General Minerals eyes Bolivian tantalum

Denver — General Minerals (GNM-T) has spent the last few months scouring Bolivia for tantalum prospects, a move that shifts the company away from traditional metal properties.

Since April, General Minerals has amassed 24,400 hectares in eastern Bolivia, northeast of the regional centre of Santa Cruz.

To date, most of the work has concentrated on tantalite-bearing pegmatite bodies in the 9,900-hectare Agua Dulce block of the La Bella district. The company is conducting geochemical sampling by hand augers and backhoes. Bondar Clegg is performing the analytical work.

Early results indicate consistently anomalous tantalum value around the Caracore pegmatite, which hosted alluvial production in the 1970s. The anomalous values occur within weathered pegmatite and colluvium, ranging up to 200 grams of tantalum oxide per tonne. The area of interest measures 300 metres by 200 metres.

Following detailed geological mapping of the historically mined pegmatites, General Minerals expects to take bulk samples of bedrock and alluvial material to ascertain the grade of the deposit and the quality of the concentrate.

General Minerals is also using the exploration program to evaluate the potential for byproducts, including mica, kaolin, alkali feldspar, rutile and ilmenite, and has started a more widely spaced sampling program over the entire Agua Dulce property.

Work is at an earlier stage at the company’s two other properties, Los Patos and Rio Blanco.

Tantalum, a little-known metal used in portable telephones, personal computers and pagers, has increased sharply in price in the last few years, reaching as high as US$450 per lb. and now standing around US$75 per lb. The metal is used increasingly in the manufacture of capacitors. It is characterized by a high melting point. It is a good conductor of electricity and heat and is highly resistant to corrosion.

Much of the world’s tantalum production comes from Australia and smaller amounts come from central Africa and Canada. Recent press reports have highlighted the human rights abuses surrounding the metal’s production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

General Minerals has been no stranger to Bolivia, working for the past few years on the Atocha silver property near Oruro. The company still has copper interests in Chile, though it recently dropped its Escalones property, which is located east of Santiago.