FinMetal Buys into Large Finnish Nickel-Prospect Land Package

A FinMetal press statement said that the Magnus property package enables FinMetal to acquire claim reservations and claims covering approximately 2,500 km2 in Finland. More than 40 individual prospects are contained in the package, almost all of which have encountered nickel mineralization in historical drilling undertaken by the Finnish geological survey and Outokumpu Oy. The company said that the reported nickel grades are adequate for economic exploitation if sufficient tons can be discovered. None of the prospects have been investigated using modern geophysical and geological exploration techniques and most of the previous work was concentrated in shallow zones of little more than 100 m from surface.

FinMetal’s proposed exploration program is based upon the expectation that exploration at deeper levels, to depths of up to 1,000 m, may lead to the discovery of substantial extensions to the known nickel mineralization in several of the prospects. FinMetal intends to use modern geophysics to better define drill targets. Techniques used will likely include detailed magnetometry, airborne and down-hole electromagnetometry and high-quality interpretation with a large amount of emphasis on structural geology.

Three areas of interest, according to FinMetal, are the Enonkoski Belt, the Vammala Belt, and Savonranta.

Magnus owns 11 nickel/copper prospects in the 60-km-long Enonkoski Belt of mafic/ultramafic rocks and black schists which is part of the 400-km-long Central Ore Belt that contains most of Finland’s historic base metal deposits. The prospects include the old Hälväla mine which is reported to contain shallow remnant resources of more than 400,000t at 1.41% Ni and 0.33% Cu. This deposit is open below 265 m and along strike. In the remaining prospects drilling has indicated potential for large tonnage open-pit reserves with grades ranging from 0.2% Ni to 0.84% Ni. The work planned in this area will consist of detailed geology using existing drill core and down-hole and surface geophysics with the primary objective of locating high grade ore bodies amenable to underground mining, with a secondary target of shallow low grade ore.

About 21 prospects are located in the 90-km-long Vammala Belt which includes three small past-producing mines in the southwest of the country. About 12 prospects have been drilled and have located shallow nickel mineralization with grades ranging from 0.15% to 0.83% nickel with associated copper. The exploration objective will be primarily for low grade, large tonnage, shallow ore amenable to open-pit mining with a secondary target of high grade underground ore.

Savonranta is located in the southern part of the Outokumpu mining district. A small tonnage containing 1.21% Zn, 0.71% Cu, 0.18% Ni and 0.15% Co has been identified at Hietajärvi and very thick intersections of more than 100 m of low grade nickel are reported from diamond drilling. The target in this district would again be primarily large shallow open-pittable ore bodies but in this case with significant zinc as well as nickel copper and cobalt.