Terramin Australia announced a major upgrade of the mineral resource at its Tala Hamza deposit in Algeria.

The Adelaide based miner led by executive chairman Mr Kevin Moriarty said that the deposit's measured and indicated lead and zinc resource had more than doubled from 24.8 million tonnes to 51.1 million tonnes as part of 17% overall increase in resource tonnage. The deposit is part of the Oued Amizour project in Algeria operated by Western Mediterranean Zinc Spa in which Terramin has 65% stake.

Mr Colin Jackson corporate consultant of Terramin said that the upgraded resource gave the company the confidence to look at a larger mining operation and would assist in gaining finance for the project.

He said that "The significance here is the resource that is now in a category that can be elevated to reserve has actually doubled. That has consequences of a favorable nature with regard to the ultimate life of the mine and maybe even to the through put rate and all of that helps a financier to feel more comfortable with a higher quality reserve. The financial community will look at our ability to declare a measured resource very favorably.''

The company also announced that geotechnical modeling had determined the deposit was suited to block cave mining, which meant costs could be reduced by up to 40%. The company said that block cave mining is a bottom up mining method which suits the Tala Hamza deposit because higher grades are found at depth.

Mr Jackson said that “A block mining technique lends itself to the handling of much larger tonnages and ultimately that will decrease the mining cost component of the overall costs.''

The company hopes to complete a feasibility study by the end of the Q2 in 2010. Terramin chief geologist Bob Singer said the results would be factored into the mine development plan.

Mr Jackson said that "We will input this resource into our mine studies which we expect will support an increase through put. It gives us a lot more confidence to look at a larger operation.''