Shares in mining group Noventa Ltd (LON:NVTA) rose by 6.7% to 7.8p in early trading this morning on reports that independent analysis had confirmed that an new deposit of tantalum had been discovered at the company’s Marropino mine in Mozambique. Noventa revealed last week that it had made a new discovery at the project and independent assays of three pits have now confirmed an additional deposit measuring approximately 1 sq km of very high grade tantalum bearing ore.

The baseline pit was located at the south western corner of the new area with an 80cm to 1m mineralized horizon, with the remaining two pits located roughly 500m to the north and north east, respectively, of the baseline pit. The three samples have been analysed independently and the results show tantalum grades of 3,836 ppm, 2,697 ppm and 7,577 ppm respectively. Subject to additional sampling and assaying, which is currently taking place to accurately define the shape, average grade and tonnage, the current results indicate that the discovery is significant. Noventa said the tantalum could be economic to mine and could provide at least twelve months of feedstock for the Marropino plant, substantially increasing the life of this mine.

Eric Kohn, Noventa's executive chairman, said: “We are encouraged that the discovery will add significant quantity of tantalum to the existing mineral resource. This confirms our decision to start exploration on all our mining concessions and exploration licences. Not only do we now expect the life of Marropino to be extended, but the substantially higher grade of tantalum will mean that the economics and payback of the project will be significantly enhanced.”

Operations at Marropino were placed on care and maintenance at the end of May 2009, shortly before a new management team took over the business and set out plans to restore the flagship mine to profitable production. In June this year it published a three year strategic plan requiring $23m of new capital to upgrade the plant capacity at Marropino by around 70% to over 500,000lbs of tantalum pentoxide per year during 2010/11.

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