Tertiary Minerals

Rosendal Tantalum Project

The Rosendal claim is located in south-west Finland, on Kemiö Island and was originally discovered by the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK).

Tertiary has carried out a number of drilling programmes at Rosendal. CSMA Consultants Ltd completed an initial financial evaluation in 2002 as a part of the preliminary feasibility study. This work evaluated capital and operating costs for a contract mining operation feeding a gravity concentration plant producing 60,000 pounds of Ta2O5 in high-grade tantalite concentrates and a saleable feldspar concentrate. The capital cost for a plant treating 125,000 tonnes per annum was estimated at US$5.5 million.

The basis for the CSMA study was an Inferred Mineral Resource block model compiled by SRK Consulting and estimated to contain 1.05 million tonnes at a mean grade of 255ppm Ta2O5.

The results of CSMA pit-optimisation studies suggest a limited mine life based on the current block model and the low 2002 tantalum prices. CSMA concluded that a resource of 1mt at an in situ grade of approximately 390 ppm Ta2O5 would be required in addition to higher tantalum prices to progress the project further and that additional drilling at depth may be justified to increase the available tonnage of higher-grade material.

The Rosendal pegmatite is currently open at depth and contains a number of higher grade zones with potential to meet the future requirements for a commercial operation.

Tantalum Market

The market for tantalum is tied to the market for tantalum capacitors which account for 80% of tantalum demand. Capacitors are an essential component controlling current flow in most electronic devices including mobile phones, DVDs, laptops, personal computers, videos and digital cameras. Capacitor manufacturers (such as AVX and Kemet Corporations) use high purity, high performance tantalum powders and tantalum wire supplied by processors of tantalum concentrates (such as H.C.Starck and Cabot Corporation) who buy raw materials including tantalum concentrates from miners worldwide.

Developments in tantalum capacitor technologies suggest that the use of tantalum capacitors will at least keep pace with its main rivals, ceramic and aluminium capacitors. For example, in automotive electronics, a growth market, the high temperature and high stress environment requires the high performance delivered by tantalum capacitors and in electronics generally the replacement of lead solders with alternative but higher melting point solders means that capacitors need to survive increasingly high temperatures, again favouring tantalum.