Prospective Tantalum Miners

Tertiary Minerals plc continues development of the Ghurayyah deposit in western Saudi Arabia. After about six months of voluntary share suspension,the company resumed its AIM listing in July 2007.

In Egypt at Abu Dabbab,Gippsland Minerals Ltd has continued work and the mine's scheduled startup is now set for 2010. The Abu Dabbab project is excpected to produce an average of 650.000 lb/y of Tantalum Pentoxide(Ta2O5)over the first 13 years of an estimated 20 year mine life,placing it in the top tier of tantalum miners in terms of volume.

Angus & Ross plc has two main tantalum project:Motzfeldt,in southern Greenland;and Caicara,in Brazil.It also has a number of smaller projects in other parts of Brazil and in Australia.

Noventa has several tantalum project in Mozambique,of which the Marropino development began production this year.The Morrua development is anticipated to begin production in 2009.