Scandinavian Gold proves up Keivitsa

Drilling by Scandinavian Gold (SGL-T) at the Keivitsa property in Arctic Finland has cut a long intersection of nickel-platinum-palladium mineralization near the centre of the known deposit.

The drill hole, the first in a 1,854-metre program to test pipe-like zones near the middle of the deposit, intersected 184 metres averaging 0.39% nickel, 0.46% copper and 0.02% cobalt, plus 0.43 gram platinum, 0.32 gram palladium and 0.19 gram gold per tonne. Included in that intersection was a 48-metre section grading 0.63% nickel, 0.33% copper, 0.01% cobalt, 0.81 gram platinum, 0.65 gram palladium and 0.2 gram gold.

The pipes represent one of the highest-grade targets on the Keivitsa intrusion, having previously returned grades in the range of 0.7-1% nickel plus-1 gram platinum and palladium per tonne.

Another six holes are complete and Scandinavian expects to have assay results in 6-8 weeks.

Metallurgical tests on Keivitsa mineralization show that a 2-stage flotation process (that is, one consisting of rougher and cleaner circuits) is capable of producing a bulk concentrate, and that this could then be either subjected to a hydrometallurgical process (such as pressure acid leaching) or fed to a smelter. The best test result was a concentrate grading 6.1% copper, 4.4% nickel and 11.6 grams combined platinum, palladium and gold per tonne. That concentrate recovered 91% of the copper, 82% of the nickel and 67% of the precious metals.

The same run of tests showed that separate nickel and copper concentrates could be produced.

Scandinavian is considering two approaches to mining at Keivitsa, which has an indicated resource of 150 million tonnes grading 0.18% nickel, 0.27% copper and 0.01% cobalt, plus 0.2 gram platinum, 0.1 gram palladium and 0.1 gram gold per tonne. One entails open-pit mining at the annual rate of 15 million tonnes and using pressure acid leaching to process a bulk concentrate. The other approach would see only the higher-grade resource in the pipes mined.