Tantalus-Project

Overview

The Tantalus Rare Earth project is situated on the eastern half of the Ampasindava Peninsula, Antsirana Province, northern Madagascar.

It is an advanced exploration project ready to be drilled.
The geological and geophysical database is excellent; the geological setting is fairly simple and the mineralization can be traced over many kilometers.
The deposit is open-pittable over the whole length with potential to develop an underground operation at a later stage.
The infrastructure is by all means exceptional, with a national highway within 10 km and a deep sea water port and an international airport within 40 km.
The project has a total size of 300 km².
The Tantalus exploration license is valid until 2013 and renewable twice till 2023.

Based on the original data by the Soviet geological mission (1988 – 1991) it was originally thought to be a rare earth elements-tantalum-niobium-zirconium-tin target.
New analyses by TRE showed, however, the noteworthy presence of uranium and hafnium.
Possible by-products could be zinc, lead and silver, as well as feldspars (for ceramic industry).

Compared to other REE-(Ta-Nb-Zr-Hf-U) projects, Tantalus offers a number of clear advantages:

An excellent infrastructure with a national highway (RN6) within less than 10 km from the main mineralization, a deep water sea port and an international airport within less than 40 km.
An open-pittable mineral resource with a huge upside potential.
A favourable ratio of light to heavy rare earth elements.
Valuable by-products such as tantalum, niobium, zirconium, hafnium, tin and uranium, low thorium contents of the ore.