Tertiary hopes to open fluorspar mine by 2014

TERTIARY Minerals, the Macclesfield-based company prospecting for rare minerals in Scandinavia, has said that it hopes to begin building a mine at its Storuman project in Sweden in 2014.

The company has been carrying out work to establish operations to extract floruspar – a raw material used in a range of products including cars, fridges and air conditioning systems – at Storuman and at Lasseldan in Norway for several years.

Executive chairman Patrick Cheetham said that the market for fluorspar “continues to be tight” with prices maintaining their historically high levels of around $500 per tonne.

Western firms had traditionally imported fluorspar from China, but Cheetham said: “China’s internal demand in the manufacture of downstream fluorine products has now grown to the point where it is likely to become a net importer.

“Western consumers of fluorspar, many of whom do not have captive source, now face structural supply shortages.

“Projected demand growth requires the equivalent of at least one new mid-size mining operation to be developed every year for the foreseeable future – yet only a handful of projects are reported to be at an advanced exploration or planning stage.”

The firm said it is targeting production of at least 100,000 tonnes of acid-grade fluorspar a year at Storuman, where a feasibility study into the new mine is likely to complete early next year.

It is also progressing the granting of environmental permits for the mine, where construction “is targeted to start at the end of 2014”.

He added that the firm was also underway with studies at Lassdalen, where an initial economic evaluation of the site should complete in the third quarter of this year.

In the six months to March 31, it declared a pre-tax loss of £190,469, compared with a £143,524 in the prior year.

“The company’s projects and programmes continue to deliver promising results and the board expects to build on this as the projects progress through the feasibility stages,” said Cheetham.

“This year promises to be a busy and exciting year for the company.”