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Tertiary Minerals completes first drilling of MB project on schedule

Published: 07:59 20 Aug 2013 BST

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Tertiary Minerals (LON:TYM) has told investors that the first phase of drilling on the MB fluorspar project in Nevada, USA, has been completed on schedule.

Analytical results are now pending, and once they have been evaluated Tertiary will progress with the second phase of drilling. After that programme the company aims to complete a JORC compliant resource estimate.

The company also revealed that it has now contracted Golder Associates to carry out work which will form the main part of an application for an exploitation concession (or mining permit) for the Storuman fluorspar project in Sweden.

Tertiary said that this work is expected to be completed as originally scheduled, to be done by the end of the year, and additional legal input will follow prior to submitting the application in early 2014.

Meanwhile, on the technical side of the project, Tertiary said that recent metallurgical testwork has shown that the mineralisation in the deposit’s higher grade Upper Horizon can be concentrated at coarser sizes than previously anticipated.

This has yielded ‘excellent’ and above average levels of fluorspar recovery, the company said.

Tertiary believes there is now an opportunity to consider treating the two mineralised horizons separately, which opens up new options for plant design and mine planning.

These options will be evaluated at scoping level, before commitments are made to the detailed plant design and costing for the ongoing pre-feasibility study. This means the PFS will not be completed until the third quarter of 2014.

"We are pleased that drilling at the MB Project is progressing to plan, and to have awarded the contract for the submission of the Exploitation Concession application for the Storuman Project,” said chairman Patrick Cheetham.

“This will be a major milestone in its development.

“The additional studies, whilst delaying the PFS somewhat, may benefit from the increased tonnages and lower mine strip ratio defined in the Mineral Resource Estimate which was made after the Scoping Study was completed."

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