Tertiary Minerals plc has no immediate plans to divert significant resources from its base and precious metals projects to its wholly owned Storuman fluorspar deposit in Sweden.
REINDEERS
The decision follows the country’s government yesterday annulment of the Mining Inspectorate’s 2019 decision to refuse the company’s application for a mining concession.
“This is a welcome decision, albeit over four years in the making, and it clearly provides an opportunity for the project to move forward again,” chief executive officer Patrick Cheetham said today.
“The Storuman project once underpinned a much higher market capitalisation for the company and whilst there is no immediate intention to allocate significant resources from other projects, the re-emergence of the Storuman project as a potential value catalyst is timely as fluorine, sourced from fluorspar, is a component in the most common electrolyte used in lithium-ion batteries today and the use of fluorine-ion batteries is under active development.”
Storuman contains combined indicated and inferred mineral resources of 27.7 million tonnes grading 10.2% fluorspar.
Tertiary has been working on the project since 2008 and completed “extensive drilling, metallurgical testwork and resource estimation, as well as a positive economic scoping study”.
Located in north central Sweden, Storuman is linked by the E12 highway to the port city of Mo-i-Rana in Norway and by road and rail to the port of Umeå on the Gulf of Bothnia.
OPPOSITION
The Mining Inspectorate’s refusal followed opposition to the plans from the Sami Village – reindeer herders – and the County Administration Board (CAB).
Reindeer herding and development of the Storuman fluorspar deposits are both land uses considered to be of “national interest” and were “potentially conflicting”.
Tertiary maintained that the proposed mine workings and reindeer husbandry could both operate.
The company also argued that the Storuman deposits did not extend to the area of the tailings dam and associated infrastructure considered important to reindeer herding and husbandry.
The Mining Inspectorate at the time decided that reindeer herding should take priority and refused the mining concession.
Tertiary’s appeal against the decision was referred to the Government which in turn decided that the national interest of Storuman should cover the deposit and processing infrastructure as a whole.