Commerce Resources firms up Fir carbonatite

Vancouver — Drilling by Commerce Resources (CCE-V) in the Blue River area of British Columbia has confirmed the high-grade nature of the tantalum mineralization in the Fir carbonatite.

Situated 10 km south of the junior’s Verity property (inferred resource: 3.1 million tonnes averaging 196 grams Ta2O5 and 645 grams Nb2O5 per tonne, plus 3.2% P2O5), the Fir carbonatite measures up to 75 metres thick and is nearly flat-lying. It was previously traced along a strike length of about 400 metres.

Commerce drilled six holes into the carbonatite and has received results from three of them.

Hole 1 cut 55.6 metres grading 202 grams Ta2O5, 1,178 grams Nb2O5 and 3.28% P2O5 starting at a down-hole depth of 108.6 metres. Hole 3 intersected 11.8 metres grading 219 grams Ta2O5, 1,305 grams Nb2O5 and 3.96% P2O5 starting at 100.9 metres down-hole, and hole 5 returned 36.4 metres grading 221 grams Ta2O5, 1,210 grams Nb2O5 and 3.28% P2O5 starting at 152.4 metres down-hole. Mineralization remains open to the north, south and east.

Last year, Commerce retained International Metallurgical & Environmental to develop a beneficiation process for the treatment of tantalum, niobium and phosphate from its Verity and Fir carbonatites. Two bulk samples, one from each carbonatite, were collected for testing. Geochemical, mineralogical and petrological work on the Verity carbonatite reveals that the dominant tantalum-bearing mineral is pyrochlore.