Tertiary hits pay dirt in Nevada
TERTIARY Minerals, the AIM-listed exploration and development company, says an independent survey of its US fluorspar site shows it has twice the combined amount at its projects in Sweden and Norway.
Last year the Macclesfield firm agreed an option to acquire a group of 40 mining claims in the US covering 810 acres near the town of Eureka in Nevada.
Fluorspar is a raw material used in a range of products including cars, fridges and air conditioning systems.
In a stock market statement the firm said the survey suggested potential for at least 8 million tonnes of contained fluorspar.
Executive chairman Patrick Cheetham said: “The directors believe that this is the first time the historical drilling data has been brought together into a comprehensive tonnage-grade estimate using rigorous estimation methods.
“The mineralised system is very large. It is open at depth and laterally over much of the drill area and most of the drilling is shallow. There is considerable potential to increase the size of the economically interesting mineralisation and in particular the higher grade sections which will be the focus of our initial drill programmes.”
The area was first explored in the 1960s by Union Carbide for beryllium, and later by a company called Asarco which was targeting fluorspar.
