New Horizons — Outokumpu takes lead in the quest for Europe’s nickel

Mineral deposits tend to be situated at great distances from the users of minerals, and yet, oftentimes, one’s own backyard holds more than it seems. Large new deposits are frequently identified in areas previously combed by a succession of exploration teams.

While European countries utilize almost two-fifths of the entire world consumption of nickel, the largest ore reserves of the metal are in remote areas in other parts of the world. Today, Western European nickel mines (most of which are in Finland, Greece and Norway) satisfy only 9% of consumption. Unless new reserves are found, the supply and demand balance will become even more tilted when, in just a few years, the Nordic mines are depleted.

Although well-surveyed, European bedrock still holds definite potential. Odds are high that the Fennoscandian Shield contains extensive, undiscovered nickel sulphide deposits, and that the Grecian Peninsula contains extensive nickel laterites. These are, however, increasingly deeper and, as such, harder to find.

Convinced that with good enough methods and tools these deposits could be unearthed, Finland-based Outokumpu Oy, together with several other leading European companies, have decided to kill two birds with one stone. As a consortium, they will develop new exploration technologies for the purpose of identifying nickel deposits hidden in the European region.

The undertaking is made possible by the European Commission’s Brite-Euram science and technology development program, which allocates funds for European research and development efforts.

The consortium’s Brite-Euram proposal was named “GeoNickel.” The partners proposed to produce, over a 3-year period, technology that will help them discover enough new nickel reserves in and around Europe to provide a minimum of one-third of European nickel imports. It is expected that, eventually, the new technology will lend itself to exploration for nickel and other base metal deposits throughout the world.

After the European Commission’s scientific officers and independent evaluators screened 1,180 research proposals, a fraction was accepted, with GeoNickel achieving one of the highest ratings. The commission will finance half of the total GeoNickel budget. The consortium is ready to go to work in early 1996.

One characteristic of mineral exploration is fragmentation of evidence. Geological, geophysical, geochemical, mineralogical and remote sensing data are combined manually and with a computer, the results of which are interpreted by a geologist.

Utilizing advances in computer and software technology, the GeoNickel project partners aim to integrate these tasks so that data gathered from the various sources can be synthesized into a form that exploration geologists can use to locate potential areas of mineralization. The result is an interactive tool that enhances exploration and lowers costs.

The project involves three main sectors. The first consists of geological modelling of the ore-forming process that generated the European sulphide and laterite nickel deposits. This is carried out in order to increase understanding of the ore types, and forms the basis of subsequent tasks. The second task consists of enhancing, with improved instrumentation and new software, the efficiency of current geophysical exploration methods.

The third and final stage of the project is to develop a knowledge-based system that analyzes geodata from the various disciplines related to exploration. This innovative system would build on geographic information systems, artificial neural network techniques and expert systems.

— From “Outokumpu News,” a newsletter published by Outokumpu Oy.