Tertiary Minerals: Charts & Fundamentals

PRICE WATCH
Tantalum Price & Market
The tantalum market has witnessed an upturn during recent months with major producers reporting record production and record sales levels. Whilst tantalum spot prices during 2002 are reported to have taken place at less than US$30/lb, the 28 July 2003 edition of the New York publication Platts Metals Week lists a spot price of US$40/lb to US$50/lb for tantalum. The reduction of tantalum inventories across the supply chain continued during the quarter with evidence of improvement in the global electronics industry, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

OTHER
Model--------------------- Company--- --Price---- Date
Tantalite,basis 30%(Ta205) MetalFirst 25 - 33$/lb 2003-12-23
Tantalite,20-30%...(Ta205) Tant.Aust. 25 - 30$/lb 2003-01-22
Tantalum Powder,Ukraine... LegionLtd. 200$/ kg... 2002-11-15
Tantalite,basis 30%(Ta205) MetalFirst 25 - 33$/lb 2002-11-08
Source:

Commerce Resources, a Tantalum explorer:


Exploration to date at the Fir deposit has outlined a drill indicated/inferred resource of approximately 12.39Mt with 203.1g/t Ta2O5 and 1,047g/t Nb2O5 (Verzosa, 2003), of which 5.65Mt is categorized as drill indicated. The Verity deposit, 10 km north of the Fir property, is host to an estimated inferred resource of 3.06Mt with 196g/t Ta2O5, 646g/t Nb2O5 and 3.20% P2O5 (McCrea, 2001); or approximately 1.32 Million lbs contained Ta2O5 and 4.36 Million lbs contained Nb2O5