth of 100m. It remains open at depth and along strike. The company’s objective is to advance the project to the stage where it can be brought into production quickly when market conditions improve – Metal Bulletin suggests the upturn will begin in 2003. Tertiary believes that the modest scale of the project should allow it to integrate into the market without causing price disruption.

Tertiary’s longer term ambition in the tantalum field, however, is to bring to production the Ghurayyah deposit in Saudi Arabia, thought to be the largest tantalum resource in the world and where the company is being assisted in evaluation and future development by British Offset. This is a joint initiative of the British Government and BAE SYSTEMS arising from military sales to Saudi Arabia under the Al Yamamah contract.

“The challenge for the company is to capitalise on the huge value locked up in Ghurayyah. The world’s major mining companies traditionally have been built on the foundation of single “giant” metals deposits where large-scale production can be sustained over many years. We believe Ghurayyah has that potential and we look forward to the challenge”, says Mr Cheetham.

Tertiary acquired exclusive exploration rights over the Ghurayyah deposit, a large outcropping granite body, 900m in diameter, with remarkably consistent distribution of tantalum and niobium values.

Since then, Tertiary has moved quickly to evaluate the deposit, says Mr Cheetham. Resource assessment work has been completed and metallurgical testwork has successfully defined an extraction and concentration process, using conventional techniques, to recover tantalum, niobium and rare-earth oxides from Ghurayyah ore. The process is not yet fully optimised and concentrate grade and metals recovery might be improved with further testwork, the company states. Nevertheless, the grade of the concentrate is an almost 10-fold improvement on that produced in the earlier 1970s testwork on which previous evaluations of the Ghurayyah deposit have been based.

British Offset provided a grant to Tertiary in connection with this recently completed metallurgical testwork.

An economic and technical scoping study has now been commissioned to examine the capital and operating costs for development of Ghurayyah, a project which Tertiary deems to be capable of meeting growth in demand for tantalum that could occur in the longer term should the anticipated market upturn begin next year as forecast.

OTHER EXPLORATION TARGETS IN SCANDANAVIA

Elsewhere, the company continued to progress exploration of its platinum group metals projects in the Finnmark district of northern Norway and at Nottrask in Sweden. Drill targets have been identified on both projects.

Base metals targets are also being investigated in Sweden, 80km east of Kiruna at Ahmovuoma, (possible IOCG or volcanogenic massive sulphide style mineralisation), and in the Bergslagen mining district at Windfall (zinc-silver) and Djuragruvan (zinc-silver).

Since the end of the financial year, Tertiary has expanded is project portfolio with an initiative to explore for Olympic Dam-style iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposits in Finland. Typically, IOCG deposits are large and they have become one of the most sought after deposits in the world today. The Fennoscandinavian Shield of northern Scandinavia is recognised by the major mining/exploration companies as a prime target, says Mr Cheetham. Tertiary has made a number of strategic ground acquisitions, including several covering former producing iron ore mines. Five are located in the Kolari iron district adjacent to the Swedish border.

These IOCG targets are now being assessed with the objective of bringing in a major mining company as a joint venture partner to fund further evaluation of the more prospective areas, Tertiary states.

The company’s loss for the year was £273,222 (£305,086 in 2000-01), after interest of £9,604, administration expenses of £266,903 and £15,923 written off for expenditure on abandoned exploration projects.

The company’s annual report will be published next week.

Further Information: Patrick Cheetham, Tertiary Minerals Plc.
Tel: 01625-626203; Mobile: 07767-458751

John Greenhalgh/Ron Marshman, City of London PR Ltd.
Tel: 020-7628-5518