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Tasman Metals Ltd. ("Tasman") TSXV
- TSM; Frankfurt - T61; Pinksheets - TASXF). Mr Mark Saxon, President & CEO, is
pleased to announce the first NI 43-101 compliant independent resource
estimate for the Company's 100% owned Norra Karr rare earth element (REE) -
zirconium (Zr) project in Sweden. The resource estimate was prepared by
Pincock Allen & Holt ("PAH") / Minarco-Mineconsult (both
subsidiaries of Runge Ltd), who recommend that the deposit merits additional
drilling, metallurgical research and economic investigation.
Norra Karr is located in southern Sweden, 300km SW of the capital Stockholm
in mixed farming and forestry land. The site is well serviced by power, roads
and water allowing all year round access, plus a local skilled community.
"This large tonnage independent resource estimate by Pincock Allen &
Holt is a defining moment for both the Norra Karr project and Tasman, coming
less than 12 months since the first drilling ever undertaken on the
project" said Mark Saxon, Tasman's President & CEO. "The
predominance of high value heavy REE's, the unusually low radioactivity, and
its location in infrastructure-rich mining-friendly Sweden confirm Norra
Karr's unique and attractive position in the REE sector. We believe that
Norra Karr is the only NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource of REE in
mainland Europe."
Mineral resources were modeled by PAH applying five different total rare
earth oxide (TREO) cut-off grades, with a base-case resource estimated using
a TREO cut-off of 0.4% (Table 1). At this cut-off, Norra Karr hosts an
Inferred Mineral Resource of 60.5 million tonnes grading 0.54% TREO and 1.72%
ZrO2 (zirconium oxide), with 53.7% of the TREO being the higher value HREO
(heavy rare earth oxide). Table 2 illustrates the grade averages for all of
the rare earth oxides at the various cut-offs.
Table 1: Inferred Resource
Estimate for the Norra Karr Deposit.
TREO %
Cut-off
|
Million
Tonnes
|
TREO %
|
% of HREO
in TREO
|
ZrO2
%
|
HfO2
%
|
Tonnes of
Contained TREO
|
|
0.6
|
16.2
|
0.66
|
52%
|
1.80
|
0.033
|
106,900
|
|
0.5
|
38.4
|
0.60
|
52%
|
1.75
|
0.034
|
230,400
|
|
0.4
|
60.5
|
0.54
|
53%
|
1.72
|
0.034
|
326,700
|
BASE CASE
|
0.3
|
77.9
|
0.50
|
54%
|
1.70
|
0.035
|
389,500
|
|
0.2
|
99.3
|
0.45
|
53%
|
1.60
|
0.034
|
446,800
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Notes:
- Total Rare Earth Oxides (TREO) includes: La2O3,
Ce2O3, Pr2O3, Nd2O3,
Sm2O3, Eu2O3, Gd2O3,
Tb2O3, Dy2O3, Ho2O3,
Er2O3, Tm2O3, Yb2O3,
Lu2O3, Y2O3
- Heavy Rare Earth Oxides (HREO) includes: Eu2O3,
Gd2O3, Tb2O3, Dy2O3,
Ho2O3, Er2O3, Tm2O3,
Yb2O3, Lu2O3, Y2O3
- The calculated resource is sensitive to cut-off
grade which will be influenced by metallurgical operating costs. Tasman
is advancing its rare-earth metallurgical studies at SGS Lakefield
(Canada) assisted by consulting metallurgist Les Heymann, with the aim
of developing a cost-efficient and effective metallurgical flowsheet.
- The mineral resource estimate was completed by
Mr Geoffrey Reed, Senior Consulting Geologist of Minarco-Mineconsult
(Australia), and is based on geological and geochemical data supplied by
Tasman, audited by Mr Reed. Mr Reed is an independent qualified person
for the purposes of NI 43-101 standards of disclosure for mineral
projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators and has verified the
data disclosed in this release. A Technical Report with the estimate
will be filed on SEDAR within 45 days.
- The resource estimate has been classified as an
Inferred Resource due to the wide-spaced sample data within the current
deposit outline.
- The resource estimate is based on:
- A database of 26 drill holes totalling 3,276m
of diamond drilling completed by the Company since December 2009 where
samples were composited on 2m lengths. Assays were completed at ALS
Chemex, with check sampling completed by ACME Laboratories Ltd.
- Specific gravity (SG) used the overall mean of
2.70 g/cc from 179 SG readings.
- Block model was estimated by inverse distance
squared interpolation method on blocks 100m x 20m x 20m.
- Metallurgical test work at Norra Karr is in
progress and no information was available at the time of this resource
calculation.
The drill-defined Mineral Resource at Norra Karr begins at
surface and is open at depth and to the south. As recommended by PAH, Tasman
intends to advance the understanding of the project with additional
higher-density diamond drilling, planned to take place from December 2010.
Mineralogical and metallurgical research is underway, led by SGS Minerals
Services of Canada. It is intended that the data from these studies will form
the basis for a future Scoping Study of the deposit.
"We are very pleased with this large mineral resource estimate for rare
earth elements and zirconium, the first ever quoted at Norra Karr" said
Mark Saxon, Tasman's President & CEO. "The resource confirms the
significance of this project, and its unique potential to deliver
domestically sourced high value heavy REE's to European consumers. Tasman's
planned winter drilling program is designed to increase confidence in the
resource to Indicated status, and provide additional bulk sample for our
ongoing metallurgical research."
A full table of significant drill results from the Company's 2009-2010
exploration programs and maps and sections detailing the drill-hole locations
are available at: www.tasmanmetals.com.
Norra Karr demonstrates a range of features that may facilitate near term
development:
- Excellent infrastructure, with roads, power and
water at site and active rail and port facilities in close proximity.
- Sweden is a mining friendly jurisdiction. Large
mines operate within 90km of the site, providing a skilled local work
force and mining related contractors;
- Numerous intersections of mineralization are
greater than 100m true thickness, which begin at surface and remain open
at depth. The inferred Mineral Resource comprises a large mineralized
volume amenable to shallow open pit mining;
- An unusually high proportion of high value
heavy rare earth oxides (HREO). This Mineral Resource estimate shows
HREO/TREO consistently exceeds 50%;
- An unusually high proportion of yttrium and
dysprosium, two rare earth elements in scarce supply and strong demand.
The base case Mineral Resource estimate shows Dy2O3/TREO
averages 4.8% and Y2O3/TREO averages 35.1%;
- Initial work by Dr Tony Mariano suggest REE's
are concentrated in one mineral only (eudialyte), allowing focused
metallurgical research and potentially simplified processing;
- Norra Karr is unusually low in uranium and
thorium relative to peer company projects. The mine site will not
require any special permitting or monitoring for radioactivity, and
transport of concentrates will not require radioactive permitting.
Uranium and thorium in the base case Mineral Resource estimate average
14 ppm and 7 ppm respectively;
Sweden is
the home of REE's, many of which were first discovered in a quarry in the
village of Ytterby, near Stockholm. REE consumption is growing, being
essential in the production of hybrid/electric cars, solar panels, wind
turbines, compact fluorescent lighting, high-energy magnets, mobile phones
and computers. Tasman hold numerous claims and claim applications across
mining friendly regions in Scandinavia with potential for REE's, and is well
placed as the European Union is actively supporting policies to promote the
domestic supply of REE's to secure high-tech industry.
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